Obituary Mr Mick Bowie

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 3

Obituary Mr Mick Bowie

Mr' Andrew Robert Michael Bowie, popularly known as "Mick of Mount Cook,” died in Hanmer Springs on Friday, aged 80.

He was well known in mountaineering circles. A friend of Sir Edmund Hillary and Mr Harry Ayres, he was one of the 33 "inaugural members of- the club for New Zealand mountaineers who had climbed more than 6100 m (20,000 feet). He made more than 200 ascents.

In Canterbury he was best known for his long, association with the Hermitage and Mount Cook. He retired in 1970 after more than 40 years as an alpine guide. He was the chief guide at Mount Cook from 1939 to 1955. He climbed its peaks 12 times.

His most famous rescue was in 1948, when a climber, Miss Ruth Adams, was seriously injured after falling

from a high ridge x on Mount La Perouse. Mr Bowie carried her by stretcher over the 3079 m summit to the West Coast. It was a daring

departure from tradition

Mr Bowie, who was born in Timaru, helped guide three women in an ascent of a 6200 m mountain in SouthWest China in 1937.

Although he was over the age limit he volunteered for service in World War II and saw action in North Africa, where he was commissioned. He was badly injured and invalided home.

He spent more than a year in Burwood Hospital undergoing skin graft surgery before returning to Mount Cook in 1944 with his new wife, Mrs Nan Bowie.

She recorded the story of his career as an alpine guide in a book entitled “Mick Bowie: The Hermitage Years.”

Mrs Bowie, who survives him, said yesterday that life on the mountain with one of the men who knew it best was “wonderful.”