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30/10/2021 Mt Aicken
A 37 year old female day tramper was reported overdue on Mt Aicken at approx. 1930hrs on Saturday 30th October. The woman was day tramping with a friend, but they separated near treeline; the friend returning to the vehicle.
Poor weather evolved during the night. A search involving LandSAR members, Police, Police search dogs, ACR team, and a helicopter commenced at approx. 0730hrs on the 31st. The womans body was discovered early in the afternoon, under cliffs, in the area of Graham Stream (Mt O'Malley) and recovered by helicopter at about 1330hrs.

Further information pending.

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23/10/2021 Mt Rolleston
At approx. 2100hrs on Saturday 23rd October, Police 111 received a call stating that 2 climbers were stuck near the summit (2275m) of Mt Rolleston after losing light, and one of the climbers was reported as exhausted. The climbers had ascended the central direct route on the Otira Face (they apparently also veered off route at some stage). The party had good cellphone reception. They set off their PLB shortly after the initial contact with the informant. The weather was deteriorating rapidy, and of note the risk of wet snow avalanches had increased considerably during the day.
The Greymouth Rescue Helicopter was dispatched after midnight; they located the climbers, but because of summit wind turbulence and narrow icy terrain were unable to recover them. The two climbers hunkered down for the night is a depression they dug with their ice-tools.

The Greymouth Rescue Helicopter, 3 ACR team members from Christchurch, and 2 Police officers arrived in Arthur's Pass at 0600hrs on Sunday 24th. Again weather thwarted all attempts to get to the climbers, but eventually at about 1030hrs 2 ACR team were lowered by winch onto the ice-fall area of the Crow Glacier. From here they made their way up to the neve, then climbed onto the SW ridge of Mt Rolleston, encountering the climbers basically on the summit. The climbers were cold and hungry, but otherwise OK. The group descended to the Crow neve, then made their way to the crest of the Crow ice-fall for extraction. The two climbers were taken off first, but the weather deteriorated again and the two ACR team could not be recovered until about 1800hrs.

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01/07/2021 Arthur's Pass NP (?)
A 63 year old male collapsed. A PLB was activated in Arthur's Pass National Park at 1215hrs. Location of rescue currently unknown. RCC wellington dispatched the Christchurch Rescue Helicopter to investigate and recover.

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12/06/2021 Deception Valley
A PLB was activated about 1900hrs on Saturday 12th June in the upper Deception Valley. This PLB was associated with a West Coast helicopter company. RCC dispatched the West Coast Rescue Helicopter to investigate, but they were unable to access the Deception Valley due to fog.
The following morning multiple helicopters & 3 ground search teams were positioned to commence a search for a downed Jet Ranger helicopter and pilot. The missing helicopter was eventually found by a helicopter pilot passing through the Deception Valley on a flight not associated with the actual search. The helicopter was intact but was forced to land the previous day when it encountered zero visibility conditions. The pilot was uninjured but was extracted by the Christchurch Rescue Helicopter. The helicopter was eventually recovered from the Deception 2 days later.

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08/04/2021 Mingha Valley
At 1402hrs RCCNZ receive a PLB activation located approx 1.2km south of the Minhga Biv. RCC dispatched the Rescue Helocopter (from ChCh?). On locating the PLB and it was established that a mother and daughter (19yo) had been tramping the Deception/Minhga route and had become separated (the mother activated the PLB). RCC request Police to put LandSAR on standby should they not be able to find the daughter. The daughter however is located a short time later by the helicopter. The daughter had taken a wrong turn on the Mingha route, however was able to re-orientate herself, but had missed meeting her mother.

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01/04/2021 Hallelujah Flat, Andrews Stream
At 0735hrs Police are notified (via Phone) of a female (same school group as previous incident) with an injured ankle, and is unable to walk out. Incident is passed to Ambulance. The Christchurch Rescue Helicopter is dispatched to uplift the patient. The patient is taken to Arthur's Pass.

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31/03/2021 Poulter Hut
DOC staff working in the Poulter Valley are made aware of a male school teacher at the Poulter Hut; he has an injured ankle and is unable to walk out. The alarm is initially raised with Police SAR at 0800hrs, however whilst passing to Ambulance, RCCNZ receive a PLB activation / Inreach message for the same incident and take control of the incident. The Greymouth Rescue Helicopter is tasked with uplifting the patient.

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25/03/2021 Goat Pass / Mingha River
At 0857hrs Police are contacted by the owner of a local backpackers stating that a 63yr old female tramper has failed to return from a day trip over Goat Pass from the Morrison Footbridge (Deception River) to Greyney's Shelter (Mingha River). The previous day, the informant had waited for her at Greyney's; when she failed to show the informant walked up the Mingha Valley route expecting she was just delayed and would meet her and walk out. The informant ended up spending the night walking the route to the Mingha Biv. She had signed the hut book there but he did not locate her. Further inquiries by Police SAR managed to identify her partner, who had been receiving messages via a Spot PLB Beacon and was able to confirm that she was fine and now walking out. After becoming disorientated near the Mingha Biv and with daylight failing she had decided to return to Goat Pass Hut for the night before continuing out the following day. The informant picked up the missing woman at Greyneys.

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20/03/2021 Rolleston River Valley
A 53 year old female was reported missing from the Christchurch area in January 2021; she had however not been heard of since 19th November 2020 when her Twitter account indicated she was "heading to the mountains". A public appeal for sightings turned up an entry in the Carrington hut book that she intended to tramp to Waimakariri Falls hut, Waimak Col, and the Rolleston River. An entry found in the Waimakariri Falls hut book on 3rd March, dated 21st November 2020, indicated her plan to carry on to either the Rolleston River or Hunts Creek; she indicated she had arrived there in a storm.
West Coast Police SAR carried out a preliminary helicopter search on Monday 8th March of the Rolleston River and Hunts Creek area finding nothing. A subsequent USAR Drone search recorded areas of interest in the rugged terrain.

On Saturday 20th March there was a combined search by Police, Police dogs, CanyonSAR teams, Helicopter, and Alpine Cliff Rescue. This search discovered the badly decomposed remains of a person in the Rolleston River area. DNA testing will likely confirm it is the missing tramper.