Another exciting day in the hills

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/366429/basejumper-crashes-valley

"How much does the policeman know about correct gear?" More than enough you'll find. Down here (like Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring) the police work closely with alpine rescue so they're not muppets. I'm picking these guys picked the wrong route up to Lake Mavis so they are well off a moderate tramping route for starters and there is still plenty of snow and ice tucked away on most approaches. No crampons or ice axes either I bet So I don't think Constable Judd made the comment lightly or without understanding the environment these chaps ventured into.

Israel is a Heinz 57 collection of people from all over e.g. the Yemen (Ofra Haza), Ethiopia (Hagit Yaso) and a lovely chap I used to tramp with whose pink skin and blue eyes demonstrate his northern European ancestry (Ilan Egoz). Israel has always encouraged jewish immigrants. You can bet that tourists from Israel who come here are very rarely from the Arab non-jewish communities. I've yet to meet one. We have some Arab people here whose families originate from what is now Israeli but were expelled at the point of a gun (Al-Nakba) and grew up in Lebanon and Jordan. Most of us know of the 2 origins of jewish early immigrants or people already settled in Israel; Sephardic and Ashkenazic. Anyway, biologically speaking there is only 1 race: the human race.

An update: http://www.arthurspass.com/index.php?page=278 These guys were really pushing their envelope. It's a good thing the hut radio was working as a few of them are out of action. Once again, no experience, no suitable gear & no PLB Lesson learned.....Nah!

i've seen the odd article along the lines of. they wanted to come to NZ after seeing the lord of the rings movies... they went into the countryside and had an accident.. one guy goes up cascade saddle in running shoes, at the end of april, when theres snow and ice. the outcome was a tragedy. a month earlier it was me going over cascade saddle. Only because i knew it was free of snow and there was a perfect weather forecast. If there wasnt, I would have gone somewhere safer.

I think the problem is all in the fact these young people have all been in the Army before they come walking in the NZ mountains. Perhaps/presumably army training teaches useful lessons about how to behave in combat situations, but those lessons seem diametrically opposed to the kinds of behaviors that will keep you out of trouble in the NZ outdoors.

wrong. i've met a lot of israelis, some are highly competent and use their intelligence in the outdoors, some arent, irrespective of age.. and military service. i tramped with a guy who distanced himself from some israelis because of their stupidity.. he winced when he saw one group who were tramping in the equivalent of israeli underwear. Theres a lot of israeli's who tramp around NZ, you only hear about a small percentage of them getting into trouble. whether its more than other nationalities, I couldnt tell you. we're getting people from a range of nationalities who get into trouble in NZ, the more people from a given country come here, the more likely some of them will get into trouble. lack of ability isn't the domain of any particular country.

@Honora " biologically speaking there is only 1 race: the human race." Too right.

I think you're forgetting about the lizard people:)