Range unremarkable as danger zone

The area around Lake Alta, south of the skifields, had a history of avalanches. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Despite a number of avalanches on The Remarkables mountain range in recent years it is not considered a danger zone, says a mountain safety expert.

Avalanche and alpine expert at the Mountain Safety Council, Andrew Hobman, said the Queenstown range was no more dangerous than others in New Zealand.

"The thing with avalanches is that any time you are on the snow and the slope angle is enough, anything more than 25 degrees, there is a chance of avalanches," he said.

However, the range's popularity and easy access had resulted in a number of reported incidents in recent years.

"There is easy access to that area via The Remarkables ski area, but not really around where this incident was. That is a little bit more remote for winter users," Mr Hobman said.

The area around Lake Alta, south of the skifields, had a history of avalanches, he said.

Last year a large-scale search involving sniffer dogs and helicopters was triggered, but nobody was found or reported missing.

"It isn't the terrain specific to that mountain range, it is more that people go there and so we have avalanches and avalanche conditions constantly in the mountains, and it is when people go into that terrain and interact with it that we get these instances."

Aoraki Mt Cook in the Southern Alps was considered to have the worst safety record.

Between 2000 and 2009, 10 alpine climbers had died after being caught in avalanches on New Zealand mountains, Mr Hobman said.

Climbing deaths mainly occurred in the summer months.

New Zealand's climbing safety record was "pretty good", he said.

"We have really been very, very fortunate. We do a lot of work to try and inform people."

A daily avalanche advisory for 10 of the country's mountain regions is available at avalanche.net.nz.

Remarkables' history

Yesterday - 30-year-old climber Jamie Vinton-Boot killed in an avalanche on the west face of the mountain.
September 2012 - Three sniffer dogs, 40 searchers and three helicopters scoured an area of the mountain range after debris of a large avalanche were spotted. No one was found, or reported missing and after four hours the "all clear'' was given.
July 2009 - Two ski patrollers were caught in an avalanche they had set off with explosives to release an unstable slope. They were not injured.
August 2002 - Wanaka climber Al Wood, 32, died in Dunedin Hospital after being swept 150m down the mountain range when snow collapsed above him.