At 2:05 am on December 15th 2022, two mountain scramblers activated the SOS function on their inReach device.
The day prior, they had been traversing the classic Philistine – Rolleston ridgeline. They lost 3 hours on Mt Rolleston middle peak freeing a stuck abseil rope and were then caught out in wet weather. They sheltered in a bothy tarp for several hours before continuing on towards Low Peak, and the Otira Slide descent route. They became stranded on steep and loose terrain in the dark and wet, at which point they stopped and called for help.
At 2:58am, Alpine Rescue Canterbury (ARC) were called by the Rescue Coordination Centre to assist Garden City Helicopter (GCH) pilot crew with the operation.
4:00am, ARC team members Anna Brooke and Paul Rogers were flown with GCH to Arthur’s Pass for reconfiguration at Klondyke Corner due to cloud in the village.
At 5am the subjects were sighted with headtorches just below Rolleston Low Peak, anchored to a 60 degree rock slab/choss slope.
The two climbers were retrieved one at a time by winch and returned to Klondyke Corner.
The climbers were cold but uninjured.
It was estimated that another 30-60 minutes and it would have been impossible to fly anywhere near to the climbers. This may have resulted in a full day operation climbing up to them.
Paul and Anna both thought they made the right call to call for rescue as too many factors were starting to work against them. The deterioration in the weather being the final straw.
Great work to all those who were involved. This was a fairly straightforward, yet time critical operation in the end.
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