A climber who fell an estimated 200 metres down a cliff face and into a crevasse on Mount Aspiring has been lifted to safety in a night rescue that ended at about 1am on Wednesday, after their climbing partner spent more than three hours working up difficult alpine terrain in the cold to find enough satellite reception on a mobile phone to raise the alarm.
Police received the report of the fall at about 6.15pm on Tuesday, according to the Otago Daily Times, which published details of the operation on Wednesday. By then the second climber had already been alone on the mountain for hours, moving through steep ground in deteriorating conditions with no way of calling out until they gained enough height for a signal to get through.
Sergeant Darren Cranfield of Wānaka police said the climber’s companion was faced with an extremely challenging situation.
“After the fall, the companion spent more than three hours climbing in difficult alpine terrain to find enough satellite reception on a mobile phone to raise the alarm,” Sergeant Cranfield said. “During that time, they too were becoming increasingly at risk of hypothermia.”
Once the alarm was raised, Otago Lakes Search and Rescue and Heli Otago went up to look for the pair. The weather was closing in and the chances of a successful rescue were described by police as diminishing rapidly. Winter nights in the Southern Alps leave a very short window in which a helicopter can safely work at altitude, and a crevasse fall in the dark is one of the harder problems an alpine rescue team can be handed.
“This was a complex and dynamic operation where two lives were at risk,” Sergeant Cranfield said. “Given the remote alpine environment, success depended on strong communication, effective collaboration between teams, cross-district coordination and clear decision-making throughout the rescue effort.”
At about 1am both climbers were rescued by Heli Otago, with assistance from the Wakatipu LandSAR Alpine Cliff Rescue Team, roughly seven hours after the alarm reached police and considerably longer after the fall itself.
“We are incredibly pleased with this outcome and grateful that we brought both climbers to safety,” Sergeant Cranfield said.
Police thanked search and rescue personnel, alpine rescue specialists, Heli Otago Rescue and everyone else who contributed. “The professionalism, skill and commitment shown by everyone involved played a critical role in bringing this incident to a successful conclusion,” Sergeant Cranfield said.
The police statement did not say what injuries the climber who fell had suffered, or give the ages or nationalities of the two people involved. RNZ also reported the rescue on Wednesday afternoon.
Mount Aspiring stands 3,033 metres above the head of the Matukituki Valley and is the highest peak in the country outside the Aoraki and Mount Cook region. Its steep, symmetrical profile has earned it the nickname the Matterhorn of the south, and it is one of the most sought-after summits in New Zealand mountaineering. Most parties approach it through the West Matukituki Valley, about 50 kilometres by road from Wānaka, then climb over glaciated terrain where snow bridges hide the crevasses underneath. In winter those bridges can be strong enough to walk over in the morning and weak enough to collapse in the afternoon.
The detail that stands out in this rescue is the three hours the uninjured climber spent climbing simply to get a message out. Mobile coverage in the Southern Alps is patchy and unreliable, and satellite messaging on a phone generally needs a clear view of the sky, which a party low in a valley or under a face may not have. A registered distress beacon works differently, sending a signal directly to the Rescue Coordination Centre in Lower Hutt through the international search and rescue satellite network, and it does not depend on any mobile network at all. Maritime New Zealand publishes guidance on choosing and registering one.
Sergeant Cranfield said the incident was a timely reminder of the risks that can be encountered in alpine environments.
“Conditions in the mountains can change rapidly, and even experienced climbers can find themselves in dangerous situations,” he said. “We encourage anyone heading into alpine areas to thoroughly prepare, carry appropriate communication equipment and emergency supplies, and ensure they have a plan in place should the unexpected occur. Being prepared for the worst can make all the difference when things go wrong.”
The people who turned out in the dark to bring the pair home were, in large part, volunteers. Land Search and Rescue New Zealand has more than 3,000 trained volunteers across 68 groups, and alpine cliff rescue is one of its specialist disciplines alongside search dogs, cave rescue, canyon rescue and swiftwater work. The organisation says its members donate more than 33,000 hours a year to rescue operations and spend more than 124,000 hours a year training for them. That training is the reason a team can be assembled, briefed and flown into a crevasse field at midnight with a reasonable expectation of getting everyone out.
It is worth sitting with what the second climber did. Their partner had disappeared 200 metres down a hole in a glacier. The temperature was dropping, the weather was turning, and the only thing that would bring help was altitude and a phone screen. Rather than stay put, they climbed for more than three hours, in the cold, alone, at growing risk of hypothermia themselves, until a signal got out. Police have not named either climber. Whoever they are, the decision they made on that mountain on Tuesday afternoon is the reason there were two people in the helicopter at 1am and not one.
Have you been part of a search and rescue callout, or had a trip in the hills go wrong? Tell us about it in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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