In this episode of Eyewitness: a dramatic alpine rescue that kept New Zealand on tenterhooks

In November 1982, for about two weeks, time stood still - not just for two climbers, stranded in an ice cave on Mt Cook's inhospitable middle peak - but for New Zealand too, gripped by the prospect of a dramatic and potentially dangerous rescue in atrocious conditions.

Mark Inglis and Phil Doole, both members of the Mt Cook Alpine Rescue Team, had failed to return from a climb.

For close to a week, as a storm prevented any kind of search, no one could say if the men were safe.

For the nation's media, it was a story that had all the elements; lost climbers, challenging weather conditions and New Zealand's highest peak.

It needed only a rescuer.

Enter Don Bogie: one of the most important figures in the drama but one whose name is less commonly heard.

I guess I saw it as a problem to be solved and a technical challenge.

He was the senior mountaineer and the most experienced at strop rescues (in which an alpine rescuer is lowered on a line to uplift an injured or stranded climber using a harness or stretcher.)

And he was to play a major role in the men's rescue.

When Don Bogie first heard of his colleagues' plight he wasn't too concerned. The weather was poor but he was confident the experienced climbers could endure a night out on Mt Cook, as he had done himself on a previous climb.

"As long as you've managed to find some shelter, you can survive."

But several days later, he wasn't quite so sure.

"We knew the weather was atrocious. It was gale force north westerlies. You couldn't even really see Mt Cook."

Rescuers were beginning to get worried.

You know they're definitely in trouble now.

As soon the weather allowed, Don Bogie and his helicopter pilot Ron Small began flying reconnaissance flights. Gradually they eliminated huts and other possible locations where they believed the men might shelter.

But there were risks.

"Some things didn't go right. We pushed some of that searching too hard."

There was a serious near-miss when the helicopter nearly crashed into a ridge.

Don Bogie said the rescuers' instinct to help needed to be held in check by the conditions…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details