Thank you for the overwhelming response to volunteer to help with the Christchurch earthquake response.  The primary respondents in this situation are Urban Search and Rescue (USAR).  USAR teams have a different skill-set to LandSAR teams. For more details see http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/emergencymgmt/urban/urban.html.

LandSAR is primarily involved with searching for missing people in a wilderness environment, although we do also operate in suburban/uban environments.  It is possible we’ll be involved in Christchurch in a support capacity.  If you are interested in joining LandSAR then see if you meet the criteria.

One of the best ways you can help right now is to donate to the rescue efforts.

As for me, I’ve been working away quietly in the background with the Charities Commission to find a strategic partner we can work with that will help with our funding, we have a business potentially interested but we’ll need to do a fair bit of work to bring it to fruition.

Ka kite,
Paul

Those available who either turned up or were enroute were: John Yaldwyn, Brendon Bayliss, Joanne Maddren, Marie Henderson, Simon McAuliffe, Paul Andrews, Noel Sulzberger, Meg Shaw, Sue Cuthbertson, Charles Blanch, Rowena Johnstone, Stuart Meiklejohn, Meg Shaw, Wayne Stevens.

Anyway about half an hour after calling up LandSAR Wellington teams the missing party had been found. He walked out to a road end on the other side of the hill somewhere. Thanks all those who responded – was a good response considering it was in the summer hols period – we would have supplied 2-3 teams.

Those who responded to this were: Buncks, Wayne, John Y, Rowena, Joanne Maddren, Brendon Bayliss, Rochelle Andrews, Peter King, Meg Shaw, Simon McAuliffe, Nathaniel Ormsley, Paul Andrews

The two others from the boat were located in the water around 1000 on 31st about 3kms offshore. The first guy was spotted by a Helipro chopper and the second by Lady Liz IV (they were apart). One of the guys who was in water till 1000 was status 1 (serious medical condition) and taken to hospital by Westpac. The second guy who was located on 31st was in very good condition.

These guys were quite lucky – a couple were wearing full wetsuits. One had only a wetsuit top on apparently (think this was the status 1 guy). The two guys who spent all night out had life jackets with them. The guy who swam ashore had only a wetsuit. They were very lucky (assuming the status 1 guy makes it…) as the weather conditions today were ideal. Understand that RCC had bought in 3 helicopters and there were around 6 boats, plus the Cook Strait Ferries were also looking during their normal crossings.

The boat they used was bought off Trade Me a couple of weeks ago…

It got quite windy in the afternoon – the forecast was for 30 knots from the North for the afternoon… (I was kayaking in the harbour in the morning and the wind was enough to bring me ashore around midday as it was getting stronger).

LandSAR Wellington involvement was to do a shore search – we assembled around 0930 but were stood down just about the time we were sending teams out. For a bit more on what happened see the following www.stuff.co.nz/national/4504459/Missing-boaties-found-alive-in-Cook-Strait.

Those who responded to this were: Peter Smith, Wayne Stevens, Rowena Johnstone, Paul Andrews, Peter Tunnicliff, Nicole Ranger, Meg Shaw, Pete King, Sue Cuthbertson, Paul Bird, Rochelle Andrews.

From the police: Jo Holden, Mike Wright, Lisa Toseland, Dave Ross, and a number of general duties guys… Miriam Reddington, Arnold Pohtini, Nathalie Jones, Jon Rosene, Chris Henry, Richard Matthews, Rachael Dundon, Glenn Connell, Kathryn Groube, Gareth Barnes.

The following people were on standby at home: Noel Sulzberger, Andrew Chisholm .

A feature I remember on this one was the Reflex Tasking – and I will emphasise this here.

