SEARCH FOR CLIMBERS ENDS IN TRAGEDY

Press, Issue 31095, 25 June 1966, Page 1

SEARCH FOR CLIMBERS ENDS IN TRAGEDY

All Presumed Dead; Rescuer Killed

(From Our Own Reporter)

ARTHUR’S PASS, June 24.

An avalanche near the top of the Otira slide at 9 o’clock last night, and fresh snow and slips on the Otira face, turned the epic rescue attempt on Mount Rolleston into a tragedy. The avalanche buried the eight men of one of the high-climbing teams who were camped in three tents at 5500 ft on the slide. One of New Zealand’s finest mountaineers was suffocated under 10ft of snow.

The fresh snow and slips obliterated every trace —except for a rope stretched across a snow chute —of the four young climbers stranded high on the Otira face since Sunday. At 2 p.m. today all hope of the four being found alive was officially abandoned.

The critical avalanche conditions led to the abandonment at 3 p.m. of the biggest high-altitude search and rescue attempt ever mounted in this country.

The mountaineer killed was:

JOHN HARRISON, aged 34, a commercial artist, of Waimairi road, Christchurch. He was married, with two children, aged four and three vears.

The missing climbers, presumed dead, are:

BRUCE FERGUSON, aged 19, of 105 Southampton street, Christchurch;

COLIN ROBERTSON, aged 20, of 12 Arthur street, Invercargill, a student at Canterbury University;

MICHAEL HARPER, aged 19. of 22 Larklands avenue, Ilkstone, Derbyshire; and

JEFFREY WILBY, aged 19, of 58 Gloucester road, Blackburn, Lancashire.

Two of the climbers who had been buried in the avalanche left the slide at 11 p.m. At 3.30 a.m. today they used the emergency telephone at the summit of Arthur’s Pass to inform the search headquarters that Mr Harrison had been killed.

Brilliant Sunshine It was a black day at Arthur’s Pass township. Ironically, the sun was shining brilliantly from a blue sky, with snow on the towering mountains down to 1500 ft Twelve climbers left Arthur’s Pass for the Otira slide camp soon after 7 a.m. Reports that three of the five climbers left at the Otira slide camp hud been

injured by the avalanche were found false. The first three of the survivors who had stayed on the slide until after first light arrived back at Arthur’s Pass, after walking out, about the same time as a high-altitude helicopter arrived from Okuru, South Westland. Helicopter Search The helicopter in several flights brought news that the last two survivors of the avalanche were well on the way out, and that the eight men of the rescue team in

the Crow Neve camp at 7100 ft were all safe and well. This team had been on the summit soon after dawn, but conditions were such the mountaineers were unable to attempt any rescue on the Otira face. The air of sadness in Arthur’s Pass deepened when Mr Harrison’s body was flown out by the helicopter. Rope Only Sign The helicopter made four sweeps of the Otira face, at times flying only 14ft from the 4000 ft vertical dro >. The pilot and observers could see where the stranded climbers had been. But the ledge and rocks were piled high with snow. A rope across a snow chute, apparently

anchored at both ends, was the only sign of the missing climbers.

The search was officially abandoned at 2 p.m. At 2.35 p.m. there was a last flicker of hope when a message was radioed from a returning support party that something dark, possibly men, could be seen on the Otira face.

Sleeping-bags

That hope faded when the helicopter crew reported that the dark objects were sleep-ing-bags blown off the summit by the wind from the rotor when the machine hovered on the mountain top while taking supplies to the high-altitude team. The 120 weary, dispirited men who had taken part in the search left the township in trucks, utility vehicles, and cars. No more men will be sent on to the mountaiii until the critical avalanche conditions have gone.