'Make sure you make it home' - Mountain Safety Council urges climbers to be careful

Climbers are being urged to plan for an appropriate level of risk after a man fell more than 200m from the "buttress" area on to the Therma Glacier. Photo / Gavin Laing, Wanaka Search and Rescue

The death of a young Czech man who fell several hundred metres on Mt Aspiring is "tragic", the Mountain Safety Council says.

Council chief executive Mike Daisley said it was awful that another climber wouldn't make it home during the holiday season.

"We put out a media release on the 23rd December urging people to stay safe this season, and that we hoped we wouldn't be commenting in the media," said Daisley.

The mountaineer in his mid-20s was crossing the northwest ridge of Mt Aspiring when the accident happened on Wednesday.

"MSC express our condolences to the friends and families affected by this tragic mountaineering incident," said Daisley.

Research by the council shows 33 per cent of mountaineering fatalities occur in December.

Daisley said the high figure correlated with some of the best times to go climbing.

"Summer is a traditional time to go mountaineering, so it's natural that there will be a corresponding rise in incidents.

"Mountaineers are in a high risk, high reward environment. There are very few individuals who go into this environment on a whim having no understanding of the risks."

Daisley wants to make sure that mountaineers are aware that the risk is real and that accidents can happen to anyone.

"We're reminding this community to plan for an appropriate level of risk, which is often a fine line to walk," he said.

"We urge those going out this year to double down on your safety measures and make sure you make it home."

Last week two injured climbers were rescued after they fell 200m on Mt Aspiring. They were on the southwest route and fell down a steep area of snow and ice above the Bonar Glacier.

A second party of four climbers travelling in a similar direction found them two hours later. They set off their personal locator beacon to get help.

Mt Aspiring is known to be a technically difficult climb. The northwest ridge is the most commonly climbed route on the 3000m peak.

A 24-year-old woman died last year when she fell crossing a waterfall face in Mt Aspiring National Park. A 21-year-old man slipped and fell to his death in 2014.

In 2008, Kathmandu co-founder John Pawson, 48, fell 800m to his death on Mt Aspiring. The well-known Wanaka businessman was climbing the southwest ridge of the mountain with award-winning photographer and writer Martin Hill when he fell.

The pair were not roped together and Hill was left stranded about 200m from the summit.

In 2005, three people died on the mountain in 10 days.