AVALANCHE OF ICE

Southland Times, Issue 21092, 26 May 1930, Page 7

AVALANCHE OF ICE

PARTY ENGULFED KINCHLNJUNGA DISASTER VETERAN CLIMBER KILLED (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright) London, May 23. Disaster ended the first attempt to reach the first terrace, and establish camp number three on Kinchipjunga, an avalanche killing Porter Chettan, a veteran of three Everest expeditions and the 1929 Kinchinjunga expedition. The remainder of the party of five Europeans and eleven porters escaped miraculously. Everyone, after a careful study, was satisfied the route was reasonably safe, and the party set out at 9.5 on the fatal journey. The weather was ominously warm, but the previous experience had shown that avalr anches usually fall during the dense cold at night time. Dr Smythe said he heard a tremendous roar and was horrified to see an enormous portion of the ice wall immediately on the actual route break away and hundreds of thousands of tons of ice like a huge tidal wave sweep with frightful force across the snow-slopes below on which the ascending party were crawling. The party halted momentarily and then dashed frantically to the left, and the next moment the rolling snowcloud swept down blotting them out like insects.

“It was the most ghastly sight I ever witnessed,” he said. “The roar increased as the snowclouds swept down with incredible velocity, and the avalanche narrowly missed the camp. I started for the scene, fearing the worst, but when the snowcloud settled it revealed that the majority were safe, owing to a bend in the path. If they had been ten minutes earlier or later the avalanche would have engulfed them. Even then two coolies who were bruised found Chettan’s hand sticking out from ice-blocks and dug him out crushed and suffocated.” The members of the expedition decided to abandon the proposed route in favour of a longer unexplored one.

Dr Smythe concludes: “I am finishing my despatch amid the thunderous roll of avalanches.”