I was on a mountain adventure by myself tackling a pretty challenging summit Mount Owen, Nelson. When I got to the hut, I left everything behind apart from my safety gear (including my personal locator beacon), water, and a light jacket. I went to do the last four hour push at about 3pm.

I nailed the steep climb up to the summit by 5pm. Excited, though a bit tired after 10 hours, started walking down what I thought was the right track. It was marked by rock towers..

I should have been using a map as well.. but hindsight comes to us all.

The clouds came down and visibility became a little tough.. I realized I wasn’t where I was meant to be about 15 minutes in and tried to back track but couldn’t see any way back that I recognized.

Deciding to try to get a better look so I hit ridge after ridge until 3 hours had past of me trying when I realized I was lost and not in a safe situation..

Feeling really stupid.. I knew I could keep trying but I was exhausted and starting to panic..

It was about 8pm at this stage. I decided I needed press the button on my personal locator beacon and within an hour a helicopter picked me up. They were amazing and assured me I had done the right thing and at the right time. I was so thankful I had the PLB with me… It would have been very different without it!