{"id":84365,"date":"2024-02-22T09:37:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T14:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/?post_type=survivor-stories&p=84365"},"modified":"2025-03-03T11:14:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T16:14:53","slug":"trapped-in-natures-maze-the-unexpected-rescue-of-a-hiker","status":"publish","type":"survivor-stories","link":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/survivor-stories\/trapped-in-natures-maze-the-unexpected-rescue-of-a-hiker\/","title":{"rendered":"Trapped in Nature’s Maze: The Unexpected Rescue of a Hiker"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was a few weeks into a loop hike of the Kahurangi National Park<\/a>. The route was of my own design, connecting formed trails with off-trail travel to create a loop circumnavigation of the entire national park. But little did I know that this trail would lead me to become a rescued hiker.<\/p>\n

I started my day expecting a fairly straightforward journey across the 1000-acre plateau and then through some bush to reach Old Ghost Road. The weather was cold with on-and-off light rain, and they had told me it would worsen tonight, though still safe enough to travel.<\/p>\n

The plateau was easy travel as expected, but the bush ended up being incredibly thick and substantially slower than expected. A few hours later than planned, I made it through the bush and could see the Old Ghost Road as the cloud cleared, no further than 1 km away from me in a straight line.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as I emerged from the bush, I discovered that the terrain did not match up with what my topographic map had shown. The map indicated a scree slope to cross and a relatively easy ridge line to follow. However, in reality, the terrain was a giant boulder field of rotting, crumbling rock and an impassable bush-clad razorback ridge.<\/p>\n

I found my way through the boulder maze, taking several hours before realizing that my easy ridge line was impassable. The weather was worsening, and I was getting quite cold and wet. There was no safe way forward or back.<\/p>\n

The logical choice was to activate my ResQLink 400 PLB<\/a>. There was no point in risking severe injury or death with a beacon in my pocket. With light on my side and a helicopter able to reach me, I activated the beacon and hunkered down. An hour later, we heard the sound of the helicopter coming up the valley.<\/p>\n

It ended up being a tricky rescue, but I was winched up into the helicopter and flown out to safety.<\/p>\n

For nearly 10 years, I’ve carried a beacon, expecting to need it if I broke a leg. Getting bluffed out in unexpected dangerous terrain was never how I expected to use it. My beacon likely saved me from serious injury or death in the wilderness while doing what I love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found my way through the boulder maze, taking several hours before realizing that my easy ridge line was impassable. The weather was worsening, and I was getting quite cold and wet. There was no safe way forward or back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179370,"featured_media":84364,"template":"","survivor-category":[17],"terrain":[21],"survivor-event":[2717],"survivor-cause":[127],"survivor-rescue":[139],"class_list":["post-84365","survivor-stories","type-survivor-stories","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","survivor-category-hiking","terrain-mountain","survivor-event-challenging-terrain","survivor-cause-lost","survivor-rescue-local-search-and-rescue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories\/84365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-stories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/survivor-stories"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"survivor-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-category?post=84365"},{"taxonomy":"terrain","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/terrain?post=84365"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-event?post=84365"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-cause","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-cause?post=84365"},{"taxonomy":"survivor-rescue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acrartex.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/survivor-rescue?post=84365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}