Saturday October 4 1980 was cold for the time of year, with a southerly storm through the Wellington region. Nevertheless the Wellington Baptist Harrier Club had set out on a Saturday afternoon club run, with about 18 of them heading into the Rimutaka Forest at the Catchpool carpark and setting off over the Orongorongo track. When they reached the Orongorongo River most decided to turn back, and just the three fittest and fastest in the group opted to continue to complete the old Trampers’ Marathon circuit which would usually have taken 60 to 90 minutes from there. This run was well known to these runners, and well known to most trampers and SAR people through that era, as there was a race over the course as a feature event in the combined tramping clubs sports weekend held in February each year. One Daniel O’Connell was held in awe through those years as being the course record holder and unbeatable down hill.

The three runners did not return to the carpark as expected and Police were called about 6pm.

From the end of the Orongorongo track, the route would have taken the harriers down the bed of the Orongorongo River for about 5km, with several crossings of the river – knee deep plus on that day, then steeply up a scrubby spur about 300m vertical to reach Cattle Ridge. Then north along the ridge with a final climb up to Mt Baker, 465m, and a long descent back to the Catchpool down the Butcher track, which in 1980 was down a prominent spur with gorse scrub. That climb up the Baker track from the valley is up a spur very exposed to the south, and although the ridge north from there had patches of forest, the whole route is nevertheless quite exposed.

A search HQ was set up at the Park office in the Catchpool Valley (field search controller TSC) and teams were sent in through the night to cover the running circuit. The weather was wet and cold, with frequent showers of freezing rain and sleet. About 40 new searchers and Police were on-site early on Sunday to scale up the operation and Peter Button was there with his helicopter. Still no clues through the morning although we did ascertain a new LKP for the runners – part way down the valley section, where they had been seen running strongly and having no problems crossing the river.

Around 1pm the bodies of two of the runners were sighted from the helicopter, on the ridge heading southwest from Baker, on the other side of the Matai valley from their ascent route, not far from the track. They had apparently taken a wrong turning near the top of Baker. This is where the Reflex Tasking came in, although I don’t think we called it that then.

Two dead apparently of hypothermia, and one to find. He could have survived and would almost certainly be in poor condition. Plenty of searchers already there in the field, or at HQ, and a helo available to get them up to the high ridges. An instant plan was devised and teams briefed at HQ, or briefed by radio, and ferried up to the ridge. We had to cover the high parts of the track where the first two had taken the wrong ridge, and also more of Cattle Ridge and down the Butcher spur, especially looking for any signs that someone may have deviated from the track. Everyone appreciated the urgency, and as the one leading the planning and tasking I felt under immense pressure. I remember the impressive and efficient assistance from Ivan Morrison, the local NZFS manager, in maintaining the detailed record of tasks, and adapting to the dynamic nature of the new plan. How quickly can tasks be prepared and disseminated to about a dozen teams and converted into action? Once the teams were all back on the re-arranged search, I personally felt a huge sense of relief and was suddenly rather tired.

The third runner was also found dead, spotted from the helicopter at dusk on Sunday, several hundred metres further down the wrong route than the others, and further from the track on that ridge.

Most of the lessons we can learn from this tragedy relate to how vulnerable we all are to hypothermia. These guys were all exceptionally physically fit, aged 18 to 21, but wore only ordinary running gear, and were counting on that fitness and youth to carry them through. Wet, wind and cold – take any two. They had all three and were prime exposure candidates.

My focus is to have the team gear deployabled as quickly and easily as possible and to have the gear fully available, as much as possible. Beyond this I’m still finding out how I can do this best, feedback always welcome.

With the last operation I was returning from the SAR conference. It was a pleasure to find field teams had checked items back into the teams kits carefully. Thanks for recording the team leaders details on the top of the kit checklist, and the only gear issue (a missing clip of the radio harness) was recorded on the kit checklist too. It made it so easy to follow-up and the fault was quickly resolved. The time before was almost as good with the only item missing being a team leader vest.

Great to see field teams remembering to take both SAR GPS and also supplementing the SAR GPS’s with their own GPS’s to provide complete coverage of where their team has been. I also hear that teams checked if the HF radio was needed on the urban search.

I’ve been impressed throughout the year by the high standard of the Wellington LandSAR volunteers I’ve had the pleasure to work with. I suggest you do something special for yourselves and the family and friends who allow you to contribute your time to LandSAR over this holiday period.

