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One Mt Cook climber dead, second rescued
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10:38AM Friday Dec 05, 2008
By Jarrod Booker
Photo / Martin Woodhall
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One of the two Japanese climbers stranded on Aoraki/Mt Cook has died, police have confirmed.
Senior Constable Brent Swanson said guide Kiyoshi Ikenouchi, 49, had still been speaking as recently as 1am but succumbed to the cold soon after.
Mr Ikenouchi and his client Hideaki Nara, 51, both from Tokyo, had been trapped on the mountain since last weekend.
They had been attempting Mt Cook's Grand Traverse, climbing from the Hooker Valley to the South Peak, summiting from there, before heading down to Plateau Hut.
Bad weather had halted efforts to reach them but the extreme winds of recent days dropped enough for the rescue operation to take place today.
The temperature in the area where the men were stranded was estimated to between -20C and -25C.
Mr Swanson said Mr Nara was suffering frostbite to his nose, face and ears and was extremely cold but not hypothermic.
"He's obviously pretty traumatised about what has happened. He's showing some spirit and he's obviously relatively traumatised when we first got him out, but he's sounding fine," Mr Swanson said.
He said Mr Nara was suffering dehydration as the pair had run out of water.
Christchurch hospital spokeswoman Rachel Solotti said Mr Nara had been admitted to hospital in a "comfortable condition".
She said his injuries were not life threatening.
It is believed the pair's tent was blown away in the wind some time on Wednesday. One of their sleeping bags had also been lost in the rough conditions.
The climbers were unaware of a pack of supplies and a radio which had been dropped from a helicopter to them.
"But it probably wouldn't have changed matters because we couldn't get in to get them anyway."
Police Inspector Dave Gaskin said the pair were very well equipped.
"Indications are that, if anything, they were over-equipped and that may have been one of the reasons why they were very slow in the first two days of their trip."
The slow progress meant they were caught out by a mountain storm and forced to bivouac at high altitude.
Mr Swanson said it was a harsh reality that rescuers could not get in sooner to save the second climber.
"It's the nature of the mountains and where they were is a very difficult place to rescue anyone from.
"You expect optimum, conditions before you put staff at risk. We are comfortable with our decisions that we made during the week. The outcome isn't 100 per cent but it's 50 per cent."
Helicopter pilot Nigel Gee said the operation to retrieve the pair was "text book flying". He was able to partially land nearby.
"There was just a little bit of overhanging ice, I had to keep my eye on that, I didn't even really look at the ground at all, to tell you the truth."