Massive rock slide from Mount Silberhorn seen by ski plane pilot

A giant rockslide has been seen in one of New Zealand’s tallest mountains.

Ski plane pilots captured dramatic images of the massive landslide on the dizzying slopes of Mount Silberhorn, the country’s fifth highest peak at 3303m near Aoraki / Mt Cook in the Southern Alps, this afternoon.

Mt Cook ski planes and helicopters were on a flight when they noticed the skidding around 1 p.m. today.

The rockslide flows from Mount Silberhorn to the Great Plateau.

A spokeswoman for Mt Cook Ski Planes and Helicopters said rock slides are common, but they haven’t seen one this large in many years.

She said the “crazy” rockslide happened near the Plateau Hut and it was fortunate that no one was in the area at the time, and people stayed away due to poor weather forecast.

“If it happened a few days ago, we could have been looking for deaths,” he said.

Mount Silberhorn, which means “silver horn” in German, was named after William Spotswood Green in 1882 after its resemblance to Silberhorn in the Swiss Alps.

Its Maori name is Rangirua, which translates to “second heaven”, and it is located next to New Zealand’s second highest mountain, Mount Tasman (3,497m).

The Mount Silberhorn rock slide comes just hours after a 1,800 m rockslide on nearby Mount D’Archiac that washed away two climbers.

They were lucky to survive and were rescued in a complex night operation.