Stuck Arthurs Pass trampers called 'wimpy'

Three trampers caught in Arthurs Pass National Park by rising rivers have been labelled "the wimpy media trio".

The three were stuck at an alpine hut after being caught by the rising White River, and were refused permission to evacuate from the national park by helicopter.

Members of the climbing and tramping fraternity this week were split over the men's plight.

One website labelled the group "the wimpy media trio".

However, others, including veteran climber Jim Strang, said they sympathised with the men and believed a helicopter should have been sent to rescue them.

The backlash took shape yesterday as the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand issued a statement supporting the Department of Conservation's (DOC) decision to refuse access to a helicopter the men wanted to pick them up.

Denied a helicopter lift, which they had offered to pay for, the group braved what they said were extremely dangerous conditions to walk out of the park on Wednesday.

The Arthurs Pass Mountaineering website, softrock. co.nz, slammed the three trampers, who included Kerry Suter, a winner of a TV3 outdoor adventure contest, The Summit, and Dana Hemmingway, a cameraman from Prime TV.

The site described the men as "prima donnas" who were "hamming it for the cameras", and argued in favour of the DOC ban on helicopters in the park, apart from in cases of medical emergency.

"It's a pleasure climbing in Arthurs Pass National Park without the constant drone of helicopters and smell of av-gas," the site says.

"Why would anybody ... want to create a precedent of allowing unnecessary flights in the park?"

The site heaps scorn on the men's claim that their situation required urgent action, saying: "Being late for work, hunger pangs or ruffled hairdos don't constitute emergencies anywhere in the real world."

The website is run by Australian-born mountaineer Graeme Kates, who lives in Arthurs Pass.

The department's tough stance also won support from Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand president Brian Stephenson, who said minimising aircraft access was part of the good management of every national park in New Zealand.

"Aircraft are quite intrusive in the back country. Limiting their use is absolutely standard in all national park management plans," he said. "The trampers in this case seem to be saying that money should allow them to cut through the rules."

Stephenson said high rainfall and swollen rivers were both to be expected in Arthurs Pass.

"Last time I was there, rivers were high and DOC were getting similar calls," he said. "They have to make judgments all the time about the difference between discomfort and a genuine emergency. If it's not an emergency, it's not a rescue. It's an air taxi."

The Mountain Safety Council also weighed in on the issue.

"Rivers are a hazard in the outdoors and swollen and fast-flowing rivers are not safe to cross at any time," council spokesman Chris Tews said. "Mountain Safety Council encourages people to be prepared to sit it out, camp an extra night or two and wait until the river goes down. Some rivers may only be impassable for an hour or two; others may be impassable for days."

However, a different view was offered by Strang, a veteran climber who climbed in Nepal with Sir Edmund Hillary and had been stranded in remote mountain huts many times

"I can sympathise with them," he said. "It wouldn't have been wrong to bring them out. Their food was running out, the weather was good for flying, so why not get them out?

"I'll probably cop it from my climbing mates for saying so though ... many of them are very against the idea of commercialising the mountains.

1/41/4 Editorial A8

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