Lostsoul wrote:I find it mind boggling that the walkers waited 2 days to report the guy missing, knowing he hadn’t returned to his camp that night.
Agree
Albeit I can conceive situations where one would not know what was happening to others out there. It sounds like this fellow was walking from Lake Vera hut to the FC summit return in a long day on the 28th.
Any other people at Vera that morning/night prior who he informed of his intentions may have been walking out on the 28th. The alarm may be delayed due to people not realising he was due back to his tent at an otherwise empty - winter and mid-week - Vera hut or a Vera hut occupied only by incoming walkers who he hadn't met and who didn't realise his tent was there and empty. People he may have passed between Vera and Tahune, or even Tahune and the summit, if any, also may not have had the required second piece of data (i.e. not seeing him pass back through Tahune Hut later in the day) to have concerns. The alarm may have only been raised on review of the trail head log book by a walker who saw the empty tent and/or had heard chat from other parties.