Five Hours to Darkness: An Alpine Survival Story

4 lives saved

Challenging Terrain

Hiking

Mountain

Weather

What happened?

We (father and three adult children) set out on a 6-day traverse of the Southern Alps of New Zealand (the “three-pass route” in Arthur’s Pass). The weather looked ominous but we had planned this for a long time, and there were signs the weather was improving.

The first day was fine with no rain and easy tramping along a wide braided river. We camped that night at the base of the gorge we needed to ascend to the first pass, but the next morning it began to rain steadily. We made the mistake of heading up the gorge anyway. Half-way up it became obvious the river was now too dangerous to cross: we could go neither forward nor back. We were well-equipped but soaked, and two of us were becoming hypothermic in rising winds.

We pitched tent, but in a poor position on a 45 degree scree slope, 3 metres above a rising river and with no hope of sheltering it out, or getting out unaided. We activated the PLB with 5 hours of daylight left. It was very helpful to be able to supplement it with text messages via the iPhone SOS satellite system.

Our lives were saved by incredible skill from Canterbury Air Rescue staff, who stepped us directly into a helicopter, one-by-one in two trips,  resting a skid against the slope in gale force winds (as shown in the photo one of us had the presence of mind to take).

Moral of the story: listen to the weather, always be prepared to change your plans (no matter how long-prepared or precious they are to you) and don’t delay to activate your PLB. Things can get very bad very fast. Our rescuers thanked us for activating our PLB in daylight. There could have been no rescue after dark, and they would not want to be fishing our bodies out of the river the following day.

Words of wisdom

Watch the weather. Never go up a river gorge in the rain unless you are 100% sure of an alternative route out if the river rises. Always have a Plan B.

Thank you note to the Ocean Signal team

Thanks so much to Ocean Signal. It was such an enormous relief to see that blinking light – without that PLB, I very much doubt we would be alive today.