ROBERT CHARLES
SURVIVORS: Paul Bishop, left, 40, and Christian Hanson, 36, recover after being swept about 500m down Mt Taranaki in an avalanche.
JEREMY BECKERS
Searchers come to the rescue of Paul Bishop and Christian Hanson on Sunday.
Two climbers have described their terrifying ordeal as they tumbled down the side of Mt Taranaki.
Christian Hanson, 36, and Paul Bishop, 40, both of Oakura, accidently set off an avalanche while climbing to the summit on Sunday and were swept about 500m down the mountain.
The men were following a well known route and were about to enter the crater when disaster struck.
"Maybe two to three metres above us a huge slab of snow gave way, it was maybe a couple of feet thick, we tried to run over the top of it but we got caught in it and it suddenly accelerated us down at a huge pace," Bishop said.
"I got spun around a few times and I whacked my head a few times, it was pretty scary."
Hanson said he initially couldn't believe it was happening.
"I knew that we had no chance of getting out of it," he said.
They described the sensation as like sliding down a waterfall.
"Your legs are going first and you are trying to steer yourself with your arms," Hanson said.
He was consciously trying to avoid obstacles as he raced out-of-control down the mountain.
Hanson has an 11-month-old baby boy and a pregnant wife, while Bishop has a wife, an 11-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.
The men said thoughts of their families ran through their minds as they were being tossed about in the torrent of ice and snow.
"Definitely, it certainly crossed my mind - my wife and my young son," Hanson said.
The men finally came to rest only a few metres apart, but Bishop was buried in snow and struggling to breathe.
"I had swallowed quite a bit of ice and fine snow spray on the way down," he said.
"I had my hand out, near my mouth, and I was struggling to try and get my mouth free and struggling for air and luckily Christian [Hanson] was there to dig me out."
Hanson dislocated his right elbow and chipped a bone in his left leg in the fall, which made digging his friend out a slow process. Bishop suffered a broken right ankle and badly strained left leg.
"I realised my foot didn't move, as my knee would turn and my foot would stay where it was," Bishop said.
While Bishop credits his friend with saving his life, Hanson said he only did what anyone else would have done in the same situation.
"When you climb with a partner, you expect that same sort of commitment," Hanson said.
Fearing another avalanche could crash down on top of them at any moment, the men were conscious they needed to get to safer ground while they waited to be rescued.
"It was sunny and relatively warm, so if you're going to be stranded somewhere on a mountain in the snow it wasn't actually a bad spot," Bishop said.
The men, who are both experienced mountaineers, were well equipped, with a cellphone, GPS, which helped rescue teams find them quickly, and they were wearing helmets.
"I think that the big thing is we had helmets on. It, I think, certainly saved my life. I whacked my head two or three times hard on the way down and I didn't feel it, so it didn't hurt at all," Bishop said.
His wife Mary said police had called her once the men were safe.
"He was fantastic, in that the first thing he told me was that they were both safe with no life threatening injuries just broken bones," she said.
"It was an extreme shock."
She was there when the men arrived at Taranaki Base Hospital in a helicopter.
"I was very glad that he [Bishop] was alive and safe and I told him that I loved him."
The men were discharged from hospital yesterday.
They thanked the Alpine Cliff Rescue Squad, Taupo's Youth Town Rescue helicopter and Taranaki Community Rescue helicopter services as well as the police, who co-ordinated the rescue, and St John paramedics.
"Everybody's done a great job. It was first-class service really," Bishop said.
