Found Exhausted On Mt. Ruapehu

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30558, 29 September 1964, Page 18

Found Exhausted On Mt. Ruapehu

(New Zealand Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, September 28. A woman lost on Mount Ruapehu yesterday was found exhausted on Bruce road at 8 o’clock tonight after walking for three hours through the snow.

She is Mrs Shirley Perrett, a Canadian, whose husband is ski instructor at the Chateau Tongariro. The couple are touring New Zealand. Mrs Perrett won the

women’s slalom at last week's national ski championships on Ruapehu. Mrs Perrett, an experienced climber, got lost when she skied too far west and into the Bluff at the head of the Makatote river. She was last seen on the Paretetaitonga peak at 1.30 p.m. When she had not returned at 4 p.m., her husband notified the police, and four search parties left the Chateau soon afterwards.

Conditions were good and the going was not hard, said the chief ranger (Mr J. W. Mazey), but no ski tracks could be found. While the searchers were covering the mountain area, Mrs Perrett was trying to find familiar ground. She climbed down the bluff at the head of the river and made her way down the valley. She did not strike the road until three hours later.

A constable walking up the road found her, about half a mile from the Top-of-the-Bruce.