Mountain radio service saves searches

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33857, 31 May 1975, Page 12

Mountain radio service saves searches

(Bn

KEN COATES)

Thousands of dollars for expensive search and rescue operations in the mountains and bush of the South Island are being saved through the efforts of a voluntary organisation—the Canterburv Mountain Radio Service.

During the last year, a total of 3293 people in 380 tramping and mountaineering parties hired the service’s light, compact, portable radio sets. These provide an instant link with weather reports, medical and, if needed, other advice and rescue services. A striking example of what results if trampers do not take radios was the search and rescue operation mounted for the two 14-year-old Christchurch boys overdue on a trip from the Lewis Pass to Otira last week-end. “If they had taken a radio they could have called up for advice on where to go, and no search would have been necessary,” said the chairman of the radio service committee (Mr Paul White, of Christchurch). In the Harpers Pass area five parties turned back because they recieved Meteorological Office forecasts of bad weather, he said. Base stations “Perhaps the two boys would have come out of the area instead of pressing forward. Even if they had continued, and had carried a radio we would have known they were on the other side of the Otira River and could have arranged with the Arthur’s Pass National Park Board for a safe river crossing.” Helicopter - supported search and rescue operations are expensive, as Mr White pointed out. “There were at least 40 people involved last week-end.” he said.

The service has 30 radio sets which weigh only 4|lb. All were fully booked for the first week of the recent school holidays. Ten were hired to parties in the Arthur’s Pass area; eight parties had them in the Lewis Pass and another 12 in regions down to the Haast Pass. “Because of the bad weather there were cancellations in the second week and a number of parties came out of the mountains," Mr White said. The compact radios are operated" in the same way as radio telephones and they can transmit or receive from the most inaccessible of areas, including a deep gully. Broken ankle There are base stations in Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill, and the voluntary members of the organisation maintain a continuous listening watch during daylight hours — mainly at their places of work. The service is run by a combined committee of members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club and the New Zealand Alpine Club. Hiring a set costs $3 for a week-end, $4 for a threeday period and $6 for a period longer than six days and up to a week. “Tramping and mountaineering parties find the radios useful for obtaining up-to-date weather reports, notifying changes of plans, arranging transport when they are due out, and seeking drops of food by helicopter — a request made

frequently by parties on the West Coast,” said Mr White. One example of the part that the radios can play was shown in the swift help brought to a tramper in the Ohau area .who broke an ankle during the Christmas holidays. “Members of the party he was in said he could not go on, so a helicopter lift-out was arranged to Haast. The man was quickly in Greymouth Hospital,” said Mr White. “A shooter in the Wilberforce River area scratched an eye and reported by radio that he was unable to see. The rivftrs were up. “Arrangements were made for a farmer in the area to fly to a strip and collect the man, who was then flown direct to Christchurch.” The big advantage in these cases was that there had been no need to alert Search and Rescue because the precise location of the injured men was known. Another example of the effectiveness of the radio service was in the, Arthur’s Pass area at Easter. Twelve radios were with parties. The park board rangers were able to give advice when the weather turned bad. The Mountain Radio Service faces a problem in the future. Within the next 10 years it will be required to replace its existing radios with sets of another type, called single side-band radios. The trouble is that at present new sets of this type weigh 81b — approximately the weight of two tents. What is needed is a portable, light-weight set, similar to the existing radios.