TRAGEDY FEARED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 178, 31 July 1933, Page 8

TRAGEDY FEARED.

CLIMBER MISSING. CAUGHT IN A SNOW SLIDE? STUDENTS AT ARTHUR'S PASS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. Grave anxiety is felt for the safety of Mr. Edgar Russell, aged 23, a student at the Teachers' Training College, who was missed from a party which attempted to climb Avalanche Peak at Arthur's Pass yesterday. It is thou-lit that he may have been caught in a snow slide, which injured two other members of the party, but his absence was not noticed until the party was returning to the township at Arthur's Pass. The party, which included a number of Canterbury College students and members of the Otago University debating team, found the trip up the peak strenuous. Only 18 of the climbers proceeded higher than tile bushline. It has not yet hc.cn established whether Russell climbed the peak, as shortly after leaving the bushline several members of the party were caught in a four-feet deep snow slide, which broke without warning, crashing 200 feet. Two members of the party were slightly injured, Mr. W. S. Gilkinson (Otago) being cut on the head, and Mr. W. Hurtshouso sustaining a leg abra.ion. By the time the party reached Springfield on the return railway trip to Christchurch it was ascertained for certain that Mr. Russell was not on the train. Six men, thereupon, returned to Arthur's Pass by motor lorry and initiated a search which was continued this morning by two parties. So far efforts have been unavailing, and it is feared that Mr. Russell has been buried under the snow slide. Up till 1 p.m. no news had been received of the missing climber. A search party had to turn back while on Avalanche Peak owing to wretched weather this morning. They found a snow slide from 150 yards to 90 yards wide and Bft thick. It is about 200 ft from the peak. Russell, it is believed, was buried in this snow, but the blizzard which is now raging, following frost, makes search impossible. In fact, Guide Coberger says the body may not bo found until the thaw takes place in the spring. More snow has fallen overnight.