Zero-risk approach 'would kill outdoor guiding'

Guides say eliminating all the hazards of outdoor guiding would kill the industry. Photo / Simon Baker

The outdoor guiding industry needs to make greater efforts to control hazards, the Labour Department says in a report on the death of a guide on Aoraki/Mt Cook.

The report on the death of Anton Wopereis on New Year's Day 2008 says that while the industry is committed to safety, it seems resistant to the requirement to take all practicable steps to eliminate or at least minimise the risk of harm from significant hazards.

Instead, the report says, the likelihood of serious harm is "factored in" by the industry as part of an approach based on risk management. This "tacit failure" to fully comply with the Health and Safety in Employment Act is a "lost opportunity" for the industry.

But guides say eliminating all the hazards would kill the industry.

"There needs to be recognition that there is inherent risk in adventure tourism, and managing those risks as opposed to trying to eliminate them," said Aspiring Guides' chief guide, Whitney Thurlow.

"It's easy to eliminate them totally and not go. But we choose to go; we choose to put ourselves in harm's way. It's just a matter of how much risk people are willing to take."

The report, obtained under the Official Information Act, highlights the conflict between the requirement for employers and the self-employed to take all practicable steps to prevent harm - and the risks that are part of the attraction of adventure activities such as mountaineering.

A department spokesman said this issue would be covered by the review of adventure and outdoor tourism ordered by Prime Minister John Key and scheduled to report by March 31.

Mr Wopereis, 54, an internationally qualified guide contracted to Aspiring Guides, died after falling from the Summit Rocks of Aoraki/Mt Cook when a slab of snow and ice collapsed. He was attached by a 60m rope to an anchor fixed to the mountainside, to which his client was also attached.

He climbed above the anchor without asking the client to belay him (feed the rope through a friction device). He fell the rope-length below the anchor.

Guides vary in whether they are belayed at this point on the mountain and it is unclear why Mr Wopereis chose not to be belayed.

A report for the department by outdoor safety auditor and climber Ray Goldring says the reasons could have included Mr Wopereis' level of climbing confidence, the speed at which he and his client were travelling, and the client's disposition.

"There are no 'guidelines' which state that a guide must undertake a type of practice at any given time/place on any mountain anywhere in the world. This expectation would be both impracticable and unrealistic," Mr Goldring says.

"There was no breach of safety standards/practices by either Anton or the company."

Mr Thurlow said guides were more inclined, since Mr Wopereis' death, to ask their clients to belay at more dangerous places.

But the job inevitably involved climbing at times without a belay on slopes where a fall would be fatal. Telling guides to avoid taking all such risks would make alpine guiding impossible, Mr Thurlow said.