Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Mountain rescue


It was a beautiful day at Lord Howe today.  But it must have been a long day for the poor man who broke his leg climbing Mt Gower yesterday. 

In the past when someone has been injured, the guide radios for help and the local SES team hurries up with a stretcher.  Unfortunately, yesterday’s accident occurred above the “get up place”, a section of exposed rock where climbers use ropes, and the injured man was about 95 kgs.  So the injured man and the SES volunteers spent the night on the mountain waiting for a helicopter rescue. 

The radio in the Pinetrees office was buzzing with activity all day and everyone seemed to be involved.  When I went to the hospital in the morning, the two nurses were running out the door with a large pack.  When I picked up Elsie after lunch, her nanny was wearing her orange SES gear and preparing to climb the mountain too. 

This morning two Navy Sea King helicopters arrived to airlift the injured man back to the Lord Howe airport (and a waiting air ambulance).  He’ll have a few stories to tell when he gets home…  

1 comment:

  1. Working in Mt Cook Village for The Hermitage Hotel was a very similar story…
    That evening I was the Duty Manager at the Hotel…a woman came to see me. You could see on her face how worries she was. Apparently her man left the Hotel in the morning to climb up to the Müller Hut. This could be a lovely track if the weather conditions are fine, but unfortunately the weather conditions changed..
    It was too dark to send the Helicopter to look for him (the Glacier is so wide and big that from the Helicopter you could see him..). Instead some of the Rescue Guides climbed up in the night..was a long night, and with a sad end..his body was found, death on the glacier. Conditions can be very hard even if Mt Cook Village was so prepared for the rescue.
    Sir Edmund Hillary spent his whole life for the Mountains! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary
    God always forgive Human. Human forgive sometimes..Nature never forgive for both good and bad things.
    Kind regards,

    David

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