On the comms side I’m pleased to write the new radios should be available in the team kits shortly and this will allow retirement of our older F10s. Most of the SAR jackets are now with team members, some sizes are still available. If you would like a jacket let me know please.

On a slightly SAR related note I recently saw the New Zealand film “After the Waterfall”. The story is a fictional drama about the effects on a family and the community from the disappearance of a 4 year old.

Have a great Christmas, Paul

SAT 5 FEB 2011 8/8:30 – 3/4PM

TE HORO VOLUNTEER RURAL FIRE STATION & OTAKI FORKS

As LandSAR we operate in all weathers, can be in rivers we are not familiar with, and need to make judgements under pressure.

The training is open to LandSAR members and Police SAR. It is being organised and run by Noel Bigwood, Rowena Johnstone and Mountain Safety Horowhenua Bushcraft Instructors (most of whom are also with SAR). Could other people experienced in river safety who wish to assist with the day please contact Noel or Rowena
asap. LandSAR Horowhenua, LandSAR Manawatu, LandSAR Tararua, LandSAR Wairarapa and other LandSAR members are all invited to participate.

The content will include deciding to cross, crossing points, river entry and exit, judging water speed, recovery and floating, river dynamics, hazards, and crossing techniques including mutual support, solo and crossing with children. The pro’s and con’s of methods will be discussed, and the latest techniques highlighted.
If the weather or river flows are not suitable in the Otaki River, then the Ohau River or Waikanae River will be used and training content altered to suit weather conditions.

For any queries, please contact either Rowena Johnstone <RowenasLetterbox@yahoo.co.uk>, 04 973 2400 or 027 236 5451(after hours), or Noel Bigwood <Noel.bigwood@police.govt.nz>, 027 645 3474.

Another topic that polarised opinion at the Forum was the health of SARINZ. Apparently they have been in significant financial difficulty and forum participants were keen to explore how LandSAR could help. As far as I know nothing has been resolved as yet, hopefully the situation can be sorted and SARINZ can continue to deliver it’s excellent training.

Closer to home the committee has also spent some time thinking about LandSAR Wellington’s medium to long-term strategy; we will soon be sharing our thoughts with members and asking for comment in the new year.

Lastly, I’ve seen an early version of our new website and it’s looking great (thanks to Simon and Andrew). It should be up and running early in the new year and will be a really useful resource for members, potential members and a calling card we can use with potential funders.

Have a great Christmas break, stay healthy, keep safe and see you in 2011.

Paul (021 588 757)

Run by John Yaldwyn, this was an opportunity for members to get hands-on with our new Tait hand held VHF radios, as well as some of the older equipment. Being comfortable handling the new radios is very important for all field team members. Good to learn a bit of history about LandSAR communications, and to update our skills and knowledge. Thanks John!

Attendees: Andrew Fyfe, Dave Heatley, Sue Rundle, Paul Bird, David Layburn, Andrew Chisholm, Marie Henderson, Meg Shaw, Simon McAuliffe, Sarah Holland, Jenny Beaumont, Paul Millin, Sue Cuthbertson, John Yaldwyn, Peter Smith, Rowena Johnstone, Tom Clarkson

The SAR BBQ broke with tradition and moved from it’s usual venue at Wellington Police Station to the Cadet Centre at Greta Point. Full use of the outside space was made with the presence of the Push Play trailer packed with toys and sports equipment. Meg had prepared a short, fun rogaine that people participated in with varying degrees of seriousness (some would say too seriously!) Nick and George Engleback took out first place, fully exploiting the under-13 advantage!

It was good to see a healthy turn out from our colleagues in the Police SAR squad; thanks Lisa, Martyn and Dan plus family, I know it’s sometimes hard to make these
events when you’re on shift. Thanks also to Hadyn, always good to have the big boss along!

