Alpine Tragedy

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 205, 27 February 1914, Page 5

Alpine Tragedy

RECOVERY OF A RODY. PARTY OVERWHELMED UV AN AVALANCHE. RESCUERS' DIFFICULT WORK, liy Telegraph—Press Association. Christehurch, Last Night. The body of Guide Richmond, one of the victims of the Mount Cook (Ranter, lias been fomd. Tli is morning the Hon. R. Ilea ton Rhodes, Minister in charge of the Tourist and Health Resort*, received the following telegram from Mr B. M. Wilson, general manager of the Tourist Department, now at Mount Cook Hermitage, at ft.Ha a.m.:— "The chief guide Ims just returned to the Hermitage. lie found the body of Guide Richmond, but there is 110 sign of the others. The partv had been overwhelmed by an avalanche falling 011 to the Linda Glacier from the ton of the dividing range north of Dampier and sweeping the valley for ab.iut a mile. Richmond's watch was smashed at ten minutes to five, which was about the time they were expected to be in the vicinity. Graham does not consider there is any chance of finding the bodies of King and Thomson.

"Richmond's body is being brought ifown by guides, and is due to reach h-re on Saturday night..' The Hon. R. 11, Rhodes received the following telegram from Mr. Wilson at 1 "Rescue party had a very hard time, and are resting to-day at Ball llutt, where Chief Guide Graham returns to-night with Mr Friend and three Austrian climbers, who have volunteered their assistance. The country was so rough and broken that it wa< onlv possible to get til" body out by each taking turns to carry it a few steps at » time! The body was fenrfnllv mutilated, anil barely recognisable. The "arty had 1most decided to abandon the search, when Graham saw a boot sticking out of the snow, and so discovered the body. They then tried hard to Hud the others. Ihe avalanche appeared to have been an enormous one. Practically the whole ice face fell, direct}' on to the men. The actual spot lias always been looked upon as quite safe, though there win :i dangerous one further on. This is the first fatal Occident in the Souther- Alps, which have been climbed for many years. The accident was in no way due to carelessness. Tt was simplv a' calamity of Nature. Wilson has arranged with the coroner and police for the holdiii" of the inquest. Wilson will leave the Hermitage to-morrow, ,-nd will arrive in Wellington on Sunday."

The substance 0 f tlipßo telegrams has .boetl transmitted by cable to the Iliyh Commissioner by the Government, with the request that lie inform the Alpine Pub,.of which the late Mr S. 1,. Kins was a nrominent member, and also that he convey the sympathy of the New Zealand Government to the late Mr King's relatives.

AVALANCHES! THHILLIXG STORY OF MOONLIGHT ADVENTURE. • ''' s ''°° k " M .v Climbing Adventures in Four Continents," rceentlv published m London, Mr. Samuel Turner, F.R.G.S., of New Zealand, describes his first travel se of Mount Cook in company with Messrs Fyfe, Ross, anil Graham. He says tlmt in climbinjr some rocks above the bivouac he waited for some time to get a snapshot of Mount Cook, and while waiting for the clouds to lift he took out his watch and made a stroke with a pencil on some paper for every separate avalanche he could hear. ?n the first five minutes there were sixteen, and in the second five minutes fourteen!

'•H was by moonlight," Mr. Turner says, "we intended to get over tin: Glacier Dome and the Grand Plateau. We left camp at 11.15 p.m., quitkly climbing up the ridge and over Glacier Dome, Home 8000 feet above sea level. We then descended to the snow plateau, which is a huge basin about three miles' long and nearly two miles wide. , . . We began to ascend steep slopes, dangerously near iee seracs (huge blocks of broken ice.) from Monnt Cook's rocky ridge, which were cracking all the time were were near them. Both Oraliam and I repeatedly looked up, expecting an avalanche, and while we paused, for Fyfe to take his turn at leading, tint! to be freslily roped, we saw a huge serue hundreds of tons in weight, crunch its way down into an enormous bergsciiiuiui, a huge crack noav the rocks, the rocks slanting under the ice. It racked from one side to tap other on its way down, and buried its whole length. The ice all round seemed to shiver. It set us on the move up the [slope, as we were too near ,i .ill of ice with seracs cracking, reudv to break off."

RECENT EXPLOITS. Mi;. KING ONE OF PARTY THAT MADE RECORD JOURNEY. Last month Messrs Sydney King (one of the missing men), j. D. Dcnnistoun and Lieutenant G. Dcnnistoun made nil interesting journey over the icefields on the eastern slopes of the Southern Alps. That party made itß way from the head waters of the Bangitatii across several glaciers down to Malte Brunn hut, thence to the Hermitage, having crossed St. Winifred, Godlev, Classen, and Tasman Glaciers. They claimed that theirs was the longest' high-level journey yet made in New Zealand. During the earlier portion of the trip, while traversing from the Winifred to the Godley Glaciers, a new pass about 7000 feet was •discovered. The party named it Terra Nova.