Why do we bother searching for unprepared fools?

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Brad Heap

The Herald is reporting this morning of the expensive helicopter rescue of a missing tramper last night:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10601958

What fails to surprise me is just how unprepared this personal was:

A lost tramper was rescued from Tongariro National Park early today.

The Wellington-based Westpac rescue helicopter found the man just south of Waikune, 30km northeast of Raetihi, about 2am.

“This was one of the trickiest searches I have been involved in,” said helicopter crewman Colin Larsen.

“We had intermittent contact with the lost man via his cellphone and he was extremely difficult to locate due to the terrain, his dark clothing and his location stuck amongst 80 foot trees.”

Conditions in the area were cold but there was very little wind.

The helicopter crew said they understood the man was a visiting Swiss National in his early 20s. He was uninjured other than being quite cold and a bit battered and bruised.

He is really lucky to be alive.

Missing in near freezing, if not sub zero temperatures.
Dark clothing
Tramping solo
In the middle of huge trees

You really cannot get much more silly than that.

LandSAR do a fantastic job in NZ and there are plenty of people who genuinely need them even when they have taken all precautions into account.

But going solo into an alpine environment with dark clothing is essentially a death wish.

Seriously LandSAR need to implement a policy whereby if you have not adequately prepared for a trip and you need rescuing then you should foot the bill for it.

Pretty much you never ever go tramping alone, let alone with dark clothing. That is why they make the alpine based clothing bright colors, they are shades of yellow for a reason. Tramping is a survival adventure not a fashion show, how many more people need to die before the vast majority of the population realises that?

The photo (taken by me) below shows how shitty the weather can get during the day in the Tongariro National Park so how much worse would it have been in pitch black darkness?

More Photos From The Top Of The North Island

Posted on April 3, 2008 by Brad Heap

Just got some more photos taken by other people who also summited Ruapehu a few weeks ago.

This is the group of us at the start of the day.

This is about an hour in. That hill in front of us will only take about another hour to get up. And then what you can’t see is on the left the next bit that is that high again.

People so small. Rocks, Cliff so large. This is nearing the top of the valley that is in the above photo.

Just a stroll up a hill.

Party at the top. Pun intended.

Walking across the Ash Field.

Going down with the weather packing into the valley below. See all the ash between the rocks. This made the descent extremely difficult triple checking footing.

It is only a little bit further to the bottom.

Weather getting nice and dark near Knoll Ridge (top of Whakapapa Ski Field) an hour from the bottom.

A different sort of Dome.

Posted on March 22, 2008 by Brad Heap

Last weekend I was at the Dome Shelter on Mount Ruapehu.

This week I was summiting the Dome Valley north of Warkworth. At only 330m above sea level is a quite a bit lower then Ruapehu. And a lot easier ie 1 hour to the summit 3 hours return.

What does Rangitoto look like from 70km north of Auckland? The same that is does from everywhere else. Stands out like anything.

Looking south to the small town of Warkworth

Two trucks working their way through the Dome Valley being able to look down on the road was odd. It looked straight and easy. When in reality it is windy and hilly. Shows you how much perspective means to everything.

Panoramic View looking south from the Dome. (Click on the image for a larger photo)

On top of the world. Well the North Island world.

Posted on March 16, 2008 by Brad Heap

Well this is me at the Dome 2672m above sea level on the top of Mount Ruapehu. Behind me is the Crater Lake and behind that is Tahurangi at 2797m which is the true summit of Ruapehu (but noone ever climbs it).

This is the second time that I have summited Rupaheu the first time was in January 2004 and the two main differences between this time and last time was the lack of snow. WE HAD NONE. Not even on the summit. Last time we had snow all the way from the top of Knoll Ridge at the top of the Whakapapa Ski Field. The second difference was the amount of ash on the mountain which made the climb and descent very hard because you had to be so careful not to slip. Oh and the minor third difference was this time we got a headstart by using the chairlifts which save you 400m of climbing and 3+ hours of tramping.

This is part of the party on the summit. 12 people went from Massey Albany.

This is some of our party and a whole lot of other people at the Dome using the Dome Shelter as a wind break to stop the wind. The air temp was quite warm (a few degrees above 0) but the wind was very cold, strong and icy when it got you.

This is the Dome Shelter with the very clear warning on it about not using it unless in emergency. Something that two climbers didn’t adhere to last year and almost paid with their lives because of it when the mountain did decide to make an emergency and erupt.

This is the Crater Lake which of course is the active vent of Ruapehu and causes all the eruptions.

These two photos show the damage that is caused when the Crater Lake gets too full and a Lahar occurs.

This is Te Heuheu (2732m) with the Summit Plateau in front. On our descent we cross the Plateau and came down over the Te Hehehu Ridge which is to the left. The Plateau was full of ash that sometimes you went ankle to knee deep in.

These are groups of people walking along the Dome Ridge to the Dome.

On top of the world. Looking South. You can normally see south to Taihape, Bulls, Palmerston North etc. Of course only when there are no clouds. But look at our height above the clouds.

Looking North. You can again normally see almost to Hamilton.

Looking down the Whangaehu Glacer. This is where the Lahars generally run. You can see the Dessert Road and the Army Training Grounds beyond that.