Tramper rescued at 1700m after finding a pocket of cellphone coverage to call for help

Saturday, 2 October 2021

The tramper was found at 1700m, high in the Travers Range. Pictured is the Upper Travers Hut. (File photo)

With darkness falling and hypothermia setting in, a tramper high in an isolated and icy mountain range was lucky to stumble on a pocket of cellphone coverage.

Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter pilot Brendan Hiatt said the search for the tramper began just after 8pm on Friday.

The man was high in the Travers Range, an isolated mountain range in Nelson Lakes, about 80 kilometres south of Nelson, Hiatt said.

With no personal locator beacon (PLB), the tramper had found a pocket of cellphone coverage and called for help.

* Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter called out five times in 12 hours

The tramper was out of “energy, daylight and ideas” when he was rescued from his spot in the Travers Range, 80km south of Nelson.

* Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter crews receive multiple callouts

“He had run out of energy, daylight and ideas, all at the same time,” Hiatt said.

For Dylan Harding, each day on the job is an adrenaline rush.

The helicopter crew found the man at 1700 metres, an altitude that made a winch rescue impossible.

Instead, the chopper landed nearby, and a medic “skilled in outdoor stuff” traversed ice and snow in the darkness to reach the man, Hiatt said.

The tramper, who had early onset hypothermia, was taken to nearby St Arnaud, where he was met by a Fire and Emergency New Zealand crew.

With his phone’s battery dying along with the daylight, the man was fortunate to find a signal sweet spot, Hiatt said.

“He was very lucky to have cellphone coverage, or he’d still be up there this morning. I tried my cellphone when we were up there, and couldn't get a signal.

“To be out there that time of day, not equipped … He was a long way from anywhere.”

With daylight hours lengthening and the weather warming up, the rescue pilot wanted to remind people to take precautions before heading into remote areas.

“Take a PLB, and don’t leave your walk until too late.”

The icy rescue was one of four jobs for the helicopter yesterday. As well as two medical calls, the crew picked up a woman with a hip injury near the Owen River at 3am on Saturday morning, Hiatt said.