The paramedics stabilised her broken limbs before packing her into a survival bag in preparation for the trip back across the ice. They heard the thundering noise of an avalanche, which crashed down close to them. They managed to get her back to the helicopter, which flew her to Christchurch Hospital.
Ms Rhodes has been unconscious since. Her mother, Ann Rhodes, of Greytown in Wairarapa, brother Colin and sisters Marion and Janet rushed to her bedside in the intensive care unit.
Speaking from the family home in Greytown, Ms Rhodes' father, John Rhodes, said she was in a stable condition, but had shown "minimal improvement".
"She's not been conscious since the fall and that of course is the critical thing as far as we're concerned," said the keen tramper, who has scaled several mountains with his daughter.
"While it's giving her body a chance to mend, it has not been possible yet to assess the extent of her head injury."
Mr Snowdon, 28, spoke yesterday about the accident.
"As Simon was making his way down, we heard a tumbling noise and Heather shot past. I knew that she had fallen," he said
"It was distinctively the sound of a falling person, not like rocks which we had heard plenty of that day. I knew instantly that something had failed at the top."
Ms Rhodes' fall had taken the group's ropes with her, leaving the other two climbers to descend without any gear. "If we had made a mistake, then we would have likely followed her down," he said.
"My first priority was to get the personal locator beacon out of the top of the pack, which Heather was carrying when she fell," Mr Snowdon said.
The men then set up a tent and used their own body heat to keep her warm.
Mr Rhodes said his daughter had "lived in the outdoors" her whole life.
Since graduating from the University of Otago, she had worked on the Outward Bound course, at the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre of New Zealand and most recently as an instructor for the army leadership centre based at Burnham Military Camp.
- APNZ, Christchurch Star
