Climbers lucky to survive blizzard

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 3

Climbers lucky to survive blizzard

(New Zealand Press Association) WANGANUI, September 2. ; Four dangerous days ended almost in anti-climax this morning for three men stranded on Mount Ruapehu by blizzards since Sunday. .. . ■

jn company with the rescue party that had gone to find them, the meh walked into the Tukino alpine village about / 9 a.m., having strolled down from the Whangaehu Hut in the first sunshine the area has seen in more than a week. The men, Messrs Paul Hazelwood, aged 27, of Akatarawa ' (near Wellington);

> Tom Clarke, aged 30, of I Upper, Hutt, and Craig Row- ‘ ley, aged 30, of Wellington, * were none the worse for ! their experience except for > being hungry, tired and cold. ; The men, all experienced i cliffibers, left Tukino village, ' oh the Waiouru. side of ’ Mount Ruapehu, on Satur--1 day,., to climb round the i eastern side of the mountain. They planned to be back at the village on Sunday night, 1 but, when the weather worsened, bringing sleet, snow r , and gales on Sunday after-

noon, they decided to spend! the night at the Whangaehu hut at 6800 ft. They were well equipped and had ample food for two days, but, when their supplies began to run out, they decided to attempt to get back to the village on Monday morning. They set out at about 10 a.m. in what residents described the worst blizzard in that part of the mountain since 1968. For two hours they toiled down the mountain towards the village, which is at 5600 feet. Their way was blocked by a sharp bluff round which there was no way, Mr Hazelwood said. Although they knew that the village could be as little as a quarter of a mile away, they had no recourse but to try to get back to the Whangaehu Hut. They spent four hours fighting their way through thigh-deep snow up the steep back of the mountain. “At one time we thought we would have to try to bivouac somewhere, because we were just too exhausted to keep going," Mr Clarke said. “If we had ‘biwied’ they would have had to carry us out this morning, and I doubt if we would have lasted,” he said.

They regained the hut at 4 p.m., then sat out three nights and two days of howling winds, with almost no food and very little warmth. "We were on a starvation diet at the end," Mr Hazelwood said. “One of our dishes consisted of custard powder and water.”

The weather broke today and the Wellington face rescue squad, which had been called in by the police to search for the men, found them as they were about to leave the hut. Little more than half an hour later they were at the village.