Adam Greentree Nearly Died and Had to Be Emergency Rescued from the New Zealand Mountains
Adam Greentree Nearly Died and Had to Be Emergency Rescued from the New Zealand Mountains
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 bag out me mattress because it's bright orange to flag them down in like the
00:03 clouds. So I've walked onto the far side of the tent and I can just every now and
00:09 then see these lights flashing and they're like a hundred yards below me
00:13 flying in the clouds and I hear this chopper like coming in I'm like it's
00:17 gonna it's I thought it's gonna smash straight into the mountain and you see
00:21 him coming in coming in like I mean it's like sheer rock straight below me and
00:24 the helicopters below me and then they seen that they were about to fly into
00:28 the rock wall and then they pulled back and then I just heard him leave and I'm
00:32 like fuck I'm here now for the next four or five days. What sucked was in the
00:38 panic of them saying yeah we're coming to pick you up now I packed up and got
00:41 super wet like packing up in the snow was starting to drizzle out of them
00:45 clouds so I was already wet my sleeving bag was wet everything was wet from
00:49 packing up I'm like shit there's I probably should start hiking out and
00:53 then so I looked at my GPS and it looked at the time like it was a pretty gradual
01:01 climb all the way down into this creek like so there's a glacier up above me
01:05 and it's been melting forever however many years and it's carved out like a
01:09 bit of a creek and so it looks safe and then I started climbing down and the
01:15 first I don't know two hours wasn't too bad like it was pretty gradual like bit
01:20 of rock hopping and slippery stuff and I had one little leap to do it was like two
01:28 and a half meters or a meter down on onto a rock to go out to this next rock
01:32 and it was like there was a big glacier pool below me and it sounds weird but
01:36 you calculate and everything as you're going you know so it's like this is the
01:39 best place to jump down because if I did fall at least I'm landing in water and
01:44 and that's just a two-second process in your head you know and that's happening
01:48 all day like there's never a point that you can switch off in that country like
01:52 you're constantly on the ball otherwise that's when you're gonna come unstuck
01:56 anyway what I didn't realize was the rock that I was jumping down onto had
02:01 actually quite a bit of a slope to it and it had like clear ice a layer of
02:05 clear ice on it you gotta remember I've got this chemie in my backpack and
02:09 friggin a wet wet everything because I packed up in the wet so the pack weighs
02:14 a lot and it weighs a lot anyway because you're going back for like 14 days man I
02:19 hit this rock and my feet come on out from under me that fast it like it was
02:23 just like full chest weight on the rock bang started sliding off the rock
02:27 backwards so I'm on my stomach sliding backwards legs going first and I slide
02:32 off the back of that rock and I got a heavy backpack on so it just pulled me I
02:36 just started plumbing and down to this ice-cold water and like back neck first
02:42 straight into the water and I just remember hitting the water it pulled me
02:45 all the way under like it like it was a good enough fall probably six seven
02:48 meters down into it from that where the rocks lit off and it pulled me under I
02:53 just remember my breath getting sucked out of me like like I mean like it's
02:57 crystal clear like that blue water straight off a glacier and it ripped me
03:03 down and then sort of I struggled to come back up get to the surface and by
03:07 the time I got to the surface because it's flowing pretty hard it was pushing
03:11 me into one of the drainage chutes from it and then so I hit this drainage chute
03:16 sort of scramble and trying to grab on and then it pulled me down legs first as
03:19 well like down into the chute in the next lot of water then by the time I got
03:24 to that point there was no there was no going back up there was no chance I
03:28 would go back up because it's dropped me into a spot where I wasn't on the sides
03:33 of the bank anymore I was stuck in this glacier milk and then I end up getting
03:38 out of there and I got to the next point there was like a big tree like falling
03:43 down in the water there's no trees on the side it's just whatever's been
03:45 washed down over the years like a big stump and I end up wrapping my hand
03:49 around that my arm around that get to my legs and then like weighed twice as much
03:54 again because now everything's you know full of water and soaked you know the
03:59 pack on yeah I still got the pack on and then and then I got like got up on the
04:03 rock then it's just like one rock in all this water and then it's a fucking long
04:08 story so I'll probably skip a few bits but I end up like fighting with it for
04:14 the rest of the day and then I end up falling over another two times one time
04:19 I actually had to volunteer to jump I had nowhere to go I was just like stuck
04:24 in this little canyon in the water and I literally had to come up with the guts
04:29 to be like jump into the next water chute which is just like a slide cut out
04:33 of the rocks from the water running down there for fucking millions of years and
04:37 I've still got my backpack on I can't leave nothing because that could be what
04:41 saves me at the end of the day I've got a sleeping bag or other clothes in there
