Trampers airlifted from slip face in Ruahine Ranges

At about 10.00am the Police Central Communications Centre received notification of two trampers in difficulties in the Ruahine Ranges.

The trampers (a male and a female) had requested Police assistance through a text message to a third party. The third party had rung Police. The text message from the trampers indicated that they were "stuck on a slip face, were ok but not safe"

A Police SAR operation was instigated by the Central Communication Center and co-ordinated from Napier. Police at the Central Communications Centre were able to e-text the trampers in order to identify their exact location and nature of their emergency. It transpired that whilst they were traversing a slip face, the ground became unstable and they were not able to move either forward or backwards in safety. A helecopter was deployed and the trampers were winched from the unstable slip face at about midday.

The trampers were extremely well equipped and made their extraction from their predicament very easy. ie. they had appropriate equipment for the conditions and were able to supply exact GPS coordinates

In one of the final text messages to the Central Communications Centre, the trampers wrote " Thank you so much for your help. We are sorry to have ruined your saturday"