Hurt Climbers Flown Out

Press, Issue 30996, 28 February 1966, Page 1

Hurt Climbers Flown Out

(From Our Own Reporter)

TIMARU, Feb. 27.

One of two climbers injured in a fall on the Copland Pass on Friday is in the Timaru Hospital with concussion and a fractured forearm. He is Patrick Sheridan, a Mount Cook National Park Board employee, of Christchurch, whose condition was reported tonight to be satisfactory.

The second climber, Michael Crozier, of Portobello, Dunedin, who suffered a sprained ankle in the fall, was discharged by the hospital this morning.

The men slept in the shelter of rocks on Friday night after an attempt to evacuate them to Hooker Hut had to be abandoned. They were carried out by stretcher parties, who left the scene of the accident at 6.15 ami. on Saturday.

A halt was made at the Hooker Hut to repair stretchers, and the injured climbers were evacuated to the Hooker track, from which they were taken to a waiting aircraft. The men were flown to the Timaru airport at Levels in a Cessna 185 aircraft piloted by Mr Struan Robertson. Mrs Crozier, the wife of Michael Crozier, was also a passenger. From the Timaru airport, the injured men were transported by a Timaru St. John Ambulance on the arrival of the Cessna at 7.50 p.m., to Timaru Hospital. Messrs Sheridan and Crozter were accompanied initially on their trans-South-ern Alps trip by David Mitchell, of Dunedin, and Lindt say Strang, of Nelson. It was Mr Strang who gave news of the accident by radio from Hooker Hut, which, at an altitude of 3700 feet, is a transit hut for excursions up the Hooker Valley or over the Copland Pass to the West Coast, about 2.45 p.m. on Friday. By 9.15 p.m. there were three parties in the Hooker Valley. The 36 men engaged in the rescue operations were under the leadership in the field of Ranger B. L. Jenkinson.

The three-pronged rescue operation was organised by the park board’s chief ranger (Mr M. L. Burke), in conjunction with the Timaru police. Reinforcements were also sent from Timaru on Friday night to assist in the rescue.