Fatigued tramper airlifted from Tararuas

In this case I don't think it's reporting of any sort so much as a re-hash of the press release from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, available in at least 2 other places -- http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?id=61943 and http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/injured-tramper-airlifted-tararua-ranges/5/75498 I was keen to hear more about this one too. I walked up to Powell with a friend late on Friday night. There were a couple of other people who'd arrived an hour before us, and planned to head over to Jumbo on Saturday if the weather cleared up. It was fairly bad on Saturday morning, not as icy cold as it can be at times, but suitably windy to extents where it'd be difficult to stand up. I'm now wondering if those two people may have waited an extra day, and discovered him early on Sunday. If the guy had been stuck outside over Friday night I expect he'd be in quite bad shape.

Here's the actual press release -- http://www.lifeflight.org.nz/injured_tramper_airlifted_from_tararua_ranges.php . He's already been discharged from hospital which means there won't be an horiffic-looking hospital-bed photo of the guy for the front page of one of the dailies, so we're unlikely to hear more. It's a bit of a habit for these things to be press release re-hashes, probably because there aren't resources to follow up on the details given the lack of interest for most people. There was another Tararua one back in July ( http://www.stuff.co.nz/3907805 ) where a couple of people were lifted off Quoin Ridge, which was an abbreviated version of the press release ( http://www.lifeflight.org.nz/two_rescued_from_tararuas_by_westpac_rescue_helicopter.php ). I sometimes wonder how many incidents occur that few people ever hear about.

Well, to me the seventh day and multiple falls implies Waiohine Pinnacles, Bannister Ridge, maybe those knolls near Girdlestone or perhaps bush-bashing in from Nichols Hut? Or Broken Axe Pinnacles in the south? Was he on one of the 'routes' that are no longer marked or maintained? As you say, we probably will never know, so no lessons learnt. I reckon with more than 50 now dead in the Tararuas, some organisation such as the Mountain Safety Council should be more proactive. We live in the age of the Internet, afterall.

I guess it's difficult to build a reliable database of these things. If there's a death it often goes to the coroner and some investigation occurs. If there's no death then it'll often go through the rescue organisations but won't necessarily be reported. And then there's the large number of close calls that are probably never heard about because a call-out was never required. I'm positive that two or three years ago, someone (Mountain Safety Council maybe?) was trying to set up an "incident database" of some sort, where people could voluntarily report all sorts of incidents, including close calls, to help give a better idea of what actually happens out there, even if skewed due to the voluntary nature. I probably read about it as a notice in an FMC bulletin. It was in the form of a website with a submission form, but I now can't find a reference so don't know if it's still active. Probably the Police and LandSAR and various other rescue-related organisations have records about incidents, but there might be variability and inconsistency in how they're recorded, and there would be sensitivy issues to consider in releasing certain information, depending on the circumstances. It could probably all be resolved if resources were thrown at it, but maybe nobody's had the time or inclination to do so. I'd love to see a database similar to what's on Graeme Kates' Softrock Website, but on more of a national scale as opposed to just around Arthur's Pass, and maybe with a few filters. http://www.softrock.co.nz/mg/index.php?page=21 There's a lot of info there about a lot of incidents, and it makes interesting reading.

Hah -- here's the thing I was thinking of. http://www.incidentreport.org.nz/ "The National Incident Database Project was initiated by New Zealand Mountain Safety Council after discussions arising from the Risk 2002 Conference and with Rick Curtis of OutdoorSafety.org. "This database is designed for use by those involved in outdoor activities. That is, people and organisations involved in self propelled outdoor pursuit/outdoor adventure activities such as; kayaking, rafting, biking, tramping, trail running, caving, skiing, climbing, sailing, paragliding, diving, etc. As well as motorised adventure activities such as quad biking and jet skiing. These people/organisations could be commercial, educational, not for profit, or informal groups and individuals recreating in the outdoors or any combination of the above. "The project aims to: * Create a standard method for collecting and analyzing outdoor incident data. Although the locations may be different, the activities themselves such as rock climbing, ropes courses, and kayaking are much the same therefore the incidents that occur are usually similar. * Have an accepted database standard will allow for the collation of data from various sources. The more data collected, the better our ability to analyze it, identify trends, and make concrete recommendations for programme improvement. * Provide timely and accurate incident data to varying government agencies. * Work towards developing an international standard to enable it easier to integrate programme data from around the world. "

These sites are both pretty interesting, thanks. That softrock site makes very interesting reading, though specific to that particular rescue helicopter's operating area. The Mountain Safety Council's National Incident Database is a fairly academic exercise. They acknowledge there is "very uneven" engagment. Also, there is little recognition of solo trampers, and a large percentage of people I meet in the Tararuas are solo trampers. While the analysis of the causes of incidents is quite good, they they don't take it one step further and say "We know how many people die in the bush each year - and how they die - so here are some steps we can take to reduce that figure." I guess that comes down to getting the message across and that depends on the Mountain Safety Council's advertising budget. I guess with a Minister like Kate Wilkinson, the budget for promoting safety in the bush is not about to increase.

The Mountain Safety Council isn't directly government-affiliated at all, so it's probably not on the Minister's radar for any kind of direct funding. It's a society of people and organisations who were concerned about accidents, and so banded together to research them and create and encourage safety training programmes. Although the society gets sponsorship from certain government places, notably the Police, and has Member Organisations including ACC, DoC, the Police, the Department of Labour and the Defence Force. Back on the original topic, I spoke to a couple of mates last night who'd walked up the East Holdsworth track on Friday night, trying to get over to Mid Waiohine. They reached the tops and couldn't go any further, and one of them at least reckoned it was the strongest wind he'd seen up there. That would've been about 8pm on Friday, I'd guessing. If this chap had been stuck outside in that vicinity, he must have found somewhere sheltered.

Most of my Tararua tramping is solo and ive never really had any issues.The only bad one was coming past Angle Knob from McGregor biv in gale force crud heading towards Jumbo hut and going down the wrong spur.If i had used my map and compass[which i had] instead of memory i would have been OK.I always check the forecast before i go and if necessary change my plans accordingly..Its very unforgiving up there as those 2 people who died near Kime hut recently shows,you cant take anything for granted.

To add further to this discussion, I wanted to highlight that in late 2009 MSC produced a research report on participation rates and incidents in Outdoor Recreation in NZ. It drew on incident data from ACC ,Police and NZSAR and participation data from SPARC,DOC, events and club memberships. It also includes an interesting section on the changing demographics in NZ and what this might mean for participation in outdoor recreation. This report can be downloaded from http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/Research/Recent-Research/Outdoor-Recreation.asp. MSC also responded to this incident with a media release which highlighted the need to follow the simple messages of the outdoor safety code, http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/media/Media-Releases/2010-Media-Releases.asp. The Outdoor Safety Code is a public awareness campaign that MSC runs on behalf of the outdoor sector in response to preventable incidents in the outdoors. I hope these points help inform this discussion.