Longline rescue - Mt Cook Summit
 

My old stomping ground.
Beautiful day.
Nice flying and long line work:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-heral...-aorakimt-cook
And what a view it would have been on the way down.

I wonder if the guy left behind realised how precarious his position on the cornice was.

I’m sure he was well aware - you can’t not be.

Stuck but not injured… odd. Reads like he had a panic attack.

With all the individuals around my first thought was a practice exercise

Mt Cook is not that high so unlikely to be anything to do with altitude unless the climber quite old ?
Not sure about a panic attack as any mountaineer would have been up to those sorts of places a lot
Agree with Crab, very close to the fracture line for a cornice !
I thought Crab was going t tell us how precarious he was under a single !!!!!

I hope the climber gets sent the bill. It’s similar to a sail boat Skipper requesting a tow into a Marina because his engine has failed. You partake in these amateur hobbies, you accept the consequences imho.

Nightstop
So where do you draw the line on that ?
You have a road traffic accident not your fault and go to hospital should one pay ?
I would agree if you are obese or smoking but even then who draws the line ?

Nightstop
Plenty of Rotorheads make their living from such misjudgements, bad luck and accidents. And plenty of people are glad they do and don't expect the hoist operator to have a card machine on them.

Take it to Jet Blast and wear it out.

That’s a lousy comparison. Commuter travel is not the same as adrenaline junkies.
Wing suit drivers have a higher probability of smearing themselves across unfriendly terrain.
It’s marvellous that some make a living from that, but too many people risk their lives to scrub the bodily fluids off the landscape.
The government is more and more determined not to pay for such services but we’re supposed to all chalk it up to shirt happens?
Tell the thrill seekers that if they actually find the thrill they seek, no one will arrive and instead their loved ones can come and pressure wash them off the countryside at their own risk.
Might change the risk assessment or at least, motivate one.

This, exactly. And not just rotorheads. Can't speak to other parts of the world, but 'merica has no end of wannabee, and sometimes actual, heroes. From SCUBA divers to mountain climbers and everything in-between, you can't go into the woods without tripping over some kind of volunteer, para-public, or public technical rescue team. They absolutely live for this stuff, and are just as happy to rescue an idiot as they are someone who did everything right and still got it wrong. I'm just as guilty, having once been a member of a fairly busy volunteer rescue ambulance service for almost ten years. After shift beers were always thick with conversations like "Man, that was a great call! Well, not so much for the idiot and his chain saw, but we got to do field brain surgery, it was awesome!" And that sort of thing.

That said, they are still happy to charge you actual money for being stupid and not just adventurous, and will hypocritically distribute press releases telling you to be safe but secretly pleased when you aren't. Because not only is it fun and rewarding to rescue people, but when those people are idiots and the rescue chargeable it generates an important revenue stream for the volly and para-public op's. Some states offer what amounts to a "get out of jail free" card. You buy the card for short money, say $25 USD, and if you do happen to require some legendary rescue op. it's "no charge".

Mt Cook is 12,349ft AMSL.

Rescue conducted safely using an old B-2 probably with over 10k on the airframe and with a skillled pilot.
No big expensive twin with auto-pilot, winch, two crewman, NVG/IR, SMS and zoom suit. Kiwi ingenuity😎

Who is this dig intended for? Having flown a single engine with over 10k hour's on it and a big expensive twin with auto pilot, winch, two crewmen NVG etc I know which I would choose for this rescue. It's the one that makes the rescue the easiest and safest for all involved.

Guess it’s a good thing this rescue wasn’t required at night and in crap weather then.

That being said, regulators around the world should reconsider things given the advent of the spifr A119.

Felt kinda high even up on the Ball Pass - which ain't near the summit.
Cameraman, me, pilot in a B2 - windy and we were running out of tail rotor power.
Inglis and Doole found out how that mountain can bite you... as did the RNZAF who tried to get to them in a UH-1H.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/progr...dle-peak-hotel

What happened to the Huey tartare?

https://fotoweb.airforcemuseum.co.nz...70-83.jpg.info


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7a4b74b96.jpeg


Pilot whose surname unfortunately rhymed with Prang - not sure what the cause was - might have been soft snow rollover?
But as you can see, pretty perilous position!

Has no-one else heard the term 'cragfast'? It happens all the time when ambitious climbers get to positions beyond their ability (either physical or mental) and can't go up or down.

um, where’s the kiwi ingenuity? Done all over the world. What would be the point in nvg, IR, auto pilot etc so hardly relevant.

Not who you asked but I remember hearing they didn't see a depression in the snow due to the light conditions and clipped it when trying to land.
Knowing the Huey I would say a lack of loss of tail rotor authority may have played a part.

If you ran out of tail rotor at Ball Pass in a B2 with 3 people on board I’d suggest your pilot was doing something wrong