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Two people are “lucky” to be alive after being caught in an avalanche at Mt Earnslaw near Queenstown.
Police were notified of the avalanche at Mt Aspiring National Park just before 8 a.m. Friday.
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St John’s spokesman, Gerard Campbell, said two people were injured, one moderately and one with minor injuries.
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Both were airlifted to Lakes District Hospital in Queenstown, he said.
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Police were notified of the avalanche at Mt Earnslaw in Mt Aspiring National Park just before 8 a.m. Friday.
Aaron Halstead of the Wakatipu LandSAR Rescue Team, one of the couple’s rescuers, said A new the couple suffered “severe injuries to the chest and pelvis.”
It took two and a half hours before rescuers reached the couple, two men in their 20s, who were huddled in the snow.
They did not have a personal locator beacon, but were able to reach emergency services after obtaining a brief window of cell phone reception.
“They were so grateful to see us, they quickly realized how lucky they were,” Halstead said. A new.
Mount Earnslaw, which sits at an altitude of 2,835 meters, has two main peaks, the East Peak and the West Peak, the second and third highest peaks in Otago, according to the ClimbNZ website.
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Looking down on part of Mt Earnslaw Station from the top of Mt Alfred. The Earnslaw Burn is on the left, while the larger Rees River is on the right.
The mountain can be accessed from Rees Valley via the Kea Basin, or from Dart Valley via Bedford Valley, the website says.
During winter and spring, Mount Earnslaw is often covered in snow and ice and requires good ice ax and crampon technique, according to the Queenstown Mountain Guides website.
Later in the season, the ice ax and crampons are used for glacial approach on Birley Glacier, but beyond this the route is snow-free and requires moving around and climbing exposed rock steps and scree slopes.
According to MetService, the temperature in the Southern Lakes area was 8 degrees Celsius at 10 am on Friday.
The weather was expected to be good, peaking at 21 ° C at 5pm
NZ Mountain Safety Council (MSC) Executive Director Mike Daisley said the avalanche highlighted the importance of alpine climbers managing all potential hazards when climbing on snow and ice.
supplied
NZ Mountain Safety Council Executive Director Mike Daisley says the avalanche highlights the importance of alpine climbers managing all potential hazards.
He said avalanches were not frequent in mountains like Mt Earnslaw during the summer, but that they did occur every year.
He urged climbers in the Southern Alps to monitor the Aoraki / Mt Cook forecast on the NZ Avalanche Advisory website.
NZ Avalanche Advisory (NZAA), owned and operated by MSC, monitors 12 avalanche forecast regions in New Zealand.
The Aoraki / Mt Cook region is the only area monitored throughout the year, while the remaining 11, including the Queenstown region, only operate during winter and spring, the main avalanche season.
Mountain Safety Council / Supplied
Daisley urged all climbers in the Southern Alps to keep an eye out for the Aoraki / Mt Cook forecast on the NZ Avalanche Advisory website. (File photo).
The latest NZAA forecast for Aoraki / Mt Cook at 5pm on Feb 11, has the area in considerable danger with the key message: “There is a widespread loose moisture problem on Friday as fresh snow will warm with the sun and high temperatures. “
In January of last year, Paul James Laurie of Brooklyn near Motueka died after a fall on Mount Earnslaw.
The 62-year-old was hunting and climbing with his best friend, whom he had climbed with for many years when he slipped and fell off a cliff in the Kea Basin.
It was unclear how far Laurie fell, but her body was found near Earnslaw Hut later that night.
In 2015, Simon Bell, a 33-year-old experienced climber from Wellington, died in a fall while climbing between the mountain peaks. Bell’s body has never been recovered.
