Source: Maritime New Zealand
Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ)* has coordinated the rescue of two climbers – one badly injured – caught by a rock slide in steep terrain in Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.
Search Mission Coordinator, Neville Blakemore, said the climbers activated the distress alerting function of their InReach device last night at 5.30pm after the rock slide. The complicated rescue was completed at 8.50 am today when the climbers arrived at Greymouth Hospital.
Mr Blakemore said being able to activate their device may well have saved the injured climber’s life – he had an arm badly broken in two places, concussion and a badly gashed leg. The other climber was relatively unharmed and had roped the injured climber onto the steep slope to prevent him from falling and suffering further injuries.