Lucky Buggers (they're from Oz too)

[Deleted]

Mount Cook rescue for Australian climbers

Two Australian climbers escape with minor injuries after being hit
by ice on Mount Cook and then plummeting down the mountain.

The Timaru Herald | 3:30PM - Saturday, 05 January 2013



TWO Australian climbers who fell 200 metres on Mount Cook early this morning have praised their rescuers for getting them off the mountain.

The pair were walking in the dark on the mountain when they were hit by ice which caused them to fall.

Search and Rescue coordinator Senior Constable Brent Swanson said they were both hurt but not seriously and so they managed to make it back down to the Plateau hut, where they called for help.

A helicopter flew up to rescue the pair off New Zealand's tallest peak at first light this morning.

Both were taken to Timaru Hospital suffering from injuries to the head and chest.

They were described as being in a "comfortable and stable condition" while still being assessed by doctors.

It was first thought only one of the pair suffered injuries, but the rescue team realised both had been injured when it got there.

Good weather conditions on the mountain meant there were a large number of groups taking the opportunity to explore, said Mr Swanson.

The pair praised police and Search and Rescue for helping them off the mountain.

www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/8145722/Mt-Cook-rescue-for-Australian-climbers

[Deleted]

Miracle on Aoraki-Mount Cook

By MATTHEW LITTLEWOOD - Fairfax NZ News | 1:36PM - Sunday, 06 January 2013


LUCKY ESCAPE: Climbers Adam Glen (left) and Neal Davis (right) leave Timaru Hospital after being treated
for injuries following a 200m fall on Aoraki-Mount Cook. — Photos: NATASHA MARTIN/Fairfax NZ.

TWO mountain climbers survived an almost vertical 200-metre fall on Aoraki-Mount Cook in the middle of the night.

The two men, Australians Neal Davis, 35, and Adam Glen, 34, were making a night-time ascent of New Zealand's highest mountain on Friday when they were struck by a falling chunk of ice.

"The fall wasn't vertical, but it was pretty close to it," said rescue co-ordinator Senior Constable Brent Swanson.

"The fact that the piece of ice hasn't done any serious damage to them and they haven't fallen any further is very lucky. It was a very lucky escape."

The two men were sent sliding into the night air in the same area that claimed the life of another Aussie mountaineer in 2008.

Davis and Glen managed to stop their slide and, badly injured, made their way back down to a guide hut around 1am and called for help.

Swanson said the pair had used the Department of Conservation radio in Plateau Hut to call for help. All huts on the mountain had radios in case of emergency.

They were helicoptered to Twizel at dawn yesterday morning and were driven in their own rental car by a police constable to Timaru Hospital for treatment, Swanson said.

Constable Les Andrew, who operated the radio from the Twizel base as the pair called for help, said: "The guys had been clearly running on adrenaline for about 3 hours to get where they were in the hut, but by the time they called us it had sunk in what happened. They were clearly distressed."

He spoke to them again before they were discharged from hospital yesterday and said they had realised how lucky they were.

"I understand they were going to be holidaying here till January 11. I imagine their trip will be cut short now."

Glen suffered chest injuries which made it difficult to breath while Davis suffered a broken nose and facial injuries.

The men, both limping and sporting grazes and cuts, were reluctant to talk about the ordeal themselves, dismissing it as "just an accident" but they issued a joint statement thanking those who plucked them to safety.

"The response to ensure our safety and wellbeing was exceptional," they said.

"We would particularly like to thank the search and rescue team, Twizel medical centre, and the policemen who drove us to Twizel and to Timaru hospital."

Mountaineer Pat Deavoll, who knows the area well, said the Zurbriggen Ridge, where the fall happened, had an ice cliff about two-thirds of the way up which created a key hazard.

"What makes it unsafe is that it steepens and then bits of ice can fall off it," she said.

"It differs from season to season but obviously this year it's in a condition to spit stuff out."

Deavoll said from what she'd heard, the climbers had done everything right. It was important to leave very early in order to make the summit before the snow melted — hence the midnight start to the climb.

"There's always going to be accidents on the mountain. It seems that what's happened to them is just bad luck. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Aoraki-Mount Cook, at 3754 metres, may be small by overseas standards, but is likened to climbing far higher peaks because of its technical difficulties.

Speed is also seen as critical when attempting Mount Cook because weather conditions change so rapidly.

ZURBRIGGEN RIDGE

The Zurbriggen Ridge is infamous as one of the hardest parts of the Mount Cook ascent and is reported to have claimed nine lives.

The most recent was in 2008 when Perth doctor Mark Vinar, 43, fell from high on the ridge as he and his brother Miles tried to retreat from the mountain in the face of bad weather.

Vinar fell 500m down the same ice cliff that yesterday's climbers tumbled down and landed in an area scarred by crevasses.

Miles Vinar, 42, then spent another two nights waiting for rescue and said later he thought he, too, would die, having to dig himself out of snow drifts threatening to entomb him. His brother's body has never been found.

In 2003, Japanese climber Hiroshi Kai, 53, died after he fell in an attempt up the Zurbriggen Ridge.

Later that year the bones, boots and an ice axe, the only remains of another climber, were found.

They were believed to have lain at the base of Mount Cook for up to 20 years. In 1998, Ivo Kuban, 20, from the Czech Republic, fell 700m to his death from the ridge.

Five others are also recorded as dying on the ridge. The ridge is named after Mattias Zurbriggen (1856-1917), an acclaimed pioneer mountain guide who, in 1895, was the first to climb it as part of the first successful solo ascent of Mount Cook.

www.stuff.co.nz/national/8146850/Miracle-on-Aoraki-Mt-Cook

[caskur]

Stoopid Aussies.... they're always getting themselves into trouble in NZ... they should stay home and donate their money to poor instead of wasting it on foolhardy adventure.

[jody]

Nothing wrong with mountain climbing......just wish I had have done it when I was younger. Mount Cook is an amazing mountain, I can completely understand people wanting to climb him.

Sent from my V96A using proboards

[Deleted]

They are two extremely lucky buggers.

Most people who fall down Zurbriggin Ridge don't even live to tell the tale, let alone walk away from it with only minor injuries.

[Deleted]

Title: Two climbers airlifted from Mt Tasman

9:55am - 14th January 2013

The Aoraki-Mt Cook Rescue Team has rescued two missing climbers from a crevasse area near the summit of Mt Tasman early this morning.

The two men, a 23-year old Australian and a 25-year old from Britain, were rescued after being forced to spend two nights trapped high on the mountain.

Inspector Dave Gaskin, Mid South Canterbury Area Commander, says the pair were reported to the Department of Conservation, Aoraki Mt.Cook from Plateau Hut after they failed to return from their climb on Saturday [12 January].

Severe weather conditions in the mountains over this time raised concerns for their welfare. The Aoraki-Mt Cook Rescue Team was deployed at first light today and located them.

Because of the inaccessible location where they were found, the long line rescue technique was used to extract the pair from high on the mountain.

The climbers have been airlifted to Mt Cook village this morning for a medical assessment. Initial reports are that the climbers are uninjured, but are wet and cold.

ENDS

Please view the full news release online at:

www.police.govt.nz/news/release/34009.html

[garfield]

Have you seen this show? , great movie