At approx. 2100hrs on Saturday 23rd October, Police 111 received a call stating that 2 climbers were stuck near the summit (2275m) of Mt Rolleston after losing light, and one of the climbers was reported as exhausted.
The climbers had ascended the central direct route on the Otira Face (they apparently also veered off route at some stage). The party had good cellphone reception.
They set off their PLB shortly after the initial contact with the informant. The weather was deteriorating rapidly, and of note the risk of wet snow avalanches had increased considerably during the day.
The Greymouth Rescue Helicopter was dispatched after midnight; they located the climbers, but because of summit wind turbulence and narrow icy terrain were unable to recover them.
The two climbers hunkered down for the night is a depression they dug with their ice-tools.
The Greymouth Rescue Helicopter, 3 ACR team members from Christchurch, and 2 Police officers arrived in Arthur’s Pass at 0600hrs on Sunday 24th. Again weather thwarted all attempts to get to the climbers, but eventually at about 1030hrs 2 ACR team were lowered by winch onto the ice-fall area of the Crow Glacier.
From here they made their way up to the neve, then climbed onto the SW ridge of Mt Rolleston, encountering the climbers basically on the summit. The climbers were cold and hungry, but otherwise OK.
The group descended to the Crow neve, then made their way to the crest of the Crow ice-fall for extraction. The two climbers were taken off first, but the weather deteriorated again and the two ACR team could not be recovered until about 1800hrs.
Alpine Rescue Canterbury 