Epic tales of search and rescue in high-country New Zealand

Mountain Rescue tells the stories behind some of New Zealand’s most
dramatic search and rescue operations in the Southern Alps and their
foothills.

Ill-equipped, underprepared, suffering from summit fever or just plain unlucky,
a handful of climbers every year fall victim to New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
Most will be able to look back, learn from their experiences, and think they’ve
had a fortunate escape. Others won’t be so lucky.

Mountain Rescue opens with a significant alpine rescue in 1948, described at
the time by Edmund Hillary as ‘a mountaineering rescue effort probably unique
in Zealand’s alpine history’. We then travel forward to 2004 and beyond, to
a series of daring rescue operations — including the tale of a young man
who loses his life as he tries to rescue his girlfriend. These gut-wrenching
accounts provide a fascinating insight into what happens in a contemporary
rescue operation.

The 11 tales in Mountain Rescue are based on interviews with the rescued
and their loved ones — or with the families of those willing to share the story
of their relative’s tragic end. Equally important is the rescuers’ perspective:
Melchior interviews Wanaka-based mountain guide Gary Dickson, who has
30 years of search and rescue experience in the Alps and whose ‘flea in the
ear’ lectures to survivors are legendary. Yet Dickson himself rejects the ‘hero’
tag — for him and for his search and rescue teammates, ‘a hero is someone
who does an extraordinary act — not someone who is doing when they’ve
trained to do.’

Heroes or not, New Zealand’s search and rescue volunteers are the ones who
show up when good days in the mountains go horribly wrong. Whether they’re
faced with triumphs or tragedies, their skill and commitment is undeniable.

‘The technical skills required in our mountains are at least as
sophisticated as anywhere else, and the speed and severity with which
our weather conditions can change is greater than in most other alpine
regions.’—Phillip Melchior in Mountain Rescue




About the author
Phillip Melchior is a passionate tramper, mountaineer and search and rescue
volunteer. A former print and television journalist, he later became global
managing director of Reuters Media in London. He has served as chairman
of LandSAR New Zealand, and is now on the Boards of both the New Zealand
Antarctic Research Institute and Antarctica New Zealand.

Melchior and his wife, Barbara, divide their time between Wanaka and
Auckland. They have a son, a daughter and two grandsons.

Chapters
The Seven-day Rescue: La Perouse, 1948
Avalanche on New Year’s Eve: Mt Tasman, 2004
Trapped in the Cloud: Mt Tutoko, 2005
The Ultimate Sacrifice: Cascade Saddle, 2005
A Long Way to Fall: Quarterdeck Pass, Mt Aspiring, 2007
Into Thin Air: Bevan Col, Mt Aspiring, 2008
Fall from the Southwest Ridge: Mt Aspiring, 2008
Trapped at the Middle Peak Hotel: Aoraki/Mt Cook, 2008
Into the Canyon: Stewarts Creek, 2011
Under the Waterfall: Motatapu Gorge, 2012
Remote-control Rescue: Bonar Glacier, Mt Aspiring, 2012