DEATH OF TWO CLIMBERS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24866, 4 May 1946, Page 8

DEATH OF TWO CLIMBERS

CORONER’S VERDICT AT INQUEST

From Our Own Reporter

TIMARU, May 3. A verdict that Arthur Clelland Lees and Hans Rudolph Lerchenthal had met their deaths on December 27, 1945, while climbing on Mount Cook, by falling into the Berschrund, was returned by the Coroner (Mr G. G. Chisholm) at an inquest at Timaru to-day, into the deaths of the twd men. The Coroner added that the evidence had also shown that under the conditions the mountain had not been fit to be climbed, and that the two men had climbed it in spite of a warning by the chief guide at Mount Cook.. Mr J. P. Steven appeared for the father of Lerchenthal and Mr J. W. Rolleston for the Federated Alpine Clubs. Andrew Robert Michael Bowie, chief guide at the Hermitage, said that on the evening of December 22, 1945, he had.met Lees and Lerchenthal at the Hermitage and they had informed him that they were leaving for the Gardner Hut the following morning to climb Mount Cook, and that they would be away a week. On the morning of January 3, 1946, as the two men had then been overdue, he had set out for the Gardner Hut. On the table in the hut he had found a note signed by both itees and Lerchenthal stating that they were leaving at 6 a.m. on December 27, 1945, to climb the lower peak, of Mount Cook. He had then realised, that the climbers had met with disaster and he had organised a search party at the Hermitage, setting out for the Gardner Hut cm the following day. On the morning of January 5, a search party had left the Gardner hut and climbed to a height of about 9000 feet, where it had found a broken ice axe and a boot fitted with crampons. From the condition of thie equipment found, he was of the opinion that the climbers had fallen from the rock face above the Empress glacier, and that the bodies were now in the Berschrund, which was a crevasse where the glacier first broke away from the mountain. . t , During the period the two climbers had been away the weather had been bad and the condition of the ice and snow for climbing oh Mount Cook had been treacherous and unsafe. He did not know the capabilities of the two men as climbers. He had examined the crampon on the boot, two spikes of which had been broken and others badly twisted, which showed that they must have been in violent contact with rocks. J To Mr Steven, Bowie said that there were not other parties of climbers at the Hooker or Gardner huts at the time of the accident. Lees and Lerchenthal had been a guideless party; and he had had no personal responsibility for it. The climb from the Hooker hut called for considerable knowledge and skill, and under the conditions would have been dangerous f °When b asked by Mr Steven how was it that the boot had come off the foot, Bowie said that it was not uncommon for centrifugal force to pull a man’s boots off when he was spinning in the air after having fallen. He had had 18 years’ experience in climbing in that region. Questioned by the Coroner, Bowie said he had told the two men that the mountain had been hopelessly out of condition for climbing, and they had replied that they would go up to the Gardner hut and climb some of the smaller peaks. Bowie said .that with a competent companion he would not have attempted to climb the south peak under the conditions which had been prevailing. Wallace George Lowe, who was acting as guide at Mount Cook when the two men met their deaths, told Mr Steven that as far as he knew he had been the last person to see iJees and Lerchenthal, and that had been when the men were on their way to the Gardner hut. ■■ Evidence was also given by Constable Thomas W. Round, of Fairlie.