AVALANCHE ACCIDENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 31 August 1942, Page 3

AVALANCHE ACCIDENT

SKI INSTRUCTOR KILLED TRAGEDY AT ARTHUR'S' PASS When he was caught last Thursday afternoon by an avalanche of snow on the slopes of Mount Cassidy, near the Temple Hut above the head of j Arthur’s Pass. Heinrich Susmann. an Austrian ski-ing instructor, was killed. He was a resident of Dunedin and was engaged by the Christchurch Ski Club to act as coach to a party of members and friends from other clubs spending the school holidays at the Temple Hut. No one else was injured. Susmann and three members of the party—Misses Vida Muir and Isobel Kitson, and K. J. Fulton, leader of the

Ski Club party at the but —left the Temple Hut at 3.45 p.m. on Thursday and began climbing the slopes known as Cassidy slopes. Susmann leading the party. Only experienced ski-ers usually venture on these slopes. Mr G. G. Lockwood (secretary of the Christchurch Ski Club) said in a statement to the ; “Press." At 4.15 they were stiff climbing up j the slope, Susmann in a shallow gully, the two girls some distance behind Shim on the edge of the gully, and Fulton stiff further behind and away from the gully. Without warning an ava- ! lanche came down the gully from above 1 Susmann, and carried him away with jit. The girls were right on the fringe 'of the avalanche, but were not in

j | danger of being caught in it. They [ and Fulton quickly got out of their skis 1 1 and ran down to the bottom of the avajjalnche. where they found only one of j Susmann’s skis showing above the f ! snow.. They began digging with their |hands, but realised that he was deep- ’ ly buried, head downwards, and sent ' ! to the hut for shovels. It was about i 40 minutes from the time they began ’ : digging with their hands tiff they reach;jed Susmann’s head, which was buried ■ five feet in the avalanche. With hot water bottles and blankets • . from the hut. members of the party ' | attempted resuscitation for two hours • j on the hillside, but could get no sign of ? life. It was 8 o'clock before the party ■ arrived back at the hut with the body. 1 j and then a message was sent to Arthur’s ; | Pass reporting the accident to the | police. INTERNED BY NAZIS , Susmann came to New Zealand about three years ago. He was a doctor of I law in Vienna and was on the staff' of an anti-Nazi newspaper. When the j Nazis occupied Austria, the staff’ of the i paper was arrested, the manager was shot, and Susmann, with others was thrown into a concentration camp. He was an inmate of the camp for about a year. He would not speak of his experiences in the camp, except to say that one year in the camp had taken two years off his life. Through the efforts of his friends in New Zealand. Susmann was successful I in having his wife brought to this country from India. She had been in--1 terned there as an alien and joined her husband in New Zealand about 18

months ago. She is also from Vienna and is a doctor.

Mr Lockwood said that this was the first fatal accident in the history of New Zealand ski-ing. and the first one connected with an avalanche. He said that he did not wish to have speculations about the accident published until the fullest possible report had been made by two expert members of the club, who left last evening for Arthur's Pass to examine the scene of the accident.