MOUNTAINEERS LOST

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1929, Page 8

MOUNTAINEERS LOST

CAUGHT IN A BLIZZARD

SEATTLE, July 3. While feeling his way along a mountain ledge in an attempt to bring help to a party of mountaineers trapped on the brink of a chasm and threatened with destruction by a blizzard which nearly blew them over, .’Edwin Wetzel fell and was lost in the depths below. A little while 'before his companion, Forrest Greathouse, had fallen and dropped thousands of feet. Both wore leading American mountaineers. They were killed in a tragic attempt to find a new trail around Mount Rainier, one of the highest peaks on the western coast. Almost within sight of the famous hotel. Paradise Inn, they perished. The members of . the party, roped together, were returning from the pinnacle at an altitude of 12,000 feet, when a blizzard struck them. One man slipped, and six were dragged over the edge of a cliff. Five landed on an ice-shelf, but Greathouse' dropped thousands of feet below. The wind, which was of terrific force-, threatened to dash the others into the chasm. Finally Wetzel disengaged himself from the rope, and attempted to go forward to get rescuers, but ho himself fell and was lost. When the storm abated Robert Strobel made his way inch by inch, and hours later arrived at Camp Muir, where help was obtained.