Two students could have died after they got separated from their outdoor education group in icy conditions on Mt Tongariro yesterday, while their leader had no idea they were even missing.
Police say the situation was a "debacle" and if the hypothermic students had not been able to make a cellphone call to get help, they would have died.
The 13-strong group, from Te Wananga o Aotearoa in Hamilton, set out to undertake the 19.4km walk yesterday with one instructor.
But conditions deteriorated and the group became separated.
Three young men took a wrong turn at the Red Crater Summit and wound up heading along a ridge to Mt Tongariro's summit in 70kmh winds, with icy rain falling, snow underfoot and visibility at just 10 metres.
Meanwhile, the main group carried on and the leader did not realise until they got to the Ketetahi Shelter that three of her group were missing.
On the ridge, one of the students turned back, leaving the other two still ascending the mountain.
Some time afterwards, the cold and wet pair realised they were lost and running out of strength.
They called 111 and police contacted three professional guides, who are also Search and Rescue members, who were on the mountain.
Two additional rescuers from Ruapehu Alpine Rescue Organisation were also called out.
Senior Constable Barry Shepherd, of Taupo, says the students' call was made at about 11.40am and the first rescuer, professional guide Terry Blumhardt, reached them about 3pm. Two other rescuers who had walked up from Mangatepopo Hut arrived shortly afterwards.
Blumhardt dug a trench in the ice and put up an emergency shelter, and the trio force-fed the young men sugary food and hot drinks and wrapped them in foil blankets.
Once they had warmed up a little, the group attempted to get the stricken students off the mountain.
The visibility made a helicopter rescue impossible so the rescuers helped the young men down below the cloud cover to where they could be picked up a rescue helicopter, about 6pm.
Shepherd said if the students had not been able to make a cellphone call, "it's fair to say they would have perished."
"It was a debacle."
Former police senior constable Cliff Jones, an experienced search and rescuer, was one of the three rescuers who made their way to the stranded pair.
He said the group was "woefully under-prepared".
There was no pre-planning and although the bad weather was not forecast, the group should have turned back as soon as the weather deteriorated, he said.
"For me, it's an example now of these under-resourced education institutions who take kids up into these areas and really don't know what they're doing and they could have lost those two boys so easily.
"They think the Crossing is just an easy walk, but it's not...these boys couldn't operate, they couldn't see, they were terrified and they were getting blown off the ridge."
Te Wananga o Aotearoa has since launched a full health and safety investigation into the matter.
