MOUNTAIN CLIMBING IS one of the last refuges for the individual who wishes to challenge nature at its wildest and toughest.
And in the kiwi mythology the right to tramp off into the bush is part of what makes us a people. So when the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, uses his power to stop people doing what we’ve almost come to believe is a right, murmurings of protest are sure to arise.
What right did he have to order seven Japanese climbers off Mt Cook? What legal powers does the Prime Minister have to order people out of a national park? Will his action mean that in future any climber will need prime ministerial sanction before he or she can proceed? Has another of our individual “freedoms” been lost to state control?
One of New Zealand’s great heroes, the archetypical individualist Sir Edmund Hillary, has spoken in protest at the Prime Minister’s action, but a couple of simple facts stand out.
In the first place New Zealand is not a nation where we aid and abet suicide or accidental death. Because we’re a caring society, we try to prevent it.
It is also relevant to point out that the notion of the individual challenge is something of a myth; mountain climbers know that if they get into trouble other climbers and helicopter pilots are going to risk their lives to try and help, and thousands of dollars of taxpayers’ money will be spent in the effort. Nobody begrudges this effort in cases where experienced people are genuinely overcome by the elements, but we’re entitled to question whether the foolhardy can be allowed to exploit this willingness to mount rescues.
The seven climbers of the Tokyo Deaf and Mute Climbing Society acted unwisely. There was an avalanche warning in force, and they refused to take an experienced guide. If they had survived the experience it would have had more to do with luck than good management. They should never have been on the mountain, and it was right that the Prime Minister ordered them off.
All the same there are the implications to be considered. Even if the state wanted to bring an element of control into climbing and tramping they’d find it difficult. New Zealand consists, in large part, of mountains and each weekend thousands of people, unknown to authorities, are in the wilderness. And yet most of the challenging, and thus dangerous, mountains are in national parks. Parliament should consider giving park rangers the authority to order individuals off mountains if they are satisfied that they lack the experience and equipment to reasonably cope with the risk. Given that park rangers can summon expensive taxpayer resources this is a reasonable power.
Such control would not “spoil” the sport, or lessen the challenge, it would simply make it safer. Ocean yacht-racing, another of the outlets for individual endeavour, already has an element of safety control in it and thus reduces the risks to those involved. Nonetheless tragedy does still occur and because there is that element of risk it is an exciting sport for its devotees.
We accept that part of our nation’s character is this man-against-nature factor, but as our hard-earned resources often have to be used to help those in trouble, we need to see evidence that those involved are doing all they can to lessen the risks.
But when a group of people ignore all the warnings probably knowing that if they got into trouble they would be rescued, individual freedom has got out of hand…
