Mr Kravet has been back in Wānaka this week and spent yesterday skiing at his favourite mountain haunt before reminiscing over beers with some of his rescuers back at Wānaka LandSar’s base on Ballantyne Rd.
Mr Kravet told the Otago Daily Times he had spent his chilly ordeal on August 19-20, 2013 thinking about how he had already told friends Treble Cone was one of his favourite mountains and on the list of places he wanted his ashes to be spread.
"I had already realised I might not be found so I thought ‘how amazing is it that my ashes will not be spread here. Instead I am going to die here’," he said.
Yesterday’s reunion was the third time Mr Kravet has been back to ski at Wānaka since his accident.
"This would be my 20th time to come to New Zealand. I came here with my ski club in 1990 and fell in love with the place," he said.
On the afternoon of August 19, 2013, Mr Kravet made a wrong turn on the mountain due to poor visibility and ended up outside the Treble Cone ski boundary in the Gottlieb Valley.
He told the Otago Daily Times in 2013 he realised he had made "a major screw-up" when he could not find any fence line or hear the chairlifts.
Then he plunged over the lip of a gully, jammed his ski tips into the embankment, jerked out of his bindings and broke his legs.
He placed his skis vertically and put his poles in a cross position to attract any searchers and thought, if he died, at least he had been doing what he loved, on his favourite mountain.
Then he started a night-long session of arm exercises to keep warm.
At 5pm, he saw a helicopter but soon realised any search was over for the night.
Temperatures were reportedly near zero but he continued his arm exercises, watched the stars, tried not to fall asleep and occasionally hallucinated.
Not long after daybreak, he saw a helicopter and waved his poles to attract attention.
He was rescued about 8.20am on August 20 and transferred to Dunedin Hospital, where a titanium rod was inserted into his right leg and his left leg bone was reset and stabilised with several plates.
The keen long-distance runner then spent six weeks in a wheelchair and was told he was unlikely to run again, while skiing and hiking could also prove difficult.
That has not proved the case.
"That was just other people’s opinion. I knew even when they were pushing me down the Dunedin Hospital corridor in my wheelchair. I had a big smile on my face and said, ‘I will be back’.
One of his rescuers, Brent Arthur of Lake Hāwea, has kept in touch with Mr Kravet over Facebook ever since.
In 2017, they skied Treble Cone together and then flew over the area Mr Kravet was picked up from with Aspiring Helicopters pilot James Ford, the same pilot who was in the 2013 rescue team.
Wānaka LandSar chairwoman Rachel Calhaem was not involved in the 2013 operation but said Mr Kravet’s story had always resonated because he had shown how mental perspective, focus and ability to make an emergency plan could help in challenging situations.