04:44 I got meat from this chamois I still I had this skin from the chamois I still
04:50 had everything in there and I like have you ever done anything where you fucking
04:58 like probably got to convince yourself to do it because like I was I didn't
05:01 know if that was gonna kill me going to the next step or if that was gonna save
05:04 my life and then so you're calculating all that and then having to have the
05:08 guts to actually jump into the next chute of water and go down man I fucking I
05:13 just remember just fucking doing it and I jump perfect I landed on the backpack
05:16 I put all the weight on the backpack slid into the next bit just like pump
05:21 with adrenaline right so I'm not even feeling the cold at this point because
05:24 adrenaline is just going sick and I end up going down a bit further and then I
05:30 could just hear this like deafening sound of water and I'm like fuck me dead
05:35 like what next because constantly it seemed to be like what next what next
05:38 what's next and I hear this deafening sound of water and I get to the fucking
05:42 edge and it's like free 400 yards straight straight down oh my god and
05:47 it's just like like then it was like no there's no going any further you're like
05:52 to go further is definitely deaf you need to work something out here you know
05:56 and it got to the point it takes a lot of courage to even be like I need
06:01 someone to save me like at least for me because I've all like I've always you
06:05 know like it's it's the way that you're brought up the will the way that I was
06:11 brought up because you know I've never had the father figure in my life I didn't
06:15 have any of that so it was always everything I do I do for myself that's
06:18 why I never usually ask people for help this is the biggest ask for help they're
06:23 fucking is right and it's pressing the SOS button on the emergency device you
06:28 know and it's like and I sat there for 20 minutes and still pump with
06:32 adrenaline over that time now fuck like getting adrenaline talking about it now
06:36 and then realizing there's fucking definitely no way off here it's time to
06:43 hit the button like this is where you don't get to see your family again or
06:46 you don't get to do any of this again or live life you need to hit the button and
06:49 just fucking like still hitting the button hurt and you got to hold it in
06:52 for like 10 or 20 seconds it was fucking the longest 10 seconds of my life and
06:57 like at this point I've taken the backpack off I took a jacket off because
07:01 it was just so fucking heavy and wet and it's sitting there and I'm holding the
07:06 button in for like 10 seconds and it's like then it's like SOS you know and
07:10 it's like oh shit and then but there's no reply to it or anything like that at
07:15 that point it's it sort of just says the signal successful as in scent and that's
07:21 about it and it's getting light and I'm like I need to set up some sort of camp
07:26 I need to go for my pack see what I can use like what's going to work out here
07:31 and I pull me pack out and then like I've only got a spot that's like the
07:35 size of one body laying down to even stand on in this area and it's barely
07:41 flat the only thing that's kept it flat is the trees falling off from up at the
07:46 alpine tops at some point in its life falling down there and then all the
07:51 shale and rock that's fallen off these big washouts with the water has like
07:55 leaned up against that big stump so it's like laid out a flat bit and I could fit
08:01 about three quarters of a little one-person tent on there and so I set
08:06 the tent up there I set the mattress that I was telling you that I was trying
08:12 to flag down the helicopter with I'd set that just on there that just sat on
08:15 there and then I pulled the sleeping bag out and it was fucking soaked like the
08:20 sleeping bag was drenched and I'm like it's still gonna be something and went
08:25 for the rest of me pack I pulled the chamois skin out and sort of laid that
08:29 there hoping it'd give me some warmth as well and I've like stripped down then
08:33 all the like bigger layers to try and get that off me and I climbed in this
08:38 wet cold sleeping bag which is the worst feeling fucking ever in that situation
08:43 like you do you start you're starting to think like this is this is the end this
08:47 might be death and I climbed in there I was trying to get warm and then I kept
08:53 looking at that signal but my phone like it's through my phone my phone it's
08:58 usually through my phone sorry my phone had already died so it's just for the
09:02 little device and remember the old phones how you had to go for the fucking
09:05 alphabet on them to type a message I thought I'm trying to type a message to
09:10 my buddy that was keeping tabs on me as all this was happening and and the
09:15 message just went out as in I need help and he like like I've been around this
09:19 dude for forever he's one of my best friends so he knows what I'm like he he
09:22 knows if I'm like I fucking need help that it's not good you know and that
09:27 message I didn't know if it went out or not I had to turn it off because I had
09:31 like four five percent in it so I shut it down anyway I'm laying in there of
09:37 laying in there and then obviously the adrenaline's coming off and I think I
09:42 dozed off for a little while it might have been 40 minutes or so it's like a
09:46 power nap and I woke up and my body was just quivering flat out like like it
