Snowboarder injured after going over cliff

A snowboarder was injured at the Turora ski field this afternoon. File photo / NZ Herald

A snowboarder who fell 20m from a cliff at Turoa skifield today had the good luck of falling into a fresh dump of soft snow.

The young man suffered serious back injuries in the fall this morning but his rescuers say it could have been worse.

The Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter had to make a tricky landing in snow to get to the man, who was in a lot of pain following the fall.

Ambulance communications John Orsborn said the man was taken to Wanganui Hospital with serious back injuries.

Palmerston North Rescue Helicopter pilot Fergus MacLachlan said he was told the snowboarder fell off the edge of a cliff, and the boarder's friends made it back down the mountain to alert the ski patrol.

He was lucky though, a fresh dump of snow overnight helped soften his landing, he said.

The man was stranded up the mountain in a spot too far up and too awkward to get him back to the Turoa medical centre, so the helicopter had to make an emergency landing on the side of the mountain.

"We had to bury the front of the helicopter into the snow and I just stayed on the controls and the medics jumped out with the crewman, they went up and assessed the fella. They bought him back down and put him in the helicopter.''

He said this type of landing only happened once or twice a season.

"Normally, even quite bad injuries, people manage to - with adrenaline - get back and find help. Generally they end up back at the medical centre on Turoa but this one, it was quite a way out of the way and too hard to get back.''

He said he'd picked up a man who fell 50m off a cliff on the mountain about a month ago. He had been in a worse state.