"He did a very good thing by taking a personal locator beacon and activating it. If he hadn't had one, we wouldn't have known [he was injured] until he was reported [as missing] and by that stage he could've easily died from hypothermia. He was very lucky," Wright said.
This afternoon a climber fell fracturing their leg on Mt Ruapehu near Skyline Ridge at Whakapapa. Due to very strong...
Posted by Ruapehu Alpine Rescue Organisation on Sunday, May 23, 2021
"Where the patient was located, there was ice fall, which means the wind was whipping up a lot of ice off the tops of pinnacles and sort of raining down of them.
"They were quite concerned. They wanted to get him triaged and packaged and brought down as quick as they could."
Using ropes and a harness, it took around 45 minutes to move the climber from where he had landed to safer place in which to treat him.
He was then loaded onto a stretcher, with the 22 volunteers taking turns carry to carry him down the mountain.
It took the crew around four hours to get to the road and, by 9pm, the man was on his way to hospital.
Land search and rescue (LandSAR) teams from Turangi, Taihape and Ruapehu responded alongside police and St John.
"The police rely heavily on our volunteers - RARO and the LandSar volunteers - they're doing it in their own time with their own kit.
"They train hard for these sorts of things and without them we wouldn't be able to do this sort of work. Full praise for the volunteers to come out on a Sunday afternoon."
Wright suggested people used the NZ Mountain Safety Council's app, "Plan my walk", which can be used to plan walks, assign emergency contacts and share walking plans with others.
