Rescue in Namadgi NP

[justacouch]

From the Canberra Times:

This morning six bushwalkers were transported by helicopter to safety after being found in a search and rescue operation in the mountains south of Canberra.

The operation was launched after the walkers activated an emergency beacon near Mount Gudgenby about 8am today.

The Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue helicopter found the group at about 9.15am and flew the group out of the national park to the town of Michelago.

According to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority the group, consisting of two adults and four teenagers, reported no injuries and have not required medical treatment

The party was believed to have been poorly prepared for the extreme weather conditions overnight.

Mount Gudgenby is in the far south of the Namadgi National Park, and is about 1700m high.

Full article here: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new ... z293QuKH3p

Anyone have further details?

[kanangra]

From that report one wonders why they couldn't walk out? Assuming they were on the Gudgenby saddle it is about 3 hours out to the road on a good track? Hard to see why 4 teen agers couldn't walk out from there? Sometimes I wonder if these devices make it easier for inexperienced parties to just pull the plug? Will they be charged the cost of their "rescue"?

I stress these comments are based solely on what appears above and if the actual facts turn out to be different then I am prepared to apologise.

K.

[Hallu]

These rescues are quite expensive yeah, they're definitely not free of charge. There's a topic on that here : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1598

[FatCanyoner]

From that report one wonders why they couldn't walk out? Assuming they were on the Gudgenby saddle it is about 3 hours out to the road on a good track? Hard to see why 4 teen agers couldn't walk out from there? Sometimes I wonder if these devices make it easier for inexperienced parties to just pull the plug?

This is definitely the case. About a year back I was speaking to a senior national parks bloke from down south, and he was telling me some shocking stories. In one case a group walking on the main range set off their beacon, and when the chopper arrived they told the medical personnel that it was because "they were tired". In that case they were reportedly told to get stuffed and had to walk out. I'm not sure why this case was different, but presume it was because they were poorly prepared and the conditions were bad. If emergency services tell them to walk out, then something happens, they would likely get their *&^%$#@! kicked. This just one of the reasons I hate the modern mantra of always taking a PLB and setting it off at the first sign of a problem!!!

[zac150]

Fat Canyoner, I have heard that storey as well, makes you wonder. posting.php?mode=reply&f=36&t=11211#

The thought that the south care could have been redirected from a more serious emergency always makes me cringe.

But to this storey, I don't believe this is the case in this instance. Weather forecasts this week suggested rain but I don't remember any predictions for the amount of snow that fell around the ranges of Canberra, I know of a few roads closed due to heavy snow fall. I imagine that these guys got caught in 10 - 15cm of fresh snow without as the paper suggests, sufficient gear.

Pure speculation but I imagine they realised that they were in too deep and either risk serious injury or hit the EPIRB early before hyperthermia. Just a guess.

[WarrenH]

The night was very cold. The night that they were unprepared for was extremely cold in the mountains and extremely cold during the day. At Ginini during the day when the maximum temp could have been expected to be 13-14°C the maximum daytime temp was 0.2°C.

I live in the NW of the ACT and as far as I could see, from Tenent along the Brindies, the Blue Range and the Baldy Range, the hills were white. It has been a very cold winter with record breaking frosts and good snow, but the night that they were out, I was out side at about 2am and I couldn't believe how cold it was. It was raining where I was. Normally when it rains here the temp doesn't drop below 2-3°C, even at the worst of times but it felt like it was about -10C and I'm used to the cold.

This is what it was like the following morning. The shots were taken about 8am, of the Brindlies and the Baldy Range, taken from on the Bicentennial National Trail at Holt.







One thing that caught them out was, earlier in the week snow was predicted from the 13-15th ... it arrived earlier than forecast but there are no excuses for not being adequately prepared in the Alps or adequately prepared to sit-out adverse mountain weather.

Warren.

[WarrenH]

The data from the closest weather station, on the 11th showed that only between 4pm and 5pm, the temperature rose to above freezing to 0.2°C . The wind speeds were gusting to 22kts. This is not excessive for wind chill but that still would have given an apparent temperature at times of about -5°C, if the walkers were able to stay dry. They also had to contend with 15mm of rain during the day and the snow at night.

This data was from Mount Ginini (ID: 070349) at the time. The Ginini weather station is at a height of 1760m. The summit of Gudgenby is about 1612m, Gudgenby saddle is about 1490m. Ginini is approximately 25 kilometres NW of Mt Gudgenby.

What is that old Norwegian saying that Tony cites? There is no such thing as bad weather ... only bad clothing. Like being clothed in the knowledge of mountain weather?

Mount Gudgenby and Hospital Ridge.




Warren.