RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32525, 8 February 1971, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

FALL FROM GRACE

Readers of newspapers and viewers of television will recall, a few weeks ago, the admiration they felt for the men who made the ascent of the treacherous Caroline Face of Mount Cook. This was the first such ascent, it was fraught with difficulty, and it was accomplished through a blend of courage, skill, balance, and good judgment. There is a startling sequel to this success, involving one of the two

heroes of the climb. And it came to us through the good offices of a friend of one of the climbers, who clearly has been quite unable to keep her information to herself, and little wonder. At her home there were ripe wild cherries on the top branches of the trees, and who could be better qualified to gather them than one of the heroes of the Caroline Face? So up the man went, with his bowl,

inching his way upwards, assessing the strength of the boughs. Within 60 seconds of the beginning of the ascent, the conqueror of the Caroline Face crashed heavily to the ground, where he remained for some minutes, pale and shaken. At a decent interval, he was asked again about picking cherries. “Never again,” he said. “High climbing of cherry trees is an unjustifiable risk.”