Two dead in the Tararuas

The article mentioned layers but equally important is what those layers are. 5 layers of cotton aint going to do much if they are wet My thought is that woll is still king although I have synthetic shirts and a few fleeces. Still grab the merino shirt and swandri overshirt if its going to be cold. Swany isnt so pleasant if you trip over in a river but there is no rush to change cold wet gear you just have buckled knees by the time you reach the hut

'Hardshell'? Never heard of it. Wazzat?

rain shell

Most of these recent fatal and near fatal incidents have been caused by poor judgement more than poor gear. Bennington and Jackson had reasonable clothing as I recall, sure good bivi bags and or an alpine tent would probably have saved them, but I and I'm sure many others have done equivalent trips in equivalent conditions with pretty similar gear. In all these recent cases: Bennington near Kime, the Czech couple on the Routeburn, the two near Alpha, there was a point on the trip where there was a reasonable and obvious safe turn back opportunity, and continuing was also going to be obviously perilous. In each situation people continued into a situation where it was make it through to the hut or die. For Bennington, it must have been obvious between Table Top and Dennan how bad conditions were, on the Routeburn it must have been obvious at Harris Saddle, on top of Winchcombe it must also have been quite obvious. Yet people seem not to have even considered turning back at those points. People have also got a little lost and blundered on until they have got completely lost and unable to go forward or back. Especially when the weather is bad, but generally to keep in practice, keep a map and compass handy and a mental map of what’s before and behind in your head all the time. 'We'll be heading south along a ridge once we're on the tops and the wind is from the south so we'll be fighting into it the whole way, it should take us about ___ long at current pace.’ Checking off waypoints along the route and checking rate of progress to update an ETA. Thinking about spots where it will be sheltered and warm enough to shovel some fuel in. A really quick food break 10 minutes before the top of a climb when you're warm from the climb and will warm up again in the remaining 10 minutes to the top. Muesli bars and an extra hat in your rain jacket pockets so you can eat and increase your clothing's warmth without stopping. A little bit lost, stop, think about getting BACK to that un-lost situation. Think about in advance and note the points on you route where you will stop and evaluate the situation - is it getting significantly worse, how is your energy and time in relation to what you have in from of you, what are the safe waypoints and bale out routes along the way. If you or someone in your group were incapacitated at any moment what would your plan be. Is the nearest shelter before or behind, how far? Problem is people don’t know what they don’t know. It’s stuff you can teach but not stuff you can condense into a news article or a pamphlet or advice at an info centre or a big red bordered sign with exclamation marks alongside a track in a way that will make much of a difference.

they had other options.. they got past hector, they could have baled and gone to kime hut... thats the logical half way point of their whole trip and a more logical place to overnight and split the exposed ridge top section up. they could also have baled at renata ridge and got a bit of shelter in the bush and head for elder hut... be flexible with your plans and look at other options like these if the trip is getting dangerous to complete, rather than just push on to your intended destination.

Oh true when I saw hard shell I was thinking of soft shell because I had never heard of rain gear being called hard shell haha. Oh yeah for sure you always take rain gear lol.

Gaiters: "Hardshell" to me means windproof, waterproof breathables. My jacket (Hagloffs Ozo) and pants (Montane Minimus) roll up to the size of apples and weigh under 400 grams combined. The storm hood fully fastened means 3 season bombproof.

Ian - That's the experience curve. Aside from perhaps having a great deal of native analytical thinking and having done a lot of reading, you really can't expect fairly inexperienced people to make all the right calls under weather and fatigue pressure. I'm sure we all remember the first time we realised we weren't going to make the hut. The world didn't end. After that it becomes a standard option. When the lemons start piling up survival is decided at the junction of the troika: experience, fitness, kit.

Just because you've always been able to make it to a hut no matter what weather conditions you've had in the past, doesnt mean you will always make it to a hut regardless in the future. It doesnt matter how experienced or fit you are, sometimes the weather can be too dangerous to proceed, and you need to alter your trip plans, you can die of hypothermia at any altitude in NZ. aparently seddon bennington had done a lot of hard trips and always pushed through ok... even someone telling him the weather was too rough to continue didnt put him off at all..

I'e seen photos of huts used almost exclusively by TA walkers that are over full