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Tim Robins / Supplied
An injured climber is being loaded into a helicopter after being lowered to safety, and a paramedic conducts screening and first aid.
Two climbers, one of them seriously injured, caught by a rock slide on steep terrain in Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park have been rescued in a “complicated” 15-hour mission.
The climbers, both in their fifties, activated a distress beacon on Wednesday at 5.30 p.m. after the rockslide, which left one with an arm badly broken in two places, a concussion and a severely severed leg.
The rescue was coordinated by Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Center New Zealand (RCCNZ) and the search mission coordinator Neville Blakemore, who was able to activate his device could well have saved the life of the injured climber.
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“He had a badly broken arm in two places, a concussion and a badly injured leg.
“The other climber was relatively uninjured and had tied the injured climber on the steep slope to prevent him from falling and sustaining further injuries.”
Tim Robins / Supplied
The place on Mt D’Archiac in Aoraki / Mt Cook National Park where the climbers were.
On Wednesday night, RCCNZ commissioned a Helicopter Line helicopter to fly from Aoraki / Mount Cook with a Department of Conservation (DOC) alpine cliff rescue team on board.
They were unable to reach the site of the rockslide at 1800 meters altitude on Mount D’Archiac (50 km northeast of Mount Cook from Aoraki) due to dense clouds.
Instead, they took the rescue team to Godley Hut to wait overnight, watch the weather, and stay in contact with RCCNZ.
RCCNZ had helicopters with night flying equipment on standby in Christchurch and Greymouth. Low clouds prevented the Christchurch helicopter from flying, but at 3 a.m. Thursday, during a cloud break in the mountains, the Greymouth rescue helicopter was able to fly to the scene and knock the rescue team off the alpine cliff.
At 7:30 a.m., the two climbers were taken to Greymouth Hospital where they landed at 8:50 a.m.
The climbers were said to be well equipped for the terrain they traversed, a spokesperson for RCCNZ said.
