Climber Sleeping After Ordeal

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30947, 31 December 1965, Page 1

Climber Sleeping After Ordeal

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, December 30.

Mr Anek Chelling, the 23-year-old Colombo Plan student who was missing for four days on Mount Ruapehu, was fast asleep tonight at the home of the Tongariro National Park Board’s chief ranger, Mr J. W. Mazey.

Mr Chelling and three rangers who had gone to look for him were found this afternoon near the Dome Hut, where they had sheltered from the worst summer weather on Mount Ruapehu for

years. “It is hard to believe that I am alive and it is just wonderful to be alive,” said Mr Chelling when he reached the park board’s headquarters near the Chateau Tongariro this afternoon. Then he had a hot bath and a meal of chicken broth and went to bed. The four had been trapped in the hut since Monday, unable to radio to headquarters that they were safe because it was so cold their radio had iced up. The rangers are Messrs lan Blackmore, John Smithson and Peter Fletcher.

A radio message received at 12.25 p.m. today said they were safe and were making their way down the mountain by way of the Whangaehu Glacier on the south-western side.

Mr Chelling set off with three Australian friends on Sunday to climb to the crater lake, but his friends turned back when one of the girls in the party felt sick. Mr Chelling decided that as the weather “was still nice” he would carry on. But within minutes the weather deteriorated, and when he reached the rim of the crater lake the mist was so thick he could not see his ray. “1 was pushed round by the wind and I had to crawl,” he said. “The hailstones were battering me.”

Finally he crawled up a knob to see where he had to go, and to his amazement saw a hut—"the most beautiful sight in the world.” HAD TO CRAWL

Although it was only 100 yards away, it took Mr Chelling a long time to crawl to it. He forced open the door and fell inside exhausted. In the hut were clothing and blankets and a box “to be opened only in emergency.’ This contained supplies which were to prove welcome to the party during the next few days. The three rangers had set out for the hut on Monday morning. Visibility was zero and the conditions were so bad that at noon they decided to dig a snow cave and wait until the weather cleared. STUMBLED ON HUT While the other two dug the cave, Mr Fletcher did some forays and finally stumbled on the hut, which was not far from where the others were digging. In the hut he met Mr Chelling with the words: “Nice to have found you.” Mr Chelling replied: “I am glad to see you, too.” Today Mr Chelling said Mr Fletcher was “the best-look-ing fellow 1 have ever seen.” FOUND SAFE Four Wellington mountaineers who had been missing on the mountain were found at 1.50 p.m. today. They had been last heard from at 1.30 p.m. yesterday when they reported by radio they were digging in at 8200 ft. The head of the Search and Rescue Organisation, Inspector L. D. Bridge, said: “They were blown off the plateau, their tent was blown away, and they have just been found where they went down the Whangaehu (east) side of the mountain.” The Dome hut was intended solely as an emergency shelter, a former Tongariro National Park Board ranger, Mr A. Salmon, said today. It was wired down on a bare, windswept rock. “It is the only place it could be sited and not be completely covered with snow at times,” he said. “If it saves no other lives than this one it has shown the wisdom of the park board in putting it there.” TO JOIN FRIENDS Mr Chelling will spend a few days recovering at the home in Te Kuiti of a Thai schoolteacher, Mr Tahna Na Nagara. Mr Na Nagara arrived at Mt. Ruapehu today about two hours after Mr Chelling arrived back from the Dome hut.