Lawyer Killed On Egmont

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30741, 4 May 1965, Page 1

Lawyer Killed On Egmont

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, May 3.

An Auckland solicitor was killed when he slipped and fell 700 feet down the southern slopes of Mount Egmont while returning from a climb to the summit this afternoon.

Rescue parties found the body in the Kapuni gorge (5000 feet) more than seven hours after the accident. They were to spend the remainder of the night bringing the body off the mountain. The dead man was Glen lan Silvester, aged 27, married, 2 Bridge street, Te Atatu. He was on an annual climbing trip with a companion, John Alexander McLeay, aged 28, a fanner of Taurimu street, Turakina, when the mishap occurred. About 20 members of the Mount Egmont Alpine Club were on the mountain when the body was found at the head of the Kapuni river. Other climbers were also waiting at the Dawson Falls Tourist Lodge for orders to set out on the search. Mr Silvester plunged down the treacherous, icy slopes from the top of the second zig-zag (6200 feet) before coming to rest in the gorge. Search and rescue parties were rushed to the mountain

when the alarm was first raised and they spent four hours searching the mountain before any traces were found. A hope that Mr Silvester would be found alive came shortly after 9 p.m. when foot-prints were found lead- • ing from the bottom of the • slide. But minutes later • searchers found the body. The accident occurred soon , after 2 p.m., Mr McLeay told , police. He said his companion . slipped on ice and disappeared within seconds. i “We were descending , slowly-from Fantham’s peak . after the summit climb,” he said. “The slopes were icy , and Glen was about three i yards behind me as we , reached the zig-zag. “Next thing he was sliding past me and I reached out i my ice-axe for him to hold. “He missed—visibility was , down to about 25 yards—and the last I saw. of him was' i when he slid out of sight in ; the mist.” ! Mr McLeay reached the lodge soon after 3 p.m. and police and search and rescue teams were immediately alerted.