Climber breaks leg

Press, 5 January 1979, Page 1

Climber breaks leg

The spotlight at Mount Cook National Park headquarters switched from the Linda Glacier to the Copeland Pass (2148 m on the Main Divide, soon after 12.20 p.m. yesterday. An aerial search of the Linda Glacier for two avalanche victims had ended, when the alarm bell from the Hooker Hut (1100 m on the west side of the Hooker Valley and at the foot of the Copeland Pass, rang at park headquarters. The message said that a

climber had fallen about 12m down a bluff on the western side of the Copeland Pass and had broken a leg. He is Robert Renwick, aged 20, of 94 Songer Street, Nelson. A Whirl-wide Helicopters, Ltd, Jet Ranger helicopter with Mr E. McGregor at the controls had been supporting the R.N.Z.A.F.’s Iroquois heli* copter in the Linda Glacier rescue. The Jet Ranger flew into the Copeland Pass

area with Mr R. Gaskill, a member of the park staff, to recover the injured man. The accident occurred at 11 a.m. and the helicopter was back at park headquarters at 1.30 p.m. Mr Renwick was later flown by helicopter to Twizel, where he was transferred to a St John ambulance and taken to the Timaru Hospital. He underwent surgery at 5.30 p.m. His condition last evening was given as satisfactory.