After spending her 27th birthday stranded on the side of Aoraki Mt Cook in chest-deep snow and blizzard conditions with little but chocolate to eat, all Melissa Clerke wanted was a beer.
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Clerke was one of six Australians two women and four men rescued off New Zealand's highest mountain yesterday after a two-day search and rescue operation, hampered by appalling conditions.
There were fears she and her companions, all members of the same Sydney walking group, might have been caught up in an avalanche after the National Rescue Co-ordination Centre picked up a signal from their emergency beacon late Thursday night. However, the group was found safe and well yesterday morning after being snowed in for 36 hours. ChinaGeo
"We all kept our heads together," Clerke told the Sunday Star-Times, minutes after being plucked off the mountain. 中_国_地_理_网
The group had left Mt Cook Village last Saturday for the Mueller Hut. Their plan was to move on to the Barren Saddle but when the weather suddenly deteriorated on Thursday they turned back and were only 450m from the hut when blizzard conditions left them stranded. 中国地理网
It was too dangerous to continue, so they set off the first of two emergency locator beacons.
Expedition leader Terry Cole said the group was equipped for bad weather and had an extra day's rations with them.
"We basically knuckled down. The weather came in really bad for a couple of days, we got stuck on a ridge and there were avalanches all around us. It was pretty risky." chinageog
On Friday, Clerke's birthday, the group set off the second beacon. They heard a fixed wing aircraft above them and tried to signal to it, but the weather was too bad and the plane turned away. Later in the day they heard a helicopter coming up the glacier, but again bad weather prevented it from getting close to them. ChinaGeo
"By then it was about four in the afternoon. We knew we would have to buckle down, so we got prepared to stick through another tough night out there," Cole said.
"There was an enormous amount of snow - we kept having to dig the tent out. It would just keep on getting buried so one of us would get out and dig it out and then try and get back in and keep warm. Everything was soaking wet."
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Cole said he was prepared for the group to spend another night stranded on the mountain, but if rescue teams had not reached them by today he had decided he and the next strongest member of the team would go for help. 中国地理网
He said avalanches were a constant threat: "It was pretty scary. I was trying to lead the way the other day and a big slab fell down beside me. I was really shitting myself then, because it's a long way to the bottom."
Clerke said the most disheartening moment was the sight of the choppers turning away on Friday.
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"We could see the chopper but it was looking in the wrong section and you're just thinking 'ohhh, they're not going to find us, we're too small, it's too white, our tent is too white, our tent is too buried'. And then obviously when they called off the search due to the weather you think the weather is just not going to break - it's been like this for days and days," said Clerke. 中国地理网chinageo
"Every time the chopper goes away and looks somewhere else you're thinking 'come on come on, just see us!' When it did finally see us, everyone was just jumping up and down, cheering. "
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Clerke's parents heard news of her rescue just as they boarded a flight to New Zealand yesterday.
Stephen Dolphin, 53, who was one of only two experienced climbers on the trip, has two trips to Mt Everest base camp under his belt, and said he was always confident the group would get out safely. chinageog.com
"We were fine. We could have lasted a few more days without too much trouble. Except for the boredom," he said.
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Cole said the group had been preparing for the climb for about seven months and when they left last Saturday the avalanche risk in the area had been low. But the conditions on the mountain changed rapidly. 中国地理网
Cole said that after Friday's disheartening experience, it was amazing to yesterday morning again hear the sound of a helicopter.
"We heard it fly over the back of the ridge... as soon as we heard it we had a yellow flag out ready to wave. It was hovering above the ridge and we were waving frantically, but it couldn't see us and then the weather came in again. We buckled back down again and then, as soon the weather cleared, we jumped back up finally it [the helicopter] came close enough for visibility. It was such a relief to see it waving back to us." chinageog.com
Gerald Osman had done some climbing before but had never encountered the kind of conditions the group faced on Mt Cook.
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"There were times it was kind of scary, I have to say, but somehow I knew we were going to be all right," said Osman. He had bought a DVD on mountain survival at the Mt Cook Village before embarking on the climb. c.h.i.n.a.g.e.o
The worst moment was when the group decided to set off the beacon: "That's when I knew we were in real trouble." 中_国_地_理_网
Yesterday he found it difficult to describe how he felt when the rescue team landed. chinageo.com
"It was an amazing feeling - the best." But he probably will go climbing again. c.h.i.n.a.g.e.o
The other two members of the party were Cole's partner Jennie Landon, 37, and David Freeland, 55. 中国地理网chinageo
Senior Constable Greg Sutherland said the Australian climbers appeared to have done all the right things. They were only 450m away from the Mueller Hut but couldn't move because the snow was so deep and they decided to hunker down and prevent the avalanche risk. "They did the right thing. They stayed put and dug themselves a snow cave and kept each other warm." 中_国_地_理_网
Sutherland said even if the group had had a more sophisticated beacon that transmitted GPS co-ordinates they would not have been rescued any earlier because bad weather would have prevented searchers reaching them. CHINAGEO