Rescue today for trapped climbers if weather calms

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 1

Rescue today for trapped climbers if weather calms

By

LES BLOXHAM,

at Mount Cook

Hopes were high last evening for a dawn rescue today of the two climbers who have been trapped in an ice cave for 10 days near the summit of Mount Cook.

An expected temporary improvement in the weather early this morning could provide rescuers with the respite they urgently need to pluck Mark Inglis and Philip Doole from their icy prison. The men, who were found by a helicopter late on Tuesday evening, are suffering from frostbite and hypothermia. Warm clothing, sleeping bags, food, a fuel stove, and a radio transmitter were dropped to them just before dark that evening. But high winds, turbulence, and cloud dashed any chance of a rescue attempt yesterday. A helicopter which had been standing by at dawn flew up the Hooker Valley to assess conditions at 6 a.m.,. but was soon forced back by the bad weather. Westerlies gusting at more than 40 knots, with associated turbulence and downdraft, buffeted the Frenchmade high-performance Squirrel helicopter before its pilot, Mr Ron Small, of Tekapo, reluctantly aborted the mission. “We were wanting to check the feasibility of dropping a climbing party on to the Empress Ice Shelf,” said Mr Small. It was only his skill which

enabled the successful supply drop the previous evening. . “Winds near the summit were so strong that it was impossible to hover anywhere near the climbers’ bivouac,” he said. Mighty updrafts kept thrusting the helicopter above the summit. The drop was eventually accomplished only when Mr Small flew several hundred feet below the bivouac. As he rode the updraft the supplies were dropped when the helicopter passed the ice cave, like a non-stop lift. Yesterday' the marooned men were kept informed of the rescue plans. Frequent radio transmissions were made between the rescue headquarters and the “middle peak hotel”. The messages had to be brief, as the transmitter’s batteries have a life of only 25 minutes. Last evening they were more than a third exhausted. Nevertheless, messages of encouragement from the climbers’ friends and relatives were relayed, with medical advice. Messrs Inglis and Doole have had to remove their boots because of swelling to their feet, believed to have been caused by frostbite. However, the chief ranger

at Mount Cook, Mr Bert Youngman, emphasised that the men appeared to be in good heart. Dr Dick Price, of Oamaru, one of the two doctors on stand-by at the rescue headquarters, said he believed that they would be in a stable condition. While their frostbite would not be getting any better, they would in themselves be 100 per cent' happier than they were before they were found, he said. Mr Youngman, and the search and rescue controller, Mr Martin Heine, told a press conference that any attempt to mount a rescue mission'with parties on foot had to be ruled out while the weather was bad. “There would be no logic in committing other climbers to obvious dangers and risks just because we happen to know these men,” said Mr Heine. “They are physically better off where they are,” he said. When the weather improved, a helicopter could land beside the schrund (ice cave) and have them back at the rescue headquarters within eight minutes, said Mr Youngman. Both Mr Heine and Mr Youngman said that the men were in no immediate dan-

ger; they had sufficient supplies to last for more than a week.

The possibility of using an Air Force Iroquois helicopter with a winch had been ruled out because it would have been unable to maintain its hover above the mountain’s ridge. A contingency plan would entail the helicopter’s dropping rescue teams on the Empress Ice Shelf, about 520 m below where the climbers are trapped. It would then take the rescuers about three hours to reach the schrund, which is near Porters Col, between the middle and low peaks of Mount Cook.

Mr Youngman is reluctant to bring this plan into effect because of the danger of exposing the two climbers to a long and difficult descent on stretchers to the pick-up point. The only advantage would be that the helicopter could land in a moderate wind on the Empress shelf, whereas it would virtually need calm conditions for a safe pick-up at the summit.

Late last evening, the wind at the Mount Cook village had veered from a westerly to a blustery south-westerly. At ' dusk,. Mount . Cook remained obscured by cloud.