The Mountain Safety Council (MSC) has released a video detailing how to safely climb Ben Lomond in a bid to reduce search and rescues on the popular tramp.
The video gives trampers detailed information on the route, equipment required and when to walk it.
The track was identified as a search and rescue hot-spot in MSC’s A Walk in the Park? report into tramping-related search and rescue (SAR) incidents.
The Ben Lomond Track, which starts near downtown Queenstown, is the fifth most popular search and rescue (SAR) location in the country – 26 people have been rescued over the past seven years, the same number of SAR events as on the Routeburn Track.
Wakatipu Search and Rescue estimate the track accounted for more than a third of SAR operations in the region. In September last year, three people were rescued from Ben Lomond in one week, after heading off track.
The video is part of a 12 part series which will be released throughout October, which look at search and rescue hot-spots. Last week, MSC released videos on the Gertrude Saddle route and Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which have been viewed more than 70,000 times.
Other videos in the series will cover the Milford, Kepler and Routeburn Great Walks, the Cascade Saddle route in Mt Aspiring National Park, the Mueller Hut route in Aoraki Mt Cook National Park, the Travers Saddle route, Robert Ridge route to Angelus Hut and Waiau Pass in Nelson Lakes National Park. The videos will be released on YouTube and Facebook.
