TRAGEDY ON RUAPEHU

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 12028, 21 May 1936, Page 3

TRAGEDY ON RUAPEHU

FALL OF_SOO FEET CLIMBER HOLDS ON FOR THREE HOURS. FINALLY DISAPPEARS. The Chateau, May 20. While climbing on Mount Ruapehu this morning, Mr. James Alexander Gordon, a solicitor, of Taumarunui, slipped on the ice, slid 200 ft. on the glassy surface and then fell nearly 300 ft. into the Crater Lake below. He managed to reach a rock at one side of the lake, but disappeared after clinging to it for nearly three hours. A climbing party of which Mr Gordon was a member set out from the Chateau early in the morning with the intention of making a traverse of Paretetaitonga, one of the peaks surrounding the Crater Lake. There were five adults and three boys in the party, two being sons of Mr. Gordon on holiday from Christ’s College, Christchurch, and although there were no guides, most of the men had had previous climbing experience.

Shortly before 11.30 a.m. the climbers reached the foot of a glacier near the peak and had lunch. As they were beginning their climb toward the head of the glacier, it was discovered that the ice was so slippery as to make further progress dangerous, and it was decided to turn hack. The party had gone only 10 or 12 yards from the place where they had had lunch when Mr. Gordon slipped on the glassy surface and began to slide down the slope toward the Jake, gathering speed every moment. His companions could do nothing, and had to watch him slide 200 ft. to the edge of an ice cliff almost 300 ft. above the waters of the lake, and disappear.

From their position, the rest of the party were unable to see Mr. Gordon, so they went round to the left of the crater, and discovered that he was clinging to a rock near one side of the lake. They called out to him, but received no reply. It was impossible to descend to the edge of the lake,' and they had to wait while one of the party went for help. Before the rescue party arrived, however, Mr. Gordon had disappeared. He was still alive at 2 o’elqck, for he called out then to his watching friends that he could not hold out much longer.

The chief guide at the Chateau, Mr C. Risberg, was at the Ruapehu Ski Club'S new hut at the foot of the Whakapapa Glacier when one of the party came running down the slope with the news of the tragedy. He sent some visitors back to the Chateau with a message asking two of the guides to bring ropes and a stretcher, and taking a rope proceeded up to the lake. When he arrived shortly before 3 o’clock, the body of Mr. Gordon could be seen distinctly floating on the lake. Mr Risberg first of ail tried to get to the left of the lake near the southeastern corner, but was checked by an absolutely sheer wall of ice, which it would have been suicidal to attempt to cross. He went back and with the assistance of the other guides tried the western wall of the lake, but the changes wrought by »£e recent eruption checked the descent. Steps were cut for 100 yards down the slope, but then another sheer wall of ice confronted the rescuers.

Mr Risberg realised that the only way in which to obtain a suitable place to reach the edge of the lake would be by walking round Paretetaitonga, and as it was then past 4 o’clock, the attempt was postponed.

Mr. Gordon, who was about 45 years of age, was a well-known resident of Taumarunui, where he had lived since 1919, and was the senior partner in the legal firm of Gordon, Nicholson and Rennie. He was a director of the Hayward Timber Company. He took his legal degree at Canterbury College, Christchurch, and served on Gallipoli, where he was severely wounded.

Mr Gordon is survived by his wife and three young sous.