Growing numbers of hunters needing rescued
Local rescuers are concerned that an increasing number of hunters from overseas or out of town are needing to be rescued after getting caught out in the Wakatipu’s challenging alpine terrain and finding themselves beyond their capabilities.
Another visiting hunter had to be long lined out by rescuers on Sunday after becoming stuck in steep, tricky terrain on a peak above Routeburn Shelter.
Police and local search and rescue volunteers have been dealing with an alarming increase in mostly young overseas visitors getting into difficulty while hiking beyond their capabilities and needing rescued. Many are in pursuit of the ultimate social media photos after seeing posts from the likes of Earnslaw Burn and Brewster Tracks.
However, Wakatipu Alpine Cliff Rescue Team spokesperson Karl Johnson says they’re now being called out to rescue quite a number of visiting hunters too, mostly from overseas.
Four of their team were called to assist Police when a hunter, who Police later confirmed was from Auckland, found himself trapped and unable to get out on Upper Peak above Routeburn Shelter, beside Double Barrel Falls. A Wakatipu LandSAR Incident Management Team volunteer was also assisting on the ground. The hunter had raised the alarm using the SOS on his phone. “However, he was using a Dutch phone number so that relayed back to his home country of Holland before being dispatched to Police here so there was quite a delay,” Johnson says.
Conditions were good on Sunday, but the man, who wasn’t injured, had walked out onto a bluff and found he couldn’t go up or down, he says.
Police Senior Constable Julian Cahill says the man had activated the distress signal on his phone and the Alpine Cliff Rescue Team members were flown in by rescue helicopter, using a long line to retrieve him.
“He got into steep terrain and felt he couldn’t get down safely.”
Johnson says the team has done three sets of rescues in the Wye Creek area since last year – an Australian pair last year and two rescues this year – several Australians, and then an American father and son plucked from tricky, rocky terrain in the Upper South Wye Creek area in February. They’d been hunting with a bow and arrow and become exhausted, dehydrated and disoriented with insufficient food and water, forced to eat the raw meat of a stag they’d caught to get them through.
“We’ve had quite a number of hunters from overseas needing rescued after getting into terrain they can’t handle. It seems to be increasing, and it’s been quite prominent this year,” Johnson says.
“People need to be really aware of the terrain they’re heading into and not go where they’re not experienced to go, ensure they can move around and take suitable gear,” he says.
Inexperienced overseas hikers after the ultimate Instagram photos also continue to concern rescuers and Police who’ve had to respond to a huge increase in rescues from Instagram ‘must do’ tracks like Earnslaw Burn and Brewster Track. Johnson says a young Chinese couple had to be rescued from the track beyond Brewster Hut last August. “She was wearing high heels in that terrain and there’s a river crossing at the bottom,” he says. Police and other rescuers have reported Crocs, dress shoes and T-shirts and shorts with no warm clothing.
Cahill says local search and rescue volunteers have physically had to go into Earnslaw Burn alone six times in the last two years to rescue people in difficulty or danger. Another six were resolved without rescuers having to physically go up there, he says.
“Earnslaw Burn Track, without a doubt, has brought the greatest call for search and rescue services over the last year,” Constable Pepper Ruston says.
