Personal locator beacon saves fallen tramper’s life

April 6, 2025

Nelsonian Steve King knows he is lucky to be alive. He also knows that he owes his life to his personal locator beacon (PLB).

The 59-year-old was bushwhacking in the Kahurangi National Park, on day nine of a 10 day trip on March 22, preparing to walk back to his car.

Heading out bush for extended periods is something the experienced tramper does at least once, and sometimes twice a year, carefully timing his departure dates in November or in March, at the beginning or the end of typically rainy spells.

After having crossed a couple of rivers, King had about 1000 meters of vertical terrain to climb to get to an alpine ridge.

But about 300m along, he fell into a root hole.

His ankle was a bit sore, but he was managing. But heading up a steep incline, his foot slipped down the hill, wrenching the muscle or the tendon that he had previously damaged.

Unable to continue, King wrestled with the decision to push the button on his PLB. He’d set off on his trip with a good weather forecast, and that had come to an end. He didn’t know what weather was heading his way.

In land that was too steep to pitch a tent, which would have been dangerous in wet weather, and with a finite food supply, he grappled with his options, pulling his PLB out of its pouch, and then tucking it away again.

“I didn’t see it as an emergency, but I knew that if it started raining, or if my water got a leak or something like that, I’d just be in deep shit.

“If it did start raining, I knew that the helicopter wouldn’t be able to fly, and so I would have lost my chance there. Emotionally, I felt very alone, very vulnerable.”

Eventually, he made the call to set off the beacon. He also used a satellite texting device to message his wife Jodi to let her know he had done so and that he’d injured his leg, including his precise location and what he was wearing.

His PLB, which had been flashing red and white, started to flash green, meaning satellites had received the signal and were processing it.

The relief was palpable. Jodi texted to say a chopper was on its way.

But although he was waving his red rain coat and had a big yellow plastic dry bag, those in the helicopter above couldn’t see him below the thick tree cover, despite being directly above it.

Hovering to the left and the right of him, and then up and down the hill, the helicopter left the area.

King thought the helicopter couldn’t locate him, but in fact, they had dropped a paramedic up the hill, and moved away from the site so that he could yell out and the pair could find each other.

It took the paramedic about 10 minutes to traverse the 100m to where King sat, such was the ruggedness of the terrain, after which the two were winched into the helicopter, and King was taken to hospital.