09:54 from fucking deep in it was just quivering flat out and that feels like
09:59 death that probably that actually it scared me because I like I couldn't
10:05 stop I was just fucking quivering flat out like hyper like my core is trying to
10:09 warm back up yeah and it took me to took me a little while to think about that
10:13 because I shut I end up shutting myself down I stopped myself shaking and then
10:18 I was like you fucking idiot that's exactly what your body's supposed to do
10:21 it's trying to warm up and then I sort of loosened up again and it started
10:24 shaking and then I went to move this arm and this leg and they wouldn't move like
10:30 I couldn't move them and then I was like oh shit like as in the adrenaline it was
10:34 from that first fall I think or it was from the jump that I did I don't know if
10:40 I'd bruised it I don't know it's about nearly hypothermic I don't know what
10:45 really happened there just I just couldn't move that leg and I couldn't
10:48 move this arm so then that scared me a bit too and I started thinking about Kim
10:53 and the kids and like like shook me up and then and I got teary as well which
10:58 was weird because then I fucking warmed up like when all that happened I was
11:02 starting to warm up anyway I tried to sleep you can't sleep here in a wet
11:06 sleeping bag it's free like everything's fucking frozen around you there's
11:09 fucking rocks rolling from the top of the fucking mountain down into the river
11:14 that what the creek that's now turned into a river there's rocks rolling down
11:17 there you listen to that all night there's like smaller debris and rocks
11:21 hitting the tent and it's just like and you can't move because I'm on this pad
11:24 this big anyway I don't even know how but the morning came at some point I got
11:31 up turn the GPS back on no there was no message no nothing so I hit the SOS one
11:36 last time and I held it in nothing nothing I think I sat around for the
11:42 first couple of hours of morning like just holding me chest and stuff like
11:46 that trying to get warm again and I got to the point and it's like no one's
11:52 coming for you like it's fucking on you and that was the best thing that
11:55 happened to me because it was almost like I hit the button and it was almost
11:59 like a give up as in like oh someone's coming for me it's fine you know and
12:04 then it wasn't till I realized and said to myself no one's fucking coming just
12:08 fucking get up and do something and I was like I'm fucking gonna start a fire
12:13 even if it takes me half a day at least this is turning let's try and start a
12:19 fire let's do something you know like fucking stay in it and then so I started
12:23 pulling all the different rubbish out of me bag that I carried from the trip
12:27 started piling that up there's like no branches or anything around so then I'm
12:33 back at that tree where my tent was and I'm trying to carve into that tree like
12:37 to try and get into the middle of it try and find some dry because you know it's
12:41 been raining for you know a day and a half now maybe even longer down low
12:46 because I descended so far down and then I'm trying to get in there and I'm like
12:50 I'll burn the tent I'll burn what else can I burn you know I started thinking
12:54 about all the things that I can burn I'm like yeah if you're here for another
12:57 night you can't that you can't burn any of that right so I left the tent set up
13:01 left the chamois skin in there and then I just got it to the point where I was
13:06 like I could probably start a fire now it's not gonna last long because there's
13:09 no wood on it it's just all you know trash that I had in my bag and then I
13:14 started thinking what else can I do I'm like you know I'm gonna build a fucking
13:17 helicopter pad because there was no you know it was all shit like no commercial
13:22 helicopter could live that land there only a rescue helicopter at that point
13:26 could pick me up from where I was because they you know they could drop
13:29 down a rope and lift me up but if I build an actual pad I knew once the
13:34 weather cleared I could just call in the commercial helicopter to pick me up so I
13:39 was like fuck it and I'm so I start grabbing like rocks it's just rocks
13:43 everywhere and I was gonna build basically a retaining wall and then
13:46 start feeling it it would have taken days to do but I was just keen to keep
13:51 busy and then I was fully trapped I could not go back up I couldn't go up
13:55 the creek I couldn't go up the sides I definitely couldn't go down low and that
13:58 roars the whole time right beside me just screaming that water pumping down
14:01 there anyway so I start collecting rocks and then I thought I heard a fucking
14:08 helicopter and I was like fuck and this is like this is five or six hours now
14:13 after morning and I'm listening and it's getting louder I just see this fucking
14:18 big helicopter bank up this like it's a fucking you're in a draw system in
14:24 between these massive mountains and it just comes cruising straight around and
14:28 I was like holy fuck like I was like so fucking pumped and then this arm still
14:34 wasn't working I got this leg to start working in the morning this arm still
14:38 wasn't working properly and I was so fucking pumped and the dude comes around
14:42 and he gives me the thumbs up oh fuck man my thumb must have been so straight
14:47 I was like this you know I was so excited
14:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]