MISSING SKIERS FOUND

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 11

MISSING SKIERS FOUND

WITHOUT FOOD FOR NINE DAYS RESCUERS* DIFFICULT TASK (united puss association —copyright.) (Received August 19, 11.30 p.tn.) MELBOURNE, August 19. The missing skiers, Clive Cole and Michael Hull, were found at the spot where their companion, Howard Mitchell, left them on Friday in order to seek help. Cole is reported to be in a very bad way, but Hull was able to struggle to his feet when the rescuers arrived at 8.30 ajn. yesterday. . , _ „ Both men had to be carried five miles to the nearest packhorses, and it is thought that they would have reached Omeo hospital by this evening. The men had been without food for nine days, exposed to the worst blizzard within the memory of local residents. Mitchell’s condition is still serious. His feet are badly frost-bitten, and it may be necessary to amputate some of his toes. A later message says that Cole is delirious and is not expected to live. Hull, although too weak to walk, is making a good recovery, and is cheerful. Both he and Cole are now at Glen Valley, a tiny mining village 13 miles from the spot where they were lost. Hull told the rescuers, a party of seven expert cattlemen and bushmen, that he'and his companion were on short rations for three days and without food for seven days. They had only sis? matches, which they exhausted in trying to light a fire from snow-encrusted soaked timbers. Cole kept up his spirits until Monday night, when he became convinced that Mitchell had not got through. Hull and Cole are suffering severely from frostbite. The rescuers came on them in a strange way. Just when giving up hope, a member of the search party at the top of a ravine shouted loudly. He heard a faint whistle in reply. Then he saw Hull struggle from the bush, clinging to the trees to support himself. The party carried the pair on improvised stretchers through forbidding country and deep ravines, often wading waist deep in icy water with their burden. It was raining last night. Altogether 120 men, including the whole of the Glen Valley miners, were engaged in the search. Some of the searchers are not expected to return for several days. [Saying that he and two companions had been lost, in the snow without food for five days, and that his mates were unable to continue walking, Mitchell staggered into the Glen Valley Post Office in Victoria on Monday night. Mitchell said that he and his companions, Cole and Hull, had left on a short trip near Mount Bongong. They took no emergency rations or sleeping bags. A blizzard came up. and they wandered for five days. Mitchell undertook to push on to try to get assistance,!