Bushwalk Australia

Tragic news from ABC,
Thinking of his Son, Family & all the Rescue Crews

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-23/c ... st/6340808

A 59-year-old Canberra man has died after falling off a cliff on Tasmania's highest mountain, Mount Ossa, while bushwalking with his son.

The man fell off Mt Ossa in Tasmania's Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park about 4:30pm yesterday afternoon.

Police said the man was walking with his 20-year-old son when he apparently fell on a steep section on the track they were walking on.

A commercial bushwalking group heard the son's calls for help and were then able to notify authorities by satellite phone.

Inspector Darren Hopkins said police were trying to retrieve the body.

"He was bushwalking with his son and we understand that it was about a 10 to 20-metre fall as he was making his way to the summit of Mt Ossa," he said.

"We are currently trying to retrieve his body.

"We've got a number of search and rescue members and SES [volunteers] that are heading that way on foot."

He said weather in the area was hampering efforts to retrieve the man's body with the helicopter grounded.

Topics: accidents, accidents---other, disasters-and-accidents, tas, act

very sad, thoughts to all those involved with this......

Sad. Can't be too careful with some of the challenging tracks around. Walk safe!

This is a terrible thing to happen. The poor son having to go through that.
My thoughts are with everyone involved.

ABC Update
Authorities retrieving the body of a Canberra bushwalker who fell to his death on Tasmania's Mount Ossa are confident they will be able to fly the body to Hobart today after being forced to camp overnight in a national park.

The 59-year-old man died on Sunday after falling almost 20 metres from a cliff on Tasmania's tallest mountain, in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Claire National Park, while on a hike with his 20-year-old son.

Yesterday a team of SES and police officers carried the body to Pellion Gap in a four-hour journey.

Bad weather and low cloud thwarted attempts to winch the man's body onto a rescue helicopter, forcing the team to camp overnight.

Detective Sergeant Mike Gillies said the retrieval effort had resumed today.

"The weather has improved greatly overnight in the area and so the plan is that the helicopter will fly from Cradle Mountain, where it stayed overnight, and pick up those people who are on the mountain and the remains of the gentleman and return them eventually to Hobart," he said.

Police said the man was walking with his son on Sunday afternoon when he apparently fell on a steep section on the track they were walking on.

A commercial bushwalking group heard the son's calls for help and were then able to notify authorities by satellite phone.

There aren't a lot of places on the route (on the track) to be able to actually fall so far. Unlucky and tragic. Indeed, condolences to the family.

Tragic. I'm glad there where others around to help his son in such awful circumstances, the thought of a child (even an adult one) faced with that just seems unbearably sad to me.