Tim recently hiked through much of the remote part of Kosciuszko National Park that Hadi Nazari was lost in. Now that the first-hand account of the 13-day ordeal has aired, Tim has some thoughts about what it can teach us.
Call me a pessimist, but I thought that Hadi was done for. Hikers who aren’t found quickly often are. So, as I was preparing to hike the Overland Track in early January, the idea that Hadi might still be out there, picking his way through scrub and over ridgelines, was pretty far from my mind.
As it turned out, Hadi had found refuge in the Opera House Hut. It’s a little-known structure deep in Kosciuszko National Park and built by Snowy Hydro, that’s become something of a pilgrimage for gnarly off track hikers.
Opera House Hut hiding in the bushes
This is because access is via trackless and steep, forested ridgelines, or tiring boulder hopping down alpine creeklines and gorges. There’s also an illegal route through a kilometres-long, pitch black tunnel that could at any time be filled with water.
Once you get there, you’re greeted with a brick box with no toilet (unless you count the bucket), no water tank, and a very creepy bed. Camping outside is not only encouraged by the Kosciuszko Huts Association, but preferable.
Anyway, my mates and I love a sufferfest, and we’d booked in the dates sometime last year to tackle this hike in February 2025.
Resting up on the Monday night post-sufferfest in a much fancier hut called Common Kosci near Jindabyne, it felt almost surreal to see Hadi Nazari talk on ABC’s 7:30 report about becoming lost in the exact place we’d just been.
But it wasn’t surprising that he’d become lost, and it was a good reminder of just how easy it can be. Although Hadi was described as experienced and has clearly done some tough hiking in Victoria’s High Country, he’s young and has only been in Australia for about five years.
Aussies love to go on about how hiking is different here, but that’s because it kind of is. Especially the off track stuff.
Here are my thoughts on the key mistakes Hadi and his friends made, things that might not necessarily seem that important, until they are.
1. Splitting Up to Hike Alone
Standing at the base of Mount Strongleg, my brother and I screamed cooee for an hour. I’d been slowed down by my bung knee and two of my mates had gone ahead. We’d got lost, missed them as they backtracked, and wasted precious time finding each other again.
It didn’t need to happen, but it did, and it’s all too common. Hadi has said that he and his friends like to move at a distance from each other ‘to enjoy solitude in nature’, which is great on a well-formed trail, but pretty risky on something wilder like the Hannels Spur trail, which they were on.
If you’re going to walk apart, it’s worth asking a few questions.
Do I have the tools to navigate on my own? Do I have my own first aid supplies and PLB or satellite messenger? Are there set places along the route where we can meet up?
Even simple things like having enough water or phone charge become important when you can’t rely on your friends.
A little help from your friends could save your life | @eandrewsphoto
If you can’t confidently approach the hike as if you’re going solo, it’s much better to keep the gang together. Let the slowest person lead and keep each other in eyesight. At one point whilst bush bashing to the base of a waterfall on the way to Opera House Hut, the scrub was so thick that I couldn’t see my friends 20 metres away. 20 metres!
The same can happen in the alpine where whiteout can blow in within seconds.
I reckon it’s the most important rule of hiking together, especially on wild terrain. The tension created by people not working together and hiking apart is one of the quickest roads to a bad time for all.
2. Not Carrying a PLB or Satellite Messenger
We harp on about this one all the time but we ain’t stopping. If Hadi had been carrying one of these he’d have been rescued after one day, easy! The problem is they’re not cheap, even Wild Earth’s options will set you back over $400.
There are a few ways you can tackle this problem. One that I’ve done is to share the purchase between a few mates. If you hike together most of the time it really helps spread the cost.
Another option is borrowing them from the national parks office. This is great if you don’t adventure frequently, but to be honest the hassle means you’re unlikely to do it as often as you should.
My friend recently rented one from Macpac, which is a great solution! Other outdoor stores may offer the same service.
Or you can do what I did recently, which is get a Garmin InReach Messenger from your worried mother-in-law for Christmas. Thanks Susie!
Peace of mind is just a subscription away
Seriously though, this thing lets me send texts (there’s a paid plan) and check-ins from places with no reception, which is a huge win for peace of mind, as well as the SOS and weather report features.
If none of those options work, the least you can do is think about an iPhone for your next phone. The iPhone 14 onwards can do Emergency SOS via Satellite. It’s not as foolproof as some of the options above, given how easy it is to smash your phone or run it flat (see point 5), but it’s way better than nothing!
3. Not Carrying (or Knowing How to Use) a Map and Compass
Not gonna lie, I sometimes look at my map and compass when I’m unpacking them at the end of a hike and wonder if they’ve had their day, having not been touched since they went in. However the training I had in Scouts runs deep and I can’t put my trust exclusively into electronics. I’m sure that one day it’ll be worthwhile.
