Weather hampering Vic search for hunter

SYDNEY (AAP)- Extreme weather is hampering the search for missing hunter David Prideaux, who has now spent three nights lost in the Victorian alps in freezing conditions and dense bush.
Mr Prideaux, 50, the general manager of the maximum-security Barwon Prison, disappeared on Sunday morning in the Alpine National Park, near Mansfield in Victoria's northeast.
About 100 police officers, SES volunteers and Bush Search and Rescue volunteers have been scouring the region and have not given up hope.
Bush Search and Rescue Victoria field organiser Rik Head said the weather was making it difficult for searchers.
"There's about three or four inches (10.16 centimetres) of snow on the ground at the moment," Mr Head told ABC radio on Wednesday.
"It's very cold, minus one, minus two, I guess.
"It's making conditions very tricky for all the searchers."
A Victoria Police spokeswoman earlier said the main concern was the weather and the extreme temperatures Mr Prideaux was experiencing.
"The issue for us is the cold and any injuries he may have received," she said.
Mr Prideaux is an experienced hunter and was well-equipped to cope with the weather over a short time, but he wasn't carrying an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon).
Search and rescue teams have been concentrating on an area around Tomahawk Hut, in the Black Spur Track area, where Mr Prideaux was last seen.