Police will not charge Porter Heights Skifield for the botched rescue exercise that led to a full emergency turnout.
Spokeswoman Maggie Leask said compensation was "not an issue," although the Order of St John hopes to recover "relevant costs" involved in mobilising emergency helicopters, ambulances and paramedics.
Porter Heights general manager Uli Dinsenbacher said he was prepared to pay some recompense for "lack of communication" and misjudgment by skifield staff.
Ms Leask said police had yet to formally talk to skifield management about Tuesday's training exercise.
It led to the callout of four helicopters, three dog search teams, 10 alpine cliff rescue squad members, 12 police search-and-rescue staff, Fire Service and civilian volunteers, and police from Selwyn, Darfield and Arthurs Pass.
Emergency services mobilised after a call from the skifield about 8.25 am that 14 people were trapped in a snow cave.
Ms Leask said a police debriefing concluded that it was better to look for people and find out it was an exercise than not to be called until it was too late.
Mr Dinsenbacher said he was amazed at the speed of the emergency response and pleased with the action of skifield staff, who were unaware it was an exercise.
Within 15 minutes of the reported incident, staff had blankets, warm drinks and back-up services on the way to the site.
"We got some positives out of it, but it was still a misjudgment."
Mr Dinsenbacher said he would have "no queries" if charged for things such as helicopter time.
The chief executive of St John in Christchurch, Tony Blaber, said the ambulance organisation hoped to recover fuel costs for ambulances and helicopters, and crewing costs.
The money involved had yet to be calculated.
"We are liaising with our other major emergency partners to agree on a position regarding who and how we approach cost recovery."
Mr Dinsenbacher said after some initial anger, the police now seemed "fairly relaxed" about the incident.
He said he had called police after an initial alert from a staff member. A code system in place to ensure skifield rescue exercises were recognised as such had not worked.
The staff member used the names of two former skifield staff now living in the United States to represent injured skiers, believing Mr Dinsenbacher would "click" to the fact it was an exercise.
Mr Dinsenbacher said no one would be disciplined over the incident.
- NZPA
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