Weather hampers search

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32775, 27 November 1971, Page 1

Weather hampers search

A full-scale search, hampered by bad weather and aerial turbulence yesterday, for the two climbers missing on Mount Sefton in the Southern Alps, is expected to be resumed at first light today.

Bad weather closed in after the two climbers —Mrs Helen Irwin, aged 28, the wife of the senior ranger at the Mount Cook National Park headquarters, and Mr Murray McPhail, of Kimberley, British Columbia, completed the ascent of the east face of Mount Sefton (10,359 ft They were last seen about 1 pun. on Monday on the summit ridge. They had rations for two days. Helicopters were called in to help search yesterday, but turbulence caused a halt to the aerial search concentrated on the Moorhouse Range from both sides of the Main Divide.

Late last night ground par-

ties were standing by to move in at first light if the weather permitted. But the" forecast was for more snow.

"I have grave fears for the safety of the- climbers,” the chief ranger and search field controller (Mr B. W. Thomas) told the Timaru reporter of “The Press” last evening.

Since Mrs Irwin and Mr McPhail, who is employed at Mount Cook, climbed the Mount Sefton east face—only the fourth successful attempt —the weather had closed in. Snow was down to 3000 ft, which is only 500 ft above the Hermitage, and there was little visibility. A partial clearance on Thursday evening enabled a

reconnaissance to be made by a Mount Cook Air Services Cessna ski-equipped aircraft, piloted by Mr D. Wilkes, and with Mr Thomas, Mr Lyall Irwin, Mrs Irwin’s husband, and Mr P. Gough as observers.

The search was focused on Mount Sefton’s east face and features on the western side of the Main Divide—Copland

Valley, the Douglas neve, and the western side of Mount Sefton—the highest peak in the Moorhouse Range, whose tremendous ice precipices soar a full 7000 ft to the inscrutable sphinxshaped summit. Avalanches are a great danger. Yesterday, at 5.30 a.m., a Wing-Hunters, Ltd, helicopter from Fox Glacier, with Mr G. McNutt at the controls and carrying search observers, surveyed the same areas, but easterly conditions with strong winds precluded a resumption of the search. A Sioux helicopter from the R.N.Z.A.F. station at Wigram was called in. It arrived at Mount Cook at 11.25 a.m. but the turbulence kept the machine at Mount Cook.

The weather did not prevent a Wigram-based Iroquois helicopter from landing at the Mount Cook airfield at 6.45 p.m. with a face-rescue team from Christchurch, which the chief ranger has placed on stand-by. A conference on ground parties was held in consul-

tation with Inspector L. E. Bardwell, the Timaru police search controller. Constable L. Dickey, of Twizel, is assisting the chief ranger at park headquarters. Depending on the weather the Iroquois helicopter is expected to land a field party of about four men at daybreak to search the Scott Creek area between the Douglas neve and the Copland Valley. Mr Thomas said it also was planned to search the Tekana Glacier and the bush in Scott Creek. An aerial search would also be carried out, he said.

Yesterday evening, the weather was south-west, with heavy cloud on the Main Divide, and intermittent showers. Mr Thomas said that air currents yesterday became very boisterous on- the Main Divide.

“There is exceptionally big snow on the western and eastern sides of the Main Divide, and the high slopes are in constant danger from avalanches,” said Mr Thomas.