SKIER KILLED ON EGMONT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 8

SKIER KILLED ON EGMONT

1000-Ft Slide Down Steep Gully FORMER RESIDENT OF CHRISTCHURCH (New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, July .18. A young man was fatally injured today when he slid 1000 feet down a steep gully on the southern slopes of Mount Egmont. The accident occurred when the victim was trying to climb out of difficult snow. The man killed was Alan Robin Anderson, aged 24, a house surgeon at the Hawera Public/Hospital, and the younger son of Dr. and Mrs Douglas Ander- " son, of Christchurch. Dr. Anderson had been ski-ing on Fantham’s Peak when he encountered difficult conditions. He removed his skis to enable him to climb out of the dangerous area, and slipped while doing so. He slipped at the head of the Kapuni Gorge, and slid 1000 feet down one of the gullies leading into the gorge. The snow face was studded with rocks, against which he suffered his injuries. Dr. Anderson was alive when a rescue party reached him, but he died soon afterwards. He had skied in the Southern Alps, but had not previously climbed or skied on Mount Egmont. At 12.40 p.m. Mr C. Gibson was working on the roof of Kapuni Lodge when he saw Dr. Anderson sliding down the steep snow slopes at the head of the Kapuni Gorge. Mr Gibson called to Messrs F. Enderby and G. W. Maddaford. Mr Maddaford then telephoned the Dawson Falls Hostel. Messrs Gibson, Enderby and Maddaford crossed the intervening gullies from Kapuni Lodge, and found Dr. Anderson lying among rocks at the foot of the gully down which he had slid. He was lying about 150 feet below the level of Kapuni Lodge, and had not entered the gorge proper. Rescue Organised

The party had taken blankets and a stretcher. They made Dr. Anderson as comfortable as possible. He was suffering from severe head injuries, and was unconscious. It was impossible for the three men to carry the stretcher in the waist-deep snow on the steep slopes of the gully. One of the party returned to Kapuni Lodge, reported Dr. Anderson’s condition, and returned with more blankets.

Shortly afterwards, a climbing party returned to Kapuni Lodge, and another party arrived from Dawson Falls. There was then sufficient manpower available to carry the stretcher. Dr. Anderson died while being carried to Kapuni Lodge, which was reached shortly before 3 p.m. Efforts to reconstruct events leading to Dr. Anderson’s death were made subsequently by members of the Mount Egmont Alpine Club. The search coordinator of the Taranaki Search and Rescue Organisation (Mr R. Syme, of Hawera) led the party. Marks in the snow indicated that Dr. Anderson had climbed to a prominence at about 5000 feet. From there, he made a short run on skis toward the head of the Kapuni Gorge. He turned and skied back to a point lower on the slope, and there encountered hard snow, frozen in places and becoming glazed with ice near the top of a ridge.

Icy Slope

The marks where Dr. Anderson removed his skis and began to climb down towards Kapuni Lodge were clearly visible. He was still moving on a difficult surface when he fell and slid down the boulder-strewn gully. When the party reached that point four hours later, the slope was frozen hard, and was extremely dangerous. Members of the party were roped together, and had to cut steps. They said later that it was highly probable, however, that the slopes had not been so dangerous earlier in the day. Dr. Anderson was wearing mountaineering boots and was otherwise well equipped. Twenty-nine persons have now been killed in climbing accidents on Egmont. Nine of the deaths have occurred in the last 12 months. Earlier this year, a young woman was killed when she was hit by a falling rock near the summit.