Aussie breaks both ankles in 700m fall down Mt Ruapehu

Melbourne man Colin Lightbody recovering in Waikato hospital. Photo / NZPA

After watching the sun go down from the North Island's highest point with a friend, Australian Colin Lightbody's holiday was shattered when he tumbled 700m down Mt Ruapehu.

In the third major climbing accident in two days - the second on the mountain - the 41-year-old fractured both ankles when he fell at an altitude of about 2600m while on his descent from the Dome Summit about 6.20pm on Sunday.

"We were about an hour or so away from the ski lift when I walked through an area with chunks of ice and soft snow," Mr Lightbody said from his Waikato Hospital bed yesterday.

"I stepped on an icy lump, which collapsed under my weight and caused me to lose my footing ... I had about six or eight tumbles and shot off a ledge and landed in some soft snow."

His friend, Peter Ittak, who estimated he fell 200m down the snow face and between 600m and 700m in distance, said he came charging down after him "like a Viking".

He dug out an area in the snow to make Mr Lightbody more comfortable before going for help.

Mr Lightbody, a Melbourne IT consultant, was carried down the mountain in a sled on the back of a snow groomer before the Youthtown Trust rescue helicopter transferred him to Waikato Hospital.

"I was in first-stage hypothermia by then and was shivering uncontrollably, and they couldn't give me anything for the pain, so it was pretty harrowing," he said.

He now faces surgery on his right ankle, which may be done in Melbourne.

Mr Lightbody said he was a keen cross-country telemark skier, which involved long and narrow skis where the heels lift up, but has been told he could have lasting ankle damage that may make it difficult in the future. But he was relieved to have avoided a potentially fatal knock to the head.

Mr Lightbody said he had been skiing in the South Island earlier in the year and was keen to return to New Zealand with his family next year.

Ruapehu Alpine Lifts marketing manager Mike Smith said it was amazing Mr Lightbody hadn't suffered more serious injury after falling such a distance.

The temperature on the mountain had been about minus 5C with a wind chill of minus 15C.

"You wouldn't want to be out in those conditions for too long," Mr Smith said. "He's pretty lucky, really."

Mr Smith said it was unusual for one person to have a large fall during a season, let alone two people in two days.

Aucklander Andrew Blair, 37, is in a stable condition in Rotorua Hospital after falling 60m down the mountain "like a rag doll" on Saturday. He had reached the Tahurangi Peak when the strap on his ice axe broke and he slipped on the snow face at an altitude of about 2600m, breaking his left leg.

In the South Island, a climber survived a 300m fall in the Mt Somers-Stavely area, southwest of Christchurch, on Sunday.

- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA