Rescuers continue search for 70-year-old missing in freezing temperatures near Mount Hotham
By Tom Cowie
Rescue crews hope that a 70-year-old man missing in Victoria’s alpine region since last Friday is still alive despite being exposed to freezing temperatures and high winds.
A team of more than 100 is searching for Christos, a grandfather from the Melbourne suburb of Greensborough, who was last seen when he went for a walk on Friday afternoon on Big Muster Drive, Dinner Plain, near Mount Hotham.
The temperatures in Mount Hotham fell below zero on Tuesday with wind gusts over 60 km/h. It is also expected to snow, which will slow the rescue effort.
Acting Sergeant Joel Magno-Thornton said that a person could survive for a long time in those conditions if they had shelter from the weather.
“If he’s dropped down into a gully, down into a creek line or something similar, he’s got access to water and has had a great meal by the sound of it, when he’s gone missing,” he said.
“And if he’s found something to hide under and get out of the wind, there’s a very high chance that he’s still alive.”
Acting Sergeant Joel Magno-Thorton updates the media on the search for a missing Melbourne man in Victoria’s high country.Credit:Nine News
Magno-Thornton said the temperature had dropped 10 degrees in the past four days, which was making it more difficult for the people conducting the search.
“We’re actually putting some of them in harm’s way themselves to be looking for a missing person, which we’ve got to be actually very mindful of,” he said.
“The terrain out her, it’s treacherous. If you go off the tracks, you can be lost within metres of leaving a track.”
Inspector Paul Hargreaves said that rescuers had told him that it would have been hard for someone to go missing if they had stayed on the walking tracks.
Inspector Paul Hargreaves updates the media about the search for a missing man who was last seen near Dinner Plain on Friday afternoon.Credit:Nine News
“They said the tracks are very well signed, they’re very obvious and everything points you back to the village,” he said.
The suggestion is that Christos may have had an accident while walking, Hargreaves said.
“That’s why we’re searching those extreme areas,” he said.
“If you fall over, you lose your track and you actually disappear off the track a little bit – go a short distance and you’re in scrub and then you’re lost. And that’s what we think probably happened and that’s why we’re searching those outside areas.”
On Monday, Christos’ four children issued a statement describing their father, a Yarra Trams employee, as “a kind and loving person, a lover of nature, with an adventurous spirit”.
“He is a grandfather to four beautiful granddaughters, and we know he would love to see them again,” they said.
Christos was wearing a long-sleeved top, long-sleeved jumper, pants and Crocs when he went missing. He and his wife had been holidaying in the alpine region for three days before he went missing.
SES incident commander Dan Walton said the area where which Christos is missing “is very tricky to walk in” and has deep under-brush.
“We have had a number of near incidents with the rain this [Monday] afternoon, the top of the ground is very slippery and hard to clamber over, under and around. It’s hard work for the members out there,” he said.
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