taranaki deaths 2013

@Ian_H: "You can back off and get people down something like this quite quickly as long as you have one competent person" Not being an alpinist myself, how does that fit in with this extract, taken from the article? "Kirsten didn't fancy descending the intimidating face they'd come up. If you're a skier in trouble, do you take the black diamond run or the cruisey green run, she reasoned. John knew the North Ridge. The East - that was something else. Alright when you’re climbing, but when you turn around - vast, and terrifying. He didn't want to go down there." As I understand it, they had at least two competent people in that group of 4 (John and Hiroki)...

I just can’t fathom how you’d climb from 7:30am and not check a watch until 4pm. it seems like the ‘individual responsibility’ waiver took over in the minds and no one thought to speak up and suggest turning back since they weren’t officially the leader. Poor planning and preparation before even setting out, lacking leaders at all points, especially on the mountain, then mistakes compounding on descent - the Swiss cheese analogy seems really accurate on this one.

Is there evidence that turnaround times were even mentioned beyond emails between Rowan and Hiroki? Or were individuals all just expected to understand, judge and assert for themselves? I wonder if some or most of them had some awareness of the time, but either hadn't considered it as an issue or made a heuristic-trap presumption that things must be okay because nobody else was talking about it. It's a wonder there was any cheese left.

@IanH, you're quite right, it really needed one competent person to take charge. Probably would have been quicker to set up a fireman's belay to get them down. It might have compensated for the lack of confidence and tiredness methinks? Easy to say in hindsight of course. You get a real sense of how cold and confused they were. Decisions need to be made early or competence counts for little. Sad ending.

"heuristic-trap presumption that things must be okay because nobody else was talking about it. " This. ^^^ I've been on three trips that lacked leadership and all three fell into exactly this trap. In each instance the result was more hilarious than horrible, but the potential was there.

the eastern side of taranaki is steep and not easy to get down if you're not competent to cope with that terrain, theres a few rescues that happen there because people were out of their bepth and couldnt move or fell...

I have followed this story with interest as I have attended a few trips with the Auckland section of NZAC and had rock climbed with some of the members of this trip. There are always learnings from events like these but it is also easy to criticise from the safety of the armchair. The East ridge in winter is a proper alpine climb, one of the best in the NI and not one to underestimate. I can totally understand how this happened: 1) inexperienced climbers on a (for them) challenging route. 2) a very very small weather window which was leading to a predicted bad storm 3) no obvious leadership or preplanning. These 3 factors meant that they had little to no margin for error. If they had chosen to go up the much easier Nth ridge then the outcome would have been different. With a longer weather window the outcome would have been different, with a competent leader + plan the outcome would have been different. I believe the lack of leadership was the main issue here and reflected a problem whereby individuals/pairs were expected to operate autonomously but in this case, as they were effectively climbing as a group, it led to a heuristic trap of no one accepting the responsibility that they were out of their depth. I also speculate that many of the individuals relied on "others" to perform the risk assessment on the weather, conditions, route selection and their own experience but, in the end, this was not done correctly. I have been on trips myself where this has happened but was lucky enough to have got out of it OK. It is a common occurrance on all outdoor trips, not just NZAC ones. I remember the forecast for that weekend was atrocious. I was tramping in the Ruahine and was worried about getting out over the tops as the wind was so severe. We ended up getting blown over a few times. God only knows how bad it must have been on Taranaki. Personally I would never have been near the mountain with that forecast, and if I was to climb a very very early turnaround point would be my top priority. The NZAC did a big review and the bottom line was that section trips will now be much more organised with a clear leader for each climbing objective. They also have put in place planning documents for trip leaders to use to help them plan. Nowadays many Alpine climbers start by rock climbing, often indoors, and become technically very competent. They then progress to alpine climbing and within a short time can climb to a high level. However without that basic outdoor "apprenticeship" that you get through tramping, sometimes these climbers can lack an appreciation of how quickly the weather can change, trip leadership, navigation, etc..

I think the biggest issue was lack of common sense: "1) inexperienced climbers on a (for them) challenging route." - common sense would say this is taking FAR too long - ABORT. "2) a very very small weather window which was leading to a predicted bad storm" - common sense would say DON'T GO given the forecast. Driving a long distance for a trip probably adds to the "get-there-itis" - we drove all this way, it would be a shame to not do it. "3) no obvious leadership or preplanning." - I agree (although having a leader is not necessarily a guarantee of common sense being employed throughout the trip). Yes, I'm an armchair critic as I'm not a mountaineer and I wasn't there but I think the lessons that can be learned from this tragedy could easily apply to tramping.

@Ruahine Much appreciate your contribution above. I also hope I didn't come across as an armchair critic; I'm vividly aware of just how easily it happened and how 'but for the Grace of God" I could have fallen into the same trap more than a few times in my life. Good to read that NZAC have responded to this tragedy seriously and effectively. And your final point around the different skills progression these day is something I hadn't thought of at all; but it aligns with my standard aphorism "once you get good at the Tararuas, everywhere else is more fun".

Why would you want to go anywhere else if you can go to the Tararuas?