In her findings released today, Coroner Mary-Anne Borrowdale said Murray Aidan Horsfield would have died instantly after falling about 70m down a near-vertical rock face on February 12, 2023.
The 29-year-old Australian was last seen at Chinaman’s carpark, at the start of the Dart Valley walking track, about 6.15am on February 11.
The former Australian Army corporal had intended to return home by the evening of February 13, because of a work commitment the next day.
Mr Horsfield had moved to New Zealand with his partner in 2022, and at the time of his death was working as an irrigation installer while studying to be a surveyor.
An "extremely capable" back-country user who had hunted many times in New Zealand, often alone, he had set himself the goal of completing the Malek Trophy before he turned 30 in April of that year, Coroner Borrowdale said.
It involved shooting all of the 15 big game species of the South Pacific region, and he had collected 12.
One of the three species remaining was a white-tail deer buck, found only in the Glenorchy area and Stewart Island.
His messages to his wife — using a Garmin InReach device — showed he had hunted in the Slip Stream, Lake Mystery and McBride Burn areas.
In a phone call on February 12, he told her he had not seen any white-tail deer and planned to hunt in the Rees Valley instead.
She understood him to mean he would return to his car, drive to the Muddy Creek carpark and enter the Rees Valley from there.
After becoming "uneasy" when he did not reply to her messages or answer a phone call on February 13, she called police about 8.30am on February 14 when he had still not responded to her messages.
After an extensive search by LandSAR personnel — assisted by about 20 of his former army colleagues — Mr Horsfield’s body was found at the base of a tree near Slip Stream on February 19.
A pathologist’s report found he had suffered severe traumatic injuries in the fall that would have made death instantaneous.
A report by the Mountain Safety Council found he had tried to return to the valley floor by heading down a spur instead of returning the way he had come and had slipped and fallen while traversing the upper slope of a bluff.
His goal of completing the Malek Trophy within two months, the fact he had not seen his target deer, and his work commitment on February 14, meant he would have been motivated to cover as much ground as possible by the end of the next day.
"Time was running out, and this may have influenced Mr Horsfield’s decision-making."
Of the 11 alpine hunting deaths in the previous 16 years, 10 hunters had died in a fall, the report said.
It recommended hunters keep some distance from the edge of steep bluffs.
"The mountaineer’s credo is good advice: only descend routes that you’ve been up first or that you know."
Coroner Borrowdale said the time pressure Mr Horsfield was under might have influenced him "away from the safer — but lengthier — course of retracing his steps".
