Tourist hiker lost his life in Tongariro Crossing

Article says what pretty much I always read in this great forum. "The take home message out of all of this is that anyone anticipating or contemplating a trip on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing needs to realise that they need to take notice of the weather forecast, they need to be properly dressed and equipped, they need to be prepared to turn back if the going gets tough or the weather goes bad, and they must stick together," he said. "If you start together, you must finish together." It would have been easy for the group to turn back at the point where they became separated, he said. "It would be very easy for any group to stick together and make a combined decision to turn back when the weather goes bad," he said. "People need to actually start listening to us...there is frustration from us all because a lot of these situations are so easily preventable."

tourists often dont come across the safety information tareted at trampers... the crossing is advertised widely in tourist accommodation, they skim the material, or its on their bucket list because they've heard of it or liked the lord of the rings movies... they went the hard direction with the most climbing involved, its a much bigger climb going south.. 1100m of climbing vs 700 going north... plus if you dont have ice axe and crampons and its snow or ice then its going to be slow going... NZ is getting marketed to tourists in the shoulder season overseas, and its proved lethal in this instance, better deals for travellers looking to save money

While it's too soon to know all the details, it looks like the fatal mistake was allowing the group to split up. It's an old rule for very good reason; sad to see it's truth once again hammered home the hard way.

swiss cheese model seldom one factor involved sounds like he may have had worse fitness. and poor clothing choices, the combination of going slower in worse weather with poor clothing and fitness, bad weather and pushing on up the mountain, being from overseas and not understanding how cold it would be and how it would affect him plus snow and ice and inadequate gear and not having anyone to help him all would combine to lead to the tragic incident... its spring, people dont register tthat spring weather can be fatal. its a common time of year for people to get hypothermia and worse https://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/avoid-testing-swiss-cheese-syndrome/

The lead group changed their plans. The 'Trailer' pushed on. It's classic - the ones that can't keep up then have to find their own way without the support of group dynamics.

in this case it sounds like the group may not have been that much help, having to call for help themselves because they were cold, its unlikely they would have had enough gear to save the gentleman who died. if anything they were lucky they didnt end up the same way. opting to go down instead of keep going up over red crater may have saved their lives but it can be a difficult descent into the outere valley in snow...

Anyone know if this group was from overseas, or locals? Im sure that DOC will get a hammering for "messaging" from various parties including the coroner over this incident.

Ooops - I actually read the article. From India. sorry. Im unable to edit my post for some reason.

Properly dressed is useless advice. We're dealing with people who don't know what they don't know. It needs to be: "take rain gear, take warm clothing, take a survival tent." Or perhaps: call this phone number to check if you're adequately prepared. Or a big billboard at the front: "these people died doing the crossing this year. Don't be one of them."