Training is the key word there though. Hadi could have had a map and a compass and still got outrageously lost if he didn’t know how to use them.
Do you know how to navigate once your phone dies?
Finding yourself on a map takes skill in reading contours and taking bearings too, so I’m reluctant to just parrot this advice at people. We’ll be running navigation training with Paddy Pallin at ExplorerFest in May if you’re looking for a place to upskill!
Being realistic, if you’re not going to take a map or don’t know how to use a compass, you’re relying on your phone or a GPS, so take a good powerbank (I used this super lightweight one from Nitecore on my latest hike) and stick with your mates who also have phones and powerbanks (see point 1).
4. Ditching Your Pack
This is the most perplexing part of Hadi’s story. Very early on he ended up on the wrong ridgeline in thick bush that was slowing him down. Having been there, I can say that the bush bashing on the lower parts of the Western Ranges is the thickest I’ve ever seen. Tassie and the Blue Mountains, eat your heart out.
We’re talking 3cm thick woody trees barely a hand’s width apart, with slippery loose rocks and scrub underfoot. It was awful.
According to Hadi, he decided that his pack kept getting caught and that he’d be better off ditching it and just getting to camp. Problem was, he didn’t know where that was.
I’ve seen it many times, that urge to just ‘put your head down and get there’ that comes on, often when you’re already past your limit. On the Overland Track in January I saw an unprepared woman stumble into the hut on night one, having not eaten or drunk any water all afternoon because she was focused on getting to camp. She proceeded to go into shock.
Whilst skiing into the night on Victoria’s Razorback, my friends and I began to argue, stumble, and get off track. A quick timeout on our arses in the snow, eating shredded cheese from the bag, was all it took to clear our heads and make a plan.
By Hadi’s own admission, he hadn’t eaten breakfast, it’d been a hot day, and he was beginning to panic as it got dark. The decision to ditch the pack wasn’t made with a clear mind, but it should never, ever, be on the table. The chance you’ll need that stuff is much higher than you suddenly finding your way home.
Read more: A Beginner’s Guide to Map & Compass Navigation
My pack ain’t coming off my back | @eandrewsphoto
5. Letting Your Phone Go Flat
Seems obvious, hey? The one thing that does your mapping and lets you call for help (pending point 2) needs to be charged up to do anything. The reality is that your phone can last for ages if you aren’t looking at it all the time, so you shouldn’t ever get to a point where it dies.
Hadi’s phone was dead when he made the first navigation error that took him off Hannels Spur and into the bush. For someone not intentionally attempting an off track hike, the difference between the trail and something that looks like trail can turn things serious pretty quickly, as he demonstrated.
Pro tips for retaining battery life are turning on aeroplane mode, decreasing the brightness, and not running GPS tracking. Check out this handy reel from Outback Mike if you want to deep dive.
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To be honest though, those first few tips, along with a powerbank, allow me to use my phone for nav and copious amounts of photos. Just make sure you keep it warm if you’re camping in winter conditions. Phone batteries hate the cold.
Read more: 8 Survival Tips with Outback Mike
6. Not Staying in One Place
If Hadi had stopped the moment he’d realised that he was lost, it probably would have had a much shorter adventure, but this is a hard instinct to fight when you reckon you can un-lost yourself.
The next day, Hadi set up in a clearing and lit a fire to make smoke signals. It was actually pretty bang on – smoke’s easy to spot and he wouldn’t have been far from where he went missing. Unfortunately, he ended up very close to a bushfire which pushed him, panicked, in the wrong direction, and kicked off the chain of events that slowly led him to Opera House Hut.
Here, again, he spent three days staying put before deciding to haul himself out. To be honest, I can’t say I’d have done much differently, but I do wonder why our emergency huts don’t have some kind of emergency beacon or radio on the wall.
Inside Opera House Hut, where Hadi would have bunkered down | @eandrewsphoto
At the end of the day, a search party can only work off of an idea of where you went missing. The further you go from that point, the bigger their radius and the harder it is to find you.
‘In my case, every small negligence accumulated’
That’s how Hadi described to the ABC the series of mistakes that caused him to become so lost, and golly he’s lucky to be alive. While the mistakes appear small, many of them have a big impact when you’re hiking (or doing any other kind of self-supported adventure) and you’re completely reliant on your team and your gear.
That’s what makes it so fun and satisfying. Just like unregulated rock climbing, proving that we can still do things for ourselves, hard things that wear down the divide between human and nature, are valuable.
But don’t underestimate them. I’ve hard-won a lot of lessons out there without too many complete disasters, and now Hadi has done the same. Far from an attack on him, I’m taking his story as a chance to amplify the care and respect we need to afford nature when we tackle its wildest places.
Feature photo by @eandrewsphoto
Make Sure You’re Up to Date on Outdoor Safety
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