Hunter plunges 300m off bluff in Southern Alps

A United States hunter is believed to have been killed yesterday when he fell 300m down a bluff in the Southern Alps.

The man's companions watched as he slipped on snow and plunged over a bluff in the Albert Burn Valley near the head of Lake Wanaka at 3.30pm.

Sergeant Aaron Nicholson of Wanaka said he doubted the fall was survivable.

A search and rescue team was unable to reach the "assumed fatality" by helicopter due to dense fog and poor visibility in the valley, Mr Nicholson said.

The search for the man, whose name had not been released, was postponed until first light today, but was again delayed by fog this morning.

Fellow Detective Derek Shaw said an initial check by staff this morning decided it was too foggy to send out a rescue team.

Checks would continue to be made every half hour to evaluate whether it was safe to proceed, he said. The search began during the morning, Newstalk ZB reported.

Police were still speaking to the parties involved in the accident to establish whether the man slipped on snow getting into or out of a helicopter.

The accident was reported to police by pilot Harvey Hutton, owner of Backcountry Helicopters.

Mr Hutton could not be contacted yesterday but company co-owner Patsy Nolan said Backcountry Helicopters had nothing to do with the accident.

"The hunting party were not our clients. We were just transporting them in there and then picking them up," Ms Nolan said.

"Our helicopter just dropped the hunters off and one had slipped and fallen."

The Wanaka alpine search and rescue team flew in by helicopter and found the accident scene by "one of the side creeks", Mr Nicholson said.

Search and rescue team member Gary Dickson said the conditions in the valley were full of thick foggy cloud and the accident location was a "steep and inaccessible bluff with a rugged waterfall".

There was a "reasonable amount" of snow in the valley, Mr Dickson said, but he was uncertain whether the accident took place above or below the snowline. He said it had been a "big problem" for the search and rescue helicopter to find landing ground.

Conditions were typical of Wanaka with the "cling-on" cloud that quite often formed out of wet beech forest coupled with cold temperatures, Mr Dickson said.

"The cloud almost trapped us in there," he said.

"We spent 40 minutes trying to locate the site, before having to leave the valley from the opposite end as the cloud closed in behind us."

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES, NZPA