Adventure #231

PACKING FOR THE WORST PAID OFF
“We had everything we needed to be
safe,” Vanessa Bridge said in January last
year as she reflected on being rescued
from Fiordland’s remote Dusky Trackafter
activating a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB).
After breaking her ankle three days into
the challenging eight-day expedition,
Vanessa and her partner, Andy Reid, both
from Auckland, were thankful their “bloody
heavy packs” had emergency shelter and
surplus food, two important items they
would have needed for an unexpected
lengthy stay in the isolated outdoors.
The 84km Dusky Track is no mean feat,
as described on the Plan My Walk app
and website it's a difficult but rewarding
remote track, between Lake Hauroko and
Lake Manapouri, for the well-equipped,
advanced tramper. Vanessa, a keen
cyclist, and Andy, an adventure racer, both
slotted into that category, being fit and
seasoned trampers.
It was a late January afternoon when
the couple began the steep descent to
Loch Maree hut, through forest covered
by a dense tree canopy. “Unfortunately,
Vanessa slipped on a branch and broke
her ankle,” Andy said. "From there we
decided that it was unlikely she would be
able to proceed, so we set up camp.”
They pitched their emergency shelter,
a small tent, and Vanessa rested in it in
her sleeping bag while Andy went to the
hut, about 1.5hours away, to collect some
water and make an unsuccessful call
attempt from his satellite phone.
He then left a note at the hut detailing their
situation before returning to Vanessa at
about 9pm. The pair, both in their early
60s, made the decision to activate the
beacon shortly before 7am on Thursday as
Vanessa knew her situation wasn’t critical
and was able to manage her pain levels
with medication overnight.
“Because we were under the canopy, we
were thinking the signal might not get out.
It was the first time we had used one.”
Just over an hour later they heard the
hum of the helicopter overhead, and Andy
waved his orange jacket in a small gap
amongst the tree canopy for the rescue
team to spot them. The couple were
winched up separately and taken to the
Te Anau Medical Centre by ambulance
waiting for them.
Andy says the decades of outdoor
experience gave him and Vanessa comfort
in the situation. “But without a PLB I would
have felt more nervous as it’s very remote.
. . it’s one of DOC’s hardest tracks.”
The couple had decided to take a small
tent as emergency shelter, especially after
reading an alert on the DOC website that
mentioned the quick rise of the rivers along
the track raising the possibility of having
to set up camp to wait for the river level to
drop, he says.
“I think there’s always the trade off with
the weight that you carry. For an eight
or more-day tramp, the pack was bloody
heavy, maybe about 20kg. We probably
had bought more food than we needed but
if for some reason the PLB didn’t work, we
would have been grateful for that,” Andy
says.
The couple were very thankful for the
efficient, life-saving effort by the Southern
Lakes Helicopter crew.
42//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#231