Only just catching up on this one.
Very fortunate to have survived - having gone passed shivering, it's not easy coming back (even in civilisation).
So, if I understand the scenario, they set off from Speargrass Hut, heading up to Robert Ridge, intending to descend to Angelus - in poor weather, snow, with little appropriate gear or clothing, and made it as 'far' as below the ridge saddle (600m ascent, <4km).
(to cross reference another thread) No amount of signage is going to prevent such poor judgement as that.
Congratulations to the SAR crew for achieving the seemingly impossible (again).
It's probably the same judgement used successfully by many people (which does not make it good judgement), and perhaps they even thought they were allowing for turning back. They ran into trouble with the fall, followed by the lack of adequate shelter and skills in the conditions they chose.
Lacking any direct evidence from the couple involved I'd speculate that when the girl fell, or more likely took a bad slip but not injured, she was probably quite shaken.
Having lost her composure and confidence in the rapidly deteriorating conditions meant that instead of continuing to head down Speargrass valley towards safety, they tried to get back over the saddle to Angelus. Then they lost the track in the snow and dark.
The extraordinary thing to keep in mind is that at no time where they much more than 1km from Angelus.
I'm not judging them. I think they made a series of relatively small errors that simply put them in the wrong place at the wrong time. I could see this happening to a lot of people quite easily.
Given their level of experience and equipment it is a mute question as to whether they should have been there at all. To my mind that's a function of making some of these alpine areas so accessible to almost anyone with a Lonely Planet or net connection. As long as the weather is ok, then almost anyone can make their way along a well-marked track to a nice warm hut and be ok.
But when the weather turns, then suddenly you are in a very hostile place and even just metres from the hut you can be in trouble.
This is an entirely predictable hazard; and as I stated before I believe we owe our overseas visitors to these places more than what we are doing at present.
This post has been edited by the author on 12 September 2015 at 13:33.
"But when the weather turns, then suddenly you are in a very hostile place and even just metres from the hut you can be in trouble. "
Have a look at the comments section against Renata Hut in this website. I suspect the coments were more correctly atributable to Elder Biv which was a little further up the same ridge and is now a 4 bunk hut but even so I think it says "white out conditions couldnt find hut so camped out In morning realised I was just in front of the hut door.
Renata is in bush Elder is above bushline Just
One of the linked articles indicated that they were coming FROM Speargrass Hut (not Angelus) - so they were not trying to get out before the wx went bad, but setting off into it. That is the bit that really surprised me.
I guess my 'point' is that such poor judgement will persist despite ever more explicit signage.
In the end, people ARE responsible for their own actions - most of us get the opportunity to learn from their mistakes - some don't. We do what we can (sensible warnings, easily available information, rescue where possible, etc etc) to manage the risk but some actions are life-threatening (eg parachuting - why jump out of a perfectly good plane?!)
Anyway, it's fantastic they survived - I hope they join a club and build their skills.
@geeves
Interesting you should mention Elder Biv. (Or at least the old dog box that was about 200m down off the ridgeline.)
December 30 1991 I was doing a Renata to Holdsworth trip on my own (plus a big agricultural mutt of a dog). We'd had to walk the road all the way from the Akatarawa Saddle so it was a bit late in the day by the time I got up to Elder. The weather was gradually getting worse and then just before I got to the Biv turn-off the southerly got really bad. Strong cold wind and heavy horizontal rain.
I had a tarp but it would have been useless in those conditions.
Got to the sign and started heading down through the broken scrub to the biv. The track was less than obvious and then it turned really dark. About then I realised that if I fucked this up and didn't find the biv soon - the dog would probably be ok but I wouldn't.
I slowed down and started paying a lot of attention to what was around me - and with a bit of instinct and luck got back onto the right path and found it.
Dog was very pleased to find a dry kennel and barreled inside the moment I opened the door. It was a memorable night listening to a bitter storm raging outside.
This post has been edited by the author on 12 September 2015 at 17:37.
