Nearly 14 years have passed since a winter tragedy in the Kosciuszko National Park snatched away Ian Pincini's son, but it doesn't take much for the memories to come flooding back.
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Dean Pincini died together with Timothy Friend and brothers Scott and Paul Beardsmore when they were caught in a snowstorm in the national park in August 1999.
The close friends, all in their 20s, had set out on a back-country snowboarding expedition when conditions suddenly changed.
After a land and air search involving more than 60 people and covering 300 square kilometres, their bodies were found four months later in the melting remnants of a snow cave.
Ian Pincini said he has been ''riding very closely'' news of the search for missing Canadian bushwalker Prabhdeep Srawn, who was last seen near Kosciuszko on May 13.
''When something like that happens it just brings it to the front of your mind again,'' he said. ''I feel like I see it every day.'' Speaking from his home in Sydney's Beacon Hill, Mr Pincini said anyone travelling in the national park back-country or remote wilderness should be required to carry a personal locator beacon or GPS device.
''We were in Vanuatu when the boys were lost. When we got home the police met us with all the maps and the weather details, and I looked at it all and thought they will have aborted and headed for Seamen's Hut. It's exactly what they did, and they were only a couple of hundred metres away.''
Mr Srawn, a Bond University law student, has not been seen since parking his rental car at the Charlotte Pass Village on May 13, sparking a search by police, State Emergency Service and National Parks and Wildlife Service officers.
Early efforts to find the 25-year-old focused on the area around Seamen's and nearby Opera House Hut but police scaled down the search on May 30 after advice from medical experts and weather forecasters.
Mr Srawn's family criticised the decision to scale down rescue operations and a search by a private company continues in the area.
In early 2000, the Pincinis and parents of his companions donated 12 emergency beacons to rescue units to thank them for their efforts. "To me it should be mandatory that they take a beacon with them," Mr Pincini said this week.
Media reports during the 1999 search said Dean had considered renting a beacon before setting out but decided against it.
"The area where they are looking at the moment is exactly where we went over for 102 days," Mr Pincini said.
Mr Pincini said technology was the only way to provide adventure seekers and athletes with safety. ''You can't stop them doing what they love doing. It's just a matter of how well equipped and prepared people are.''
Mr Srawn's sister Mandeep said on Monday the family would stay in Australia until Mr Srawn was found.
''I will not turn my back on this until the highest levels of authority know and change the way things work,'' she said. ''God forbid this ever happens to someone else.''
