Climber Rescued After Fall Down Snow Slope

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30348, 25 January 1964, Page 14

Climber Rescued After Fall Down Snow Slope

(From Our' Own Reporter) TIMARU, January 24. Injured in a fall in which he and a companion were badly bruised and stunned when they slid for about 200 ft down a snow slope in the Sealy Range this morning, a young man was brought back to the Hermitage at 9.15 p.m. suffering from loss of memory and abrasions. He received medical attention and was reported late this evening to be comfortable.

He is Wayne Still, a Canadian, in his early twenties, who is on a working holiday.

Rescue parties sighted him and headed him off as he was nearing the dangerous area on Annette Ridge where Henry Nankivell Andrew Frame, aged 21, of 506 Hereford street, Christchurch, met his death in a fall on October 21. 1963. The manager of the Hermitage (Mr L. S. Dennis) said that a message was received at 2 p.m. that a man was in difficulty on the Sealy Range. A subsequent signal said he was being assisted in the descent.

Still, and Graham Ward, a 20 year-old-student from the North Island, who has been employed at the Hermitage since Christmas as a glacier guide, left the hotel early this morning with the intention of climbing three peaks—Annette (7351 ft Kitchener (6600 ft and Olivier (6296 ft in the Sealy Range.

The climb began at 8 a.m. Still was leading as they climbed over a rocky ridge. He went up from there to a basin filled with snow. He either slipped or the snow gave way, and he fell back. In falling he struck Ward, and both went hurtling down the snow slope. They lost their axes and packs, but Ward managed to arrest himself to some extent by digging in his arms and feet.

However he slid to the bottom of the slope. When Ward went to his companion he found that he was confused and inclined to be delirious.

“Ward helped him back for some distance but decided that progress was too slow so he placed him in a rock shelter below Mount Kitchener and left food and equipment,” said Mr Dermis. He went on to the Hermitage for help and arrived there at 1.30 p.m. Wind conditions were too strong to permit a skiequipped aircraft to land on the Annette plateau so the

Mount Cook National Park Board’s chief ranger (Mr J. L. Burke) set off with a rescue party of seven men about 2 p.m.

When they reached the spot they found that Still had disappeared. They followed his tracks for some distance and saw that they were leading towards the head of Blackbirds creek, which is a very precipitous area. A message was flashed back to the Hermitage by portable radio saying that the party had been unable to reach the injured man. Another party of five had come in from Empress hut (8300 ft on the western buttresses of Mount Cook, and it was sent around the foot of Blackbirds creek and instructed to walk up towards the bluff. Still was sighted about 6.30 pjn., and Mr Burke’s party closed in on him from behind while the second party made contact.

Mr Ward can recall little of what occurred when they went tumbling down the snow slide. “It was just a mass of blue and white,” he said.

Today was the seventh occasion since October that the search and rescue organisation ait Mount Cook had been called on to mount searches and rescue operations in the area.