Climber on phone to emergency services before he fell to his death

A climber was on the phone to emergency services to report his friend had fallen down a mountain when his phone cut out. Two hours later the two men were found dead.

Coroner Ian Telford released his findings in relation to the two men’s deaths to the Herald on Friday.

The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council found the errors preceding the mens’ deaths related to a “misperception of the hazards they would encounter”, resulting in them not being adequately equipped to manage them.

The two men, who the Coroner granted orders prohibiting publication of their names, were friends and colleagues from the South Island. The prohibition on publication means the name of the mountain can also not be published.

Both men were described as experienced climbers, who had climbed in various locations across the world.

In 2021, the two men travelled to the North Island for work.

During their trip, they decided to try to reach the summit of the mountain near where they were working. When they arrived at the carpark before their climb, one of the men text their wife to say they were “going for a night walk up [the mountain]”.

At 6.30pm, he text to say they had started their ascent of the mountain. At 9.23pm, he sent another text saying they had both summitted the peak.

About 20 minutes later, at 9.45pm, one of the men called emergency services to say his colleague had fallen.

“He said that [his colleague] had fallen a considerable distance and he could not see him. Whilst talking to the call handler, the call cut out,” Coroner Telford said.

A rescue team was assembled and they flew via helicopter to the scene. About 11.55pm, they located the two men, about 300m below the position the emergency call was made from.

“The attending team assessed that the pair had died. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions, the helicopter could not land, so their bodies could not be immediately retrieved.”

The two men’s bodies were recovered two days after they began their climb.

The New Zealand Mountain Safety Council investigated the men’s deaths on behalf of the Coroner.

The council said the men appeared to have done “limited planning and underestimated the overall difficulty of the climb”.

Snow and ice were present on the upper mountain to the extent it was assessed to be hazardous.

“Despite [the men] knowing this, the gear they took suggests that they had not sufficiently planned to deal with the full extent of the difficulties posed by those conditions.”

The route the men took was not often used for ascending or descending the mountain, and was “actively discouraged”, by the Department of Conversation due to the gradient and environmental conditions.

The assessors considered that both men had enough experience and technical ability to attempt the climb.

However, they said it was a mountain with “unique conditions” and was “very unforgiving”.

They said the errors preceding their deaths began with a “misperception of the hazards they would encounter”.

“Which resulted in not being adequately equipped to manage them, followed by a small navigational error by not following their original path back down the mountain and not having appropriate footwear with compatible crampons”.

The council made several recommendations, which the Coroner adopted.

Among them was that climbers needed to ensure their footwear was appropriate, “thorough planning” was also required to ensure the weather and conditions would not “compound the challenges”.

“Climbers and alpine trampers should consider decisions around travelling in the dark with an increased level of caution, particularly in unfamiliar environments.”

Sam Sherwood is a Christchurch-based reporter who covers crime. He is a senior journalist who joined the Herald in 2022, and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.