wildwanderer wrote:The Australian solider who was rescued from Mount Aspiring last week is starting to cop a bit of bad press due to the cost of his rescue. Apparently, it was his 2nd NZ helicopter rescue. Previous one was Mount Tasman in 2013.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106050 ... teer-hours
the weather forecast was bad, thers a lot of snow up there , a bad weather forecast and avalanche danger, no one should have been up there then, they couldnt move him overloand because of the avalanche danger, because the weather was so touch and go they had to move with up to four helicopters simutaneously to get in and get out again with everybody involved in the rescue or risk having people stranded indefinitely.
one twin engined helicopter with one of the most experienced mountain pilots in NZ had to come from Te Anau a couple of hundreds of k's away, the helicopters had to be on standby for some time close by before the weather cleared briefly enough on more than one occasion to fly in.
welcome to nz, where the mountains can be clouded in for weeks at a time with little break in the weather. its one of the windiest inhabited place in the world, might be ok lower down but can be unfliable at higher altitude because of wind and turbulence in the mountains.
people talked about how terry's army training saved him, well if thats the way the army plan their missions , i don't think theres much there that's commendable, NZers werent up there climbing because they knew better. if he'd have taken any local advice he would never have gone in the first place...