Many, many thanks to Meg Embleton who did most of the organising and to Jo Holden for providing the food.

by Paul Andrews

As you may know Land SAR has been holding a national conference every two years since 2002.

It is an opportunity for groups to see what is best practice both nationally and internationally in Search and Rescue. It also covers common problems facing Search now and discussion on what we can do about them.

I was disappointed initially with the programme but once I arrived I was really pleased with how much I learnt from the conference. The conference is also a time to network and socialise with people from around the country and to re-establish old friendships. The mine disaster had just occurred on the Friday and it was certainly on our minds during the conference with some of the delegates being on standby if required. The mine tragedy also showed up with the first speaker talking about media and SAR responses during a Mount Cook rescue with some Japanese climbers in 2008 another topic on dealing with the media.

There were informative sessions on eye witness memory and how to get the most accurate information from your interviews. One point is to ask open questions that don’t lead them.

Other topics included comms, common issues in NZ, a case study from a Tasmanian SAR Conference dinner Conference dog handlers officer, hypothermia, trauma,
how to improving tracking effectiveness and a great combined dinner on Saturday night with can-can dancing.

I’ve made some notes and many of the conference presentations will have notes available from the SAR national web site soon. If you have any questions on the conference please ask.

The people who attended from Wellington were Ross Browne, Paul Millin, Sue Chesterfield, Ants Harmer,
Nick Engleback, Laurie Gallagher, Tom Clarkson, Rochelle Andrews, JY and myself.

This month we did however sit down with Peter Zimmer our LandSAR rep to work through an analysis and planning document called the “Analysis Tool For Groups” (ATFG); this exercise did actually help to highlight and clarify some of our issues, so it was well worth it, especially as we have strategic planning high on our agenda list. You can expect to see some documents on this topic for your comment and feedback shortly.

The LandSAR conference is now only a couple of weeks away – I’m hoping to learn a lot and get some new ideas which I can share with you in the next Chair’s Chat.

Ka Kite, Paul

by Tom Clarkson

I recently found some of my old notes which reminded me of the rigours of this search. Several unusual features on this one, including the fact one of the days was physically the hardest in my SAR career. Also navigation by dead reckoning, and improvised radio direction finding. I’m really just going to tell the story of a single day, with a little bit about the events leading to and following, to give the context.

Brian and Ann Dudley were an Auckland couple, well-known in alpine club circles. Brian had an established reputation as an igloo builder and for trying new ideas – like using newspaper as disposable floor insulation. For the weekend of 9 July they were out on some of the remoter high parts of Ruapehu, possibly the Wahianoa Glacier. The weather deteriorated, and when they had not shown up by Wednesday a search was started. Hut checks etc, and teams from Auckland and the Face Rescue Team from Wellington were briefed there late Thursday. I was a member of a team led by park ranger Bruce Jefferies attempting to get to the crater area from the Turoa side during Friday and Saturday. Both days we were progressing so poorly in strong winds, freezing conditions and near zero visibility that we were not able to persist. Nevertheless on Sunday morning the Dudleys were found in an igloo/cave by the first team to get into the crater, on the plateau between the high peak, Tahurangi and Pyramid but getting there and locating the missing party had been an ordeal, and the team had dug in with the Dudleys and requested assistance.

Monday is the day I’m really writing about. This was our fifth day on the search. My team was tasked as a fast team of specialists to get to the igloo site as quickly as possible – John Shorland, comms; Ken Rigby, police; Pat McNaught, doctor; and me who claimed navigational and local knowledge skills as team leader. We stayed Sunday night in the NZAC hut on the Whakapapa side and left at first light, somewhat later than three Auckland teams who were already sledging equipment up to the crater. Conditions were whiteout – no visibility, although you could see non-white things as much as 10 metres away. We followed the Knoll poma lift – and even that was difficult – then took a compass course 172∞ magnetic towards Glacier Shelter.

We overtook the Auckland groups near the Shelter and continued on the same bearing towards Paretetaitonga.

