Overlandman wrote:A woman was rescued from the Eldon Range yesterday, after injuring an ankle, she was flown to Derwent Bridge in a stable condition.
Regards Overlandman
Gee, they skimped the detail on this one, didn't they? It's usually along the lines of '57 year old Tasmanian woman. blah blah blah'. Although there is one incorrect detail in there . . .
Anyone privy to my plans for this period will have guessed I'm the guilty party. After an easy lakeside walk (we couldn't scare up a boat), an exhausting climb over Eldon Peak, a day spent sheltering in our (not entirely stormproof) tents just below the summit, a late departure and even later arrival at a rough campsite along the ridge with at least one of the three suffering from hypothermia, a glorious sunny day to finish the ridge traverse and reach the Crag base camp and a successful climb of said Crag, one of the party was careless enough to fall and land on a dodgy knee during the descent to the ridge leading to Eldon Bluff. No biggy, but further along this same gormless git got the same foot caught in amongst a tangle of scrub and came down with the knee bent badly under her (and under the full load of the pack). Two minutes later, she finally got the leg straightened out. With a great deal of swearing.
By the time we reached the pack drop point for Eldon Bluff, I knew I was in serious trouble. By the time we reached the summit, I'd decided to call the chopper once we were back at our gear. I was persuaded (and babied along) down to the Dome Hill basecamp, which took twice as long as it should have. It then took three hours for SAR to get there, probably through being unable to contact anyone to confirm our intentions or the severity of the problem. So my free ride was in the dark.
Now, this wasn't a major injury. It certainly wasn't, in itself, life-threatening. There was just the minor issue of that knee not being up to carrying a pack for at least two weeks and probably more. The only alternative to the chopper was all three of us dumping every non-essential item we had, with Martin and Joe carrying all the gear and me hobbling along as best I could - which was hardly fair on them and even then there were no guarantees we'd make it out by our due date, especially given the weather forecasts. So the chopper it was.
No serious walker wants to trigger their beacon, but it was the only practical solution.
All around, one simple fall created a fair bit of nuisance for too many people. The four-
manperson chopper crew (the paramedic was female. and I reckon most blokes wouldn't mind getting hurt to have her taking care of them
) who got me out and into Derwent Bridge, the LSC Ranger who ferried me to King William Saddle, and the Queenstown copper who drove me the rest of the way to my car.
To Tassie's SAR crew: Thank you, so very much. It's a wonderful service you provide and you're all great people. Special thanks to the bloke in charge of the crew who not only organised accommodation for me in Queenstown as an alternative to sleeping in the car, but let me play with his night-vision goggles. I
soooo want a pair of these for night walking . . .