Two dead in the Tararuas

Yes it seems an admin's deleted it from the source "1080 eyewitness" closed group, but the screenshots posted onto "1080 eyewitness open" (which is largely a group set up by generally 1080 supporters to comment on claims made in the first group) live on. It started in the first group with someone just linking to the Stuff article and saying "didn't they drop 1080 there?", and rapidly spun out of control into hateful delusional paranoia. [Edit: There are already two new threads splattered with conspiracy theories and accusations about how there's about to be a massive coverup.] I didn't mean for this thread to become a tedious 1080 argument (if anyone wants to take it further, maybe they can branch it?), but having two so-far un-described fatalities immediately used to scream about an agenda with no obvious connecting evidence is just depressing if not highly insensitive. I'm glad it's at least been deleted.

Dead trampers in Tararua Forest Park were found within kilometre of the hut they were heading for "It's understood the men had planned to leave Waiohine Gorge campsite on Saturday morning, making their way up to Neill Ridge and via the Dress Circle Track to stay overnight at Alpha Hut," she said. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11752783

may be have outside for two nights http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86721605/trampers-may-have-been-exposed-to-the-elements-for-two-nights

So it seems they took the long route via Mount Hector. That's pretty exposed.

Going round the tops makes hypothermia more likely; would be interesting to know what sort of clothing they had. Exhaustion also ups the likelihood of hypothermia, it sounds like they got reasonably close to the hut so stopped moving at the end of the day.

The whole thing makes much more sense now.

Stopping about 1km short of the hut and all down hill from there was unfortunate, but maybe they had pushed themselves to their limit and/or ran out of daylight and didn't have torches. Probably never know exactly what happened.

It's really sad in any case. They must have still felt reasonably capable at the point they reached Hector on the Southern Crossing. If they'd been feeling wasted at that point, Kime is a much more direct option. Or beyond that point they also have Elder Biv as an option if they'd just wanted to get down off the ridge. I'm wondering if maybe they could also have been caught out by a nav error, like accidentally heading down False Spur, or somehow down Quoin or something, and having to back-track. We'll possibly never know with certainty.

Stick to the tongariro.

its quite conceivable they died from exposure, after doing that route - neill - Dress Circle. I thought the wind would be pretty bad, on Saturday, looking from the wairarapa. Depends what gear yourve got , and physical condition Kime died on the bush edge of Alpha, way back