Recently I wrote a post about safety while tramping and just now this post received a comment from Mike McGavin. Mike’s comment makes a good point, and I would like to post it as a separate post, so it would get more attention. So here is Mike’s comment:

” Hi Greg. I stumbled on your blog this evening and it looks really impressive. Thanks for putting it together, and I’ve subscribed to the rss.

I just thought I’d comment that I think around the Tongariro area (especially the crossing) must be one of the most frequent places all over New Zealand for people to go unprepared. That particular daywalk (the Tongariro Crossing) is the most popular daywalk in New Zealand, and I’m not an expert but I suspect the whole thing is at least partly because people factor a single day to walk the Crossing, but don’t take into account that their preferred day might simply have bad weather.

When we walked it, there was a lot of clag around, and strong icy-cold winds in several exposed places. We were completely covered up, visibility was about 10 metres, and were near having out maps and compasses (possibly a GPS) just in case. Still, we were surrounded by hundreds of people throughout the day who looked to be completely and absolutely unprepared. Most probably would have started because they really wanted to do it, but hadn’t planned for not being able to, and there were definitely people who should have been turning around near the start (but often didn’t) because they weren’t coping well with fitness and could have gotten themselves into terrible problems given the conditions. I honestly came away with the impression that some day in the future a bad storm’s going to come through without much warning and wipe 50 people off the mountain.

I’ve heard some really absurd stories about that area too from other people I’ve met, ranging from people trying to cross the mountain wearing high heels (without realising it’s not actually that kind of footpath) through to certain people who’d just finished military training and ditched one of their friends who they lost without bothering to report it. (With all that military training he could probably look after himself and get back on his own, after all.) That last one was a story from a Department of Conservation ranger who’d been stationed at a hut at the time, and came across the chap in jeans and a t-shirt unable to find his mates.

They’re sort of funny stories in some respects, but the disturbing part is that I still think it’s a matter of time before something really seriously bad happens. It really says something for making sure you’re properly prepared, and also be mentally prepared to not go at all if that’s what it takes on the day. ”

Mike McGavin has his own site named Windy Hilltops, where he talks a lot about his tramping experiences.

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