Chance sighting saves missing MP

Tim Holding is loaded onto an air ambulance at Bright in Mount Hotham, Australia. Photo / Getty Images

BRIGHT - Victorian Government minister Tim Holding's solo expedition into the wilds of Victoria's alps ended in spectacularly public fashion.

For two days the MP had been missing on Mt Feathertop after setting off to Victoria's second-highest peak.

A former Army reservist who has conquered marathons and the Kokoda Track, Holding was fit and well prepared. But Feathertop is a hostile place in winter, its 1922m-high summit windswept, freezing and smothered in snow and cloud.

One wrong move on Sunday morning sent Holding skidding 100m down the mountain and off the track. Soon he was disoriented, lost and all alone.

He spent two nights on the mountain, more than 300km northeast of Melbourne.

He was plucked to safety by a helicopter after a chance sighting and a lucky break in the weather.

A head torch he got for his 37th birthday last month was spotted by a plane on Monday night and helped rescuers find him hours later.

Wet, cold and hungry, the Tourism and Water Minister was 2.6km off course, on his feet and flappinga reflective thermal blanket for help.

Senior Constable Sue Mapleson described how she rappelled down to the stricken MP, touted as a potential leadership contender, and winched him to safety, saying the two-minute rescue was a dangerous operation.

On the ground at the nearby Bright football oval, Holding emerged from the helicopter on foot and into the arms of his waiting parents and partner.

- AAP