We roped up, four on the rope, because we were concerned that the wind, which kept knocking us over, could blow us away out of control, and also because in spite of the 12 foot bamboo probe I was running along the surface in front of us I was anxious that if our navigation was slightly out we might step over the cliff into the crater lake – visibility did not exist even from number three to number one on our rope. As it was we made the turn to due south about 20m too soon and realised we were on steep slopes down to the lake.

We sorted that out then John was using the TR3 aerial wrapped around his pack as a direction finder to locate signals from within the last 400m of the snowcave. By the time we arrived there we had been out for five hours in the most severe conditions any of us had experienced and had seen no recognisable navigational feature since Glacier Shelter (except the slope down to the lake). Dead reckoning had been hard work and slow but we had been able to navigate right around the crater. Local knowledge certainly helped.

The six in the cave were pleased to see us as we had brought spare clothing, food and fuel. We were certainly getting a bit cold by then, and aware of possible hypothermia. But we had to dig our own cave – the Dudley’s igloo which had been extended for the first rescue team was minimal for six already in it. At least we had a decent shovel and in three hours had a cave over two metres square and 600mm floor to ceiling. The relief to get out of the wind! We had some stew and brew but were reluctant to keep the primus burning because we were having difficulty maintaining an entrance or ventilation through the roof. Blowing snow blocked things very quickly.

Comfortable night? Hardly – but we could keep warm and mostly dry. Then after more than a week of storm, suddenly on Tuesday morning it was clear – an Iroquois helicopter showed up and the ten of us were down to Waiouru for breakfast.

That wasn’t the end of the operation though – the Auckland teams who had been following us across the crater on Monday had dug two caves on the slopes below Paretetaitonga. We had remarked when we awaiting the helo that we should have been able to see them less than 1km away across the lake – there was nothing but smooth white snow! . As we left we could see two or three people there and it was only after we were out that the alarm was raised for one of the teams that was buried and had not emerged. Only their approximate position was known. The weather closed in again. A large number of shovels were flown to somewhere near Glacier Shelter just as the mist and wind came through. More teams had already been on the way up so there were many diggers quickly on site. Shortly before midday the missing team was found, over six metres below the surface – this is what can happen with drifting snow in a wind change! Their attempts at digging themselves out had been unsuccessful, and by the time of rescue they were in poor condition. All required oxygen to revive before being sledged down the mountain. Expert assessments were that they would not have survived another hour.

For 25 years, 60s to 90s the Wellington Region had a dedicated Alpine Cliff (or Face) Rescue Team made up of volunteers with climbing and alpine skills and was equipped and trained accordingly within the land SAR system. It was one of seven around the country and the teams often trained together. They were rarely used for SAR operations and were disbanded after a review by Police National Headquarters in the early 1990s.

From time to time I think I’ve been fortunate to be a survivor – things I have done haven’t always been the most sensible – and I’ve got away with it. I attach a photo of what I was doing just six weeks before the Dudley search – spending two nights of Queens Birthday weekend on the summit of Tahurangi in a bush tent. It reminds me that the Ruapehu weather can be quite pleasant! Would we have handled a change to stormy conditions as well as Brian and Ann Dudley?

by Tara Donnelly

In the last week of October, a group of us headed across to Kaitoke for the SARINZ course on Clue Site Processing in Wilderness Environments, better known as TCA3. This course followed on from the techniques taught in TCA1 (Tracking and Clue Awareness) and developed further in TCA2 (Tracking: Sign Cutting and Ageing).

The main focus of this course was on processing clue rich wilderness environments, and key elements included the assessment of campsites, cooking areas, fires, and water collection and wash sites. We were taught to discriminate between different sleeping options (tent, bivvy bag, fly, etc.) and to determine numbers of people that had been present at a site and their body positions.

The course primarily involved outdoor exercises, with very little classroom-based lessons, and included an overnight camp. In the morning, we assessed another team’s campsite to try to ascertain where each person had slept, cooked, washed, etc.

The course was a useful addition to the TCA series of training and provided a good opportunity to spend time and work in teams with SAR members from other regions.