Lone trampers warned of risk they run

Press, 13 August 1980, Page 2

Lone trampers warned of risk they run

Nature could be a merciless killer of lone trampers who fell sick or injured, said the Christchurch police search controller, Sergeant R. G. Gargett, yesterday. He was praising the work of the Methven Search and Rescue Group, under Mr Alan Hepburn, during the search for a young tramper on Mount Somers. The youth, John Rawstorn, aged 16, is now in a satisfactory condition in Ashburton Hospital with injuries suffered in a fall near the summit of the mountain on Sunday. He was found wandering in a dazed state on Monday afternoon. Sergeant Gargett said that although Mr Rawstorn had gone tramping alone, he had

• “displayed some initiative” ; in telling someone his route 1 and taking a sleeping bag on what was to have been a . day trip. “A lone tramper in that : sort of rugged mountain terl rain Is extremely vulnerable • to many unforeseen hazards i and the odds of survival are ■ stacked against him from the start,” said Sergeant , Gargett. “Mother Nature shows no mercy whatsoever to those who become injured or sick ■in a hostile environment, and the victim can easily die ■if not rescued in a short i time,” he said. The chances of survival : were immeasurably greater I in parties of four or five, I said Sergeant Gargett.