Crossing operators are abandoning passengers in dangerous weather
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A battle is brewing between Tongariro Alpine Crossing shuttle operators over fears some of them are taking hikers up in bad weather.
The Department of Conservation said it was aware of cases where shuttle operators had been dropping people off in poor weather.
Wilderness magazine reported 15 people had to be rescued over summer and six more during the Easter weekend.
And a number of shuttle operators have called foul on competitors going up on days deemed unsafe.
“I think at the moment there’s around 53 concessionaires … the same one or two muck it up for everybody else,” he said.
Concessionaires are shuttle operators and walking guides that have permission to commercially transport visitors to and from the crossing.
“If we sent a bunch of buses down there and it was even forecasting to be a nice day and we get there and it’s absolutely terrible, we’d say sorry, we’re coming back.
“If you’re a commercial operator …. and you actually take people to the mountain, you get there and it’s actually s**t and let them go; that’s a different story.
“How would you feel as a client that’s been dropped off, not knowing the environment, and a transport operator just says ‘yup sweet as, we’ll drop you off’?
“This whole issue boils down to that one point: if you drop them off in bad weather, that’s a problem.”
Thomas wanted safety guidelines built into the concession documents so careless operators would be blacklisted and denied concessions.
At the moment there are a set of weather triggers agreed upon by the various operators.
But, as the owner of Tongariro Crossing Shuttles, Andrea Messenger, outlined, the “weather protocols” as they are known, are not hard and fast rules.
“The protocol just doesn’t cover the right criteria to manage a safe hike and a safe plan.
“That protocol is too broad.”
Messenger preferred companies like hers decide on the day if it is safe enough to drop people off.
“There is no black and white answer to when people should be dropping hikers off on good or bad weather days.
“Everyone’s got an idea of what a cold day is, what a wet day is and what their hikers are like.”
Messenger said unless it was in the news, her company was unaware of cases where hikers had to be rescued.
Colin Baker runs one of the smaller shuttle operators, Ruapehu Scenic Shuttles.
He said operators and guides met last week with DoC to discuss the weather protocols.
“It was touched upon about running in those [difficult] conditions. Basically DoC cannot regulate to stop us going up to the crossing.
“So it needs to be self-regulated within the industry. Unfortunately some members of the industry are not playing by the rules.
“I’ve actually had people say to me they’ve gone with other operators when I haven’t been running … on days there’s been unfavourable conditions.”
DoC’s operations manager for the Tongariro area, Bhrent Guy, said there were no plans to put more rules in place and it was up to the concessionaires to make better decisions.
But he did say the department was considering a live weather station on Tongariro to help operators decide to take hikers to the crossing or not.
A number of operators discounted that idea, saying there was already a station there that was unreliable because it would freeze and give false information.
Good advice from Tongariro Expeditions:
Hi All
We are all go for another beautiful day tomorrow. Could you please remind all clients that you deal with that jeans or just a single layer of sports tights can not be worn on the mountain, if they do come to us with these we will make them change into our fleece trousers at their cost – we will not put anyone on the mountain who is prepared to jeopardise their own safety in this way.
Another shuttle bus operator comments:
Colin Baker Great advice! However I do think we are getting to many now thinking that they can go up the crossing given an ice axe and crampons and no idea how to use them. You need crampons!!! I took a well equipped couple of ladies to do the Round the Mountain Track from Turoa to Whakapapa. They had all the right gear but choose to flag it because the conditions were to icy.
Tourist ‘pretty beaten up’ after 100-metre alpine plunge
- Author
- Laurilee McMichael, Taupo & Turangi Weekender, Thursday,
Police are warning people intending to tramp the Tongariro Alpine Crossing to be fully prepared after an English tourist plunged 100m down rocks and ice this morning.
Senior Constable Barry Shepherd of Taupō Police said trampers should carry an ice axe and crampons – and know how to use them.
Taupō’s Greenlea helicopter this morning flew a paramedic and Land Search and Rescue volunteer to Mt Tongariro to rescue an English woman who had slipped on ice at Red Crater and fallen 100m down the mountain into a ravine.
She was “pretty beaten up” by the fall down through rocks and ice, including a knocking her head and suffering bruises and cuts, Mr Shepherd said.
The woman, 30, who has been living and working in New Zealand, set out from the Mangatepopo carpark this morning at 4am with a young Austrian woman as a companion.
The fall occurred at about 7.30am and the alarm was raised 10 minutes later.
The helicopter flew from Taupō Airport to Mt Tongariro and dropped off a paramedic near Emerald Lakes, who made his way to the woman.
It then unloaded the SAR volunteer who used an ice axe and crampons to reach the Austrian woman perched on the icy slope below the summit of Red Crater, where she had remained.
She had been in voice contact with her friend, although she could not see her, and initially feared she had been killed in the fall.
Shepherd said both women did the right thing in staying put and calling for help but there was always ice on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing at this time of year and people needed to be properly prepared.
“It’s icy up there, that whole Red Crater summit was icy.
“It’ll thaw and soften around late morning but freezes overnight and will be frozen in the mornings, and if you get a bit of cloud and it stays under cloud, it won’t thaw out at all.”
If people did not know how to use an ice axe and crampons, they should use a guiding service across the crossing, he added.
The injured woman was flown to Rotorua Hospital.