Next holiday at ‘a beach hotel in sun’

Press, 26 November 1982, Page 1

Next holiday at ‘a beach hotel in sun’

A young wife yesterday extracted a ready promise from her husband imprisoned in an ice cave high on Mount Cook. “Next time you go on holiday take me with you, and let’s find a better hotel by a nice little beach in' the sun,” Mrs Anne Inglis urged her husband, Mark, who has been weatherbound on the mountain for 11 days. There was a brief pause

before the radio crackled back to life: "Sounds a pretty good idea," he replied. The emergency radio link between the ice cave, nicknamed “middle peak hotel,” and the rescue, headquarters enabled Mr Inglis and his climbing companion, Philip Doole, to be “reunited” with their families for two precious minutes soon after 9.30 a.m.

The Inglises’ baby daughter, Lucy, aged 10 months, was cradled in the arms of her mother as she spoke to her husband for the first time for almost two weeks. A radio and telephone link between Mr Doole and his mother in Wellington was also established. Messages of support and family news were relayed, their reception 11,700 ft up the cloudshrouded mountain eventu-

ally being acknowledged by “roger,” the universal response for “message is received and understood.” Mrs Inglis said in an interview later that she was very pleased to have had the chance to speak to her husband and was relieved to hear his voice. She believed the ordeal would not deter him from climbing in the future. “I will not be stop-

ping him. Mrs Inglis said that she did not actively share her husband’s passion for climbing, but their daughter could follow in bis footsteps “if the way she is climbing round now is anything to go by.” Asked how she planned to spend her time over the anxious days ahead, Mrs Inglis said, “By keeping myself very busy and visit-

ing friends rather than sitting at home like a zombie.” She admitted to being worried and would remain so until her husband was rescued and "got his feet on the ground again.” Mrs Inglis said that as part of his homecoming she would like to serve her husband his favourite meal, steak and chips, but “it could be a little while before he got that one down."