Thread: Rookie mistakes!

Originally Posted by Nibblet

Good advice, just look at that farmer in waikato the other day, add plb to that. Mine lives on my belt.

Damn, PLBs are a godsend. I'm going to save up one day for sure - worth the price to save your life! Luckily in Nelson I know some SAR guys who'll rent one out to ya real cheap (compared to other places...). In Christchurch hit up the CUTC for cheap hire too.

This really goes out to everyone - invest in one of those things, hire or buy. So many kiwis have that "Eh she'll be right" attitude. I was a committee member for the Canterbury University Tramping Club and last year one of our most experienced mountaineers hired out a PLB, but decided to leave it in their car as they went out. DOC didn't have full information on how low the snowline would be, so they got caught out without crampons on an ice ridge (all these rookie mistakes!) - slipped and fell down a pretty steep cliff damn far, the both of them!!

Now their trip intentions said they were heading out for about 4-5 days! And on day one, they were at the bottom of a cliff - broken pelvis, bashed in heads/losing eyesight, broken ribs. Had to share a sleeping bag, urinating on each other, trying to cook and stay warm (thank goodness they had all the other decent survival equipment! Proper -30 degree sleeping bags, survival blanket, the right amount of food and all that; no PLB ) - it was 4 more days out there before finally a chopper came in and they were on their last legs really, that much pain and internal bleeding.
Could have been saved within the day with a PLB.

INVEST! As these very, very highly experienced trampers/mountaineers/climbers will tell you - even the best of us can get caught out in nature, and a PLB was the ONE thing they needed. Luckily fully recovered now, we tell this story to all the newbies/international students that come into the club and wanna organise their own little trips.