A skier has been found alive in a deep snow drift after getting lost at a popular ski field in New Zealand.
The women had phoned a friend on Sunday afternoon saying she was struggling to find her way back to the Turoa ski field on Mount Ruapehu, Constable Conrad Smith said.
"The pair arranged to meet but the skier never arrived. By this stage it was dark, her phone battery had died and weather conditions were very cold and dangerous," he added.
Teams on skis and a rescue helicopter began searching a large area of the mountain using night vision goggles.
"With deteriorating weather it was silently acknowledged that she would be unlikely to survive the night if she was in the open," the rescue team said in a statement.
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She was eventually spotted by one of the ski patrols in a steep gully in the bush line below the ski field.
Despite gusting wind and clouds the helicopter managed to lower one team member down who then waded through chest deep snow drifts to help the woman to a safe location where she could be picked up.
"She was mildly hypothermic but otherwise ok, just extremely grateful we'd managed to find her," Smith said.
Turoa is a large ski field on Mount Ruapehu, an active stratovolcano and the highest mountain on the North Island of New Zealand.
