Incidents in the mountains

I did it in September (guided winter crossing), and there were people who didn't know how to lace shoes, and some couldn't even climb the stairs to the south crater. And this was a $175 thing, so you would expect people to think about it before paying… Apparently the guides were used to that and just took them see some waterfalls on a short hike instead. But beats me why you would pay that kind of money for a crampons/ice axe trip if you can't even climb to snow level…

You pay the money and the guide walks for you. I have wondered if you could make a business of just taking the clients cameras into these places. Seems a win win. They get the pictures with no risk

the guides give them a crash course on the day in putting on crampons, walking in them and self arresting them, but at least they usually collect anyone who cant complete the crossing, they should have radios to talk to their transport. the guides will look after them, theres plenty of people who attempt tongariro in winter without ice axe or crampons

@bohwaz: "But beats me why you would pay that kind of money for a crampons/ice axe trip if you can't even climb to snow level" You don't know what you don't know :-)

Ruapehu Rescue http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/trampers-rescued-mt-ruapehu Two trampers are being walked to safety after calling emergency services for help. The man and woman started their walk on the Round the Mountain Track from Whakapapa Village to Whakapapaiti Hut at lunchtime on Saturday. They alerted Police just after 7.30pm the same evening when they became lost. Both were carrying some warm clothing and food with them. While a helicopter was available, poor weather conditions meant it was unable to be used to rescue the pair. Instead, a team of LandSAR volunteers set off that night and found the trampers shortly after 4am today. The search party discovered them cold and hungry but in their sleeping bags.

Rescue helicopter responds two times in one night to calls from hut in Nelson Lakes National Park http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/87441666/rescue-helicopter-responds-two-times-in-one-night-to-calls-from-hut-in-nelson-lakes-national-park

Whakapapa to Whakapapaiti is about 3 hours of the best formed track you could ask for. They set off at noon and called in lost at 7.30pm. Smh. The NL story will draw the user pays grinches out in force.

As wayno wisely mentioned a while ago,the whole central plateau area is an accident waiting to happen. Easy access,lots of tourists,Auckland Airport 4 hrs away,changeable weather,underrated terrain blah blah. The ones I feel sorry for are the rescue people.

The other Nelson Lakes callout was a 56yo who got left struggling by his other 2 mates, then didn't arrive. Another lesson in not deserting stragglers and keeping in touch ?.

"His two friends had gone back to search for him but failed to find the 56-year-old in the dark, so they returned to the hut and activated the *bacon*" (emphasis mine) Um, yeah okay. Back to the incident, if this has been described accurately (a big IF in the current environment) then I still struggle to understand why this happens. I know people leave each other behind like this all the time. Usually it amounts to nothing, but how do people seemingly *not* actively consider what might happen if the final member of their group has an accident and they just keep on walking and walking and walking? Is it really such an unnatural consideration?