By Matteo Scoz, LandSAR Volunteer, Dunedin
Setting the Scene
In winter 2018, an experienced solo climber on an attempt to climb Mt Aspiring became disoriented in bad weather crossing the Bonar Glacier and dug himself a snow cave to hunker down. He was not carrying a modern personal locator beacon (PLB), but had borrowed an older private tracking device from a friend. After three days in the cave, on the same day that a friend reported him overdue, the device sent a signal to a private supplier in the USA which alerted the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ). A search and rescue operation was mounted.
Bad weather and avalanche risk hampered the mission. After multiple attempts by a helicopter a team reached the man, but it was another day until he was safely extracted and returned to Wanaka in remarkably good condition. It was estimated the rescue had cost over $150,000 plus 500 volunteer hours. In 2011 the same man had been rescued after a three-day ordeal on Mt Tasman.
Who Undertakes Search and Rescue Operations?
New Zealand has two coordination authorities for search and rescue. The New Zealand Police coordinate Category One searches, which are usually initiated by a 111 call, by someone presenting at a police station, or by a DOC visitor centre with information about a person missing, overdue or needing help. Category One searches usually involve local resources and people familiar with the area. They include searches on land, underground (for cavers) and on rivers, lakes and coasts.
Officers in each police district are trained as search and rescue (SAR) coordinators. They work with volunteer groups such as New Zealand Land Search and Rescue (LandSAR), often with the support of rescue helicopters. Each year the New Zealand Police manage nearly 2,000 land and marine search and rescue incidents ranging from a few hours to weeks in length.
The RCCNZ coordinates Category Two searches, which are managed at a national level and typically are initiated by activation of a PLB. Category Two searches usually involve little search, as the PLB provides the exact location to which a rescue helicopter (with medical and other specialist personnel if needed) is sent if conditions allow. Each year RCCNZ responds to about 800 incidents, which are usually resolved in a few hours.
Who Pays?
RCCNZ and Police have their own budgets for SAR, funded by taxpayers. Rescuing people who have made poor choices can be frustrating, and charging for SAR might seem appropriate in certain situations. However, only a small fraction of the 2,000 or more SAR operations each year is in this category. Most SAR time is spent searching for despondent and dementia patients. In these situations, it is not possible to invoice someone who has not asked for help and may not want to be found.
A recreationist who fears being forced to pay for help may delay triggering the PLB, turning a simple helicopter pick-up into a multi-day operation. Also, when the person has died or is never found, who could be invoiced? All the staff of the leading agencies involved in SAR (Police and RCCNZ) are paid. However, the organisation most likely to come to your rescue in the backcountry, New Zealand LandSAR, depends on over 3,500 volunteers and has only a handful of paid staff.
LandSAR faces the challenge that its volunteers also have families and employment, which reduces their flexibility to respond. The volunteers are passionate, altruistic people and usually members of the New Zealand outdoor community themselves. One of their core values is to ‘provide free professional search and rescue to New Zealand’. Let’s keep it like that.
This article was re-published from the March 2023 issue of FMC’s Backcountry magazine. To subscribe to the print version, please visit www.fmc.org.nz/
The Backcountry Accidents Column, in one form or another, has been a feature of FMC publications since 1938. Read Shaun Barnett’s article on the history of the column to understand the thinking behind this highly regarded series of articles.
