{"id":166291,"date":"2026-03-16T14:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T19:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/?post_type=survivor-stories&p=166291"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:21:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:21:38","slug":"arthurs-pass-climber-survives-fall-after-activating-beacon","status":"publish","type":"survivor-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/survivor-stories\/arthurs-pass-climber-survives-fall-after-activating-beacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur\u2019s Pass Climber Survives Fall After Activating Beacon"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was climbing in Arthur\u2019s Pass National Park on the third pitch of a five pitch route. After traversing some easier terrain, I started climbing again and was looking for a place to put in some gear. I placed a cam that I knew wasn\u2019t great, but it was something while I figured out my next move.<\/p>\n

As I shifted my weight to the left looking for a better placement, the rock I was holding suddenly pulled out. It all happened fast, but I remember the rock breaking free, glancing at the cam as it took weight and then popped, and then bouncing off the wall before rolling backward. I slammed onto a ledge with all the air forced out of me and then tumbled backward over another ledge.<\/p>\n

When the rope caught, I was hanging upside down about two meters below the belay. I could hear myself gasping and groaning while trying to breathe. I managed to get upright and looked up at my partner on belay. His eyes were huge and my helmet was shattered and hanging around my neck.<\/p>\n

I climbed back up to the anchor so we could secure ourselves before doing a better injury check. I suspected broken ribs and knew I had hurt my back. With weather expected to move in later that afternoon, we decided to activate the ACR beacon<\/a> and call for help.<\/p>\n

The Alpine Cliff Rescue team flew in from Christchurch and positioned me for a winch extraction. Scans later showed a compression fracture in one of my vertebrae and a suspected concussion based on the damage to my helmet.<\/p>\n

All things considered, I was incredibly lucky and grateful to still be walking. Huge thanks to the rescue helicopter crew and the rock rescue team for getting me out safely.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was climbing in Arthur\u2019s Pass National Park on the third pitch of a five pitch route. After traversing some easier terrain, I started climbing again and was looking for a place to put in some gear. I placed a cam that I knew wasn\u2019t great, but it was something while I figured out my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":609273,"featured_media":166279,"template":"","survivor-category":[12],"terrain":[21],"survivor-event":[],"survivor-cause":[],"survivor-rescue":[2832],"class_list":["post-166291","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","survivor-category-climbing","terrain-mountain","survivor-rescue-helicopter-rescue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/166291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/609273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=166291"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=166291"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=166291"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=166291"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=166291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}