LOST ON MOUNT COOK.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16484, 25 February 1914, Page 9

LOST ON MOUNT COOK.

ALPINE DISASTER FEARED. ] . i ENGLISH TOURIST AND TWO j , GUIDES MISSING. *. TRACKS OBLITERATED BY AN AVALANCHE. The Hon R. H. Rhodes, Minister in charge of Tourist and Health Resorts, yesterday afternoon received tha following telegram from Mr B, M. Wilson, manager of the Tourist Department, who is on his way from the Hermitage to the West Coast, via Copland Pass, as follows: “I regret to inform you that I fear a serious accident has occurred on Mount Cook. ‘ An English climber, Mr S. L. King, with Guides Thompson and Richmond, left on Friday afternoon to climb Mount Cook from Tasman side. They were seen on the summit at noon on Thursday by Messrs Turner and Dennistoun, who were at the Haast bivouac and who were up at Glacier Dome at 4 p.m. looking for them. Their steps down again were picked up that evening by three climbing from th< Hooker side of Mount Cook, Mi Friend, and Guides Conrad Kane and Brass. “ This party followed* the track until it was obliterated by a huge avalanche which came off the . overhanging ice-wall on the Linda Glacier, between the Silberhorn and Teichelmann Peaks. The glacier is very broken here, and if the party was caught they would be swept int< a crevasse and never be seen agaip. Mr Friend’s party reached the bivouac at 2.30 p.m., when Messrs Turner and Dennistoun, were proposing to start, but on finding no trace of Mr King and his guides they became alarmed and reported on their arrival at the Hermitage. “Chief Guide Graham was wit! me at the Hooker Hut last night, going to Copland, when two guides came from the Hermitage with new: that Thompson’s party had not returned. Graham immediately returned to the Hermitage in dreadful wea ther, and left at daylight with foui guides and Conrad Kane to searci, for the party, but neither Graham nor Kane hold out any hope of finding the missing men. If I have further news to report I will telegrapf you to-night.” J