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The fatal accident on Mount Ruapehu, two weeks before the ski resort was fully reopened, was not announced due to a similar accident.
A man died in a backcountry ski accident on Mount Ruapehu, but police and nature maintenance officials did not disclose it.
The man was reported missing by police at 5 pm on Friday on Matariki’s weekend after not returning from a trip across the boundaries of the Whakapapa ski area north of Mount Ruapehu.
After a thorough search, he was found unresponsive at 9:55 pm and was taken to the bottom of the ski area. He died shortly after.
The man’s death was introduced to a coroner.
When asked why the case was not published, a police spokesperson said he did not disclose all sudden deaths, especially if it was not in a public place and did not require public assistance. ..
The incident occurs just two weeks before the ski resort opens in earnest for the first foreign tourists before the pandemic.
In the past, Raui was deployed by local iwi, as in February 2020, when death in a protected area restricted access to the railroad tracks for three days due to death in Tongariro National Park.
Raui was placed on the upper slopes of Mount Ruapehu in 2018 after the hikers fatally fell into the crater lake of the volcano. It asked people not to cross the boundaries of the Fakapapa ski area. rahui was supported by the Nature Maintenance Agency and Ruapehu Alpine Lifts, a company that owns both Turoa and Whakapapa ski resorts.
A nature maintenance spokesman said the Tongariro National Park Service would have warned the general public if local mana had called Raui in response to last week’s incident. The newsroom has approached iwi for comment, but has not yet received a response.
Stewart Berkeley, a local alpine guide, was surprised that Raui hadn’t been declared yet.
“In local culture, it’s good to show respect for the dead and close the area, so I’m a little sorry for those near the dead,” he said. “If that happens in Tongariro, they close the entire mountain.”
He said the mountains were “incredibly frozen”, a potentially dangerous time to hit the backcountry.
“When you leave a patrol ski area in the winter, you need to be very careful about the environment, the weather and the terrain, as the rain freezes, the warm days continue and it freezes again overnight,” he said. “One day it may be an avalanche, and the next day it may be slippery on ice, so we need to be prepared for all these events.”
He said it might be against Kiwi’s spirit of valuing independence and motivation, but it’s worth taking lessons before exploring areas such as mountain peaks. “My advice is to admit that if you are inexperienced, you don’t know everything and go for experienced information and education,” he said. “There are many one or two day courses on avalanche, snow and mountain weather.”
According to the DoC website, avalanches in Tongariro National Park are most common between July and October. Apart from the route from the north, other approaches to the summit of Mount Ruapehu involved traveling through challenging and complex terrain.