MT. TRENT TRAGEDY

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 397, 2 April 1937, Page 5

MT. TRENT TRAGEDY

BODIES RECOVERED. HEROIC ACHIEVEMENT Evidence at the Inquest. Press Association —Copyright. Oamaru, April 2. After an unenviable experience, the party of climbers succeeded in their task of bringing out the bodies of S. D. Divers, G. M. Edwards, and Roy Stevenson, who were killed on Mt. Trent last Saturday. In atrocious weather and incessant rain, the party were soaked to the skin throughout and had hardly any sleep. They carried the bodies over difficult country, and the achievement can only be described as heroic. The first members of the party arrived at Oamaru at one o’clock this morning, the bodies arriving at two o’clock. An inquest was held this morning before Mr. W. H. Frith, Coroner. The evidence disclosed that a falling boulder was passed by Roy Stevenson, who, in avoiding it, jerked Divers out of his step on the snow slope. Edwards, the third member of the section of the party, dug his ice axe in, but was unable to check the fall, and all three slid 2000 feet on to snow and jutting rocks. They were dead when reached by the others. The Coroner returned a verdict of death by misadventure.