Sara DobsonA trip to the snow
July 26th 2008 12:16
Category: No Category
New Zealand is having some of its worst weather ever at the moment. There are storms throughout the country and a blizzard has hit Mt Ruapehu in the middle of the North Island.
For the past few weeks, my younger brother has been excited to be taking his son James and our nephew Simon to the snow this weekend. My 66-year-old father with a heart condition went with them.
We used to ski a lot as children, but we moved to Auckland as teenagers, which is a four-hour drive from the snow. So the trips became rare. My brother has had to make do with teaching James to ski on indoor slopes. All week Simon (who has only tried skiing once before on an indoor slope) has been excited about his first ski trip to the mountain but scared it was going to erupt.
Saturday morning at 10am my brother spent $485 on ski hire and god only know how much on lift passes for the family. They got on the ski lifts and went up the mountain. By 11am the mountain was hit by a blizzard, it was total white out conditions; all the lifts closed, as it was too dangerous operate them in the high winds. They were stranded halfway up the mountain; they were unable to ski down, as there was no visibility.
So the attendants had to bring everyone down by human chain. That is, all holding hands with each other. At first, Tim had his son on his back while my father with a heart condition had our nephew on his back. However, my nephew started panicking; he was already scared of the mountain erupting and now this. He was screaming “We are going to die.”
It was too much for my father so in the end Tim had to hand his son to a stranger to carry down while he carried our nephew; a lift attendant carried their skis down. My father had to make his own way.
Due to the white out Tim could not see the person who was carrying his son or our father with a heart condition but had to rely on the fact that 99% of people in this world are reliable.
He made it down to a safe area with a canteen and heat. He found his son but was panicked until he finally caught sight of our father. The skis have been lost but that could be because it is hard to find people in white out conditions.
Mountain staff left them in a canteen still on the mountain but it was warm and there was food. Their next priority was to get people trapped in their cars off the mountain so they do not freeze to death overnight.
Last I heard from my sister in law who is in mobile phone contact with my brother they are a bit closer to the base and in a lodge. Our nephew is still in a panic though, and my brother is exhausted. It might take a couple of days to dig their car out of the snow, but my brother probably needs the rest after all that, before driving back to Auckland.
If this happened 20 years ago before mobile phones common, when my father was taking my brothers and me up the mountain, my mother would have had to sit at home panicking without any contact.
Thank goodness for the staff that did their job so well getting people off the mountain, but I wonder why nobody saw this coming. Mountains are dangerous places where the weather can turn quickly. Surely, they have their own weather staff.
As anyone who skis knows it is not a cheap sport, yet staff happily sold my brother expensive lift passes for a day, which they could not use. Ok that is material and I am glad that my family is safe although I am still concerned about my father, and staff should have checked the weather conditions and not opened the mountain.
For the past few weeks, my younger brother has been excited to be taking his son James and our nephew Simon to the snow this weekend. My 66-year-old father with a heart condition went with them.
We used to ski a lot as children, but we moved to Auckland as teenagers, which is a four-hour drive from the snow. So the trips became rare. My brother has had to make do with teaching James to ski on indoor slopes. All week Simon (who has only tried skiing once before on an indoor slope) has been excited about his first ski trip to the mountain but scared it was going to erupt.
Saturday morning at 10am my brother spent $485 on ski hire and god only know how much on lift passes for the family. They got on the ski lifts and went up the mountain. By 11am the mountain was hit by a blizzard, it was total white out conditions; all the lifts closed, as it was too dangerous operate them in the high winds. They were stranded halfway up the mountain; they were unable to ski down, as there was no visibility.
So the attendants had to bring everyone down by human chain. That is, all holding hands with each other. At first, Tim had his son on his back while my father with a heart condition had our nephew on his back. However, my nephew started panicking; he was already scared of the mountain erupting and now this. He was screaming “We are going to die.”
It was too much for my father so in the end Tim had to hand his son to a stranger to carry down while he carried our nephew; a lift attendant carried their skis down. My father had to make his own way.
Due to the white out Tim could not see the person who was carrying his son or our father with a heart condition but had to rely on the fact that 99% of people in this world are reliable.
He made it down to a safe area with a canteen and heat. He found his son but was panicked until he finally caught sight of our father. The skis have been lost but that could be because it is hard to find people in white out conditions.
Mountain staff left them in a canteen still on the mountain but it was warm and there was food. Their next priority was to get people trapped in their cars off the mountain so they do not freeze to death overnight.
Last I heard from my sister in law who is in mobile phone contact with my brother they are a bit closer to the base and in a lodge. Our nephew is still in a panic though, and my brother is exhausted. It might take a couple of days to dig their car out of the snow, but my brother probably needs the rest after all that, before driving back to Auckland.
If this happened 20 years ago before mobile phones common, when my father was taking my brothers and me up the mountain, my mother would have had to sit at home panicking without any contact.
Thank goodness for the staff that did their job so well getting people off the mountain, but I wonder why nobody saw this coming. Mountains are dangerous places where the weather can turn quickly. Surely, they have their own weather staff.
As anyone who skis knows it is not a cheap sport, yet staff happily sold my brother expensive lift passes for a day, which they could not use. Ok that is material and I am glad that my family is safe although I am still concerned about my father, and staff should have checked the weather conditions and not opened the mountain.
| 49 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
