Skiers survive whiteout

Press, 30 September 1986, Page 1

Skiers survive whiteout

PA Wanaka Two Australian skiers and a Wanaka mountain guide caught in whiteout conditions in high winds in the Southern Alps were forced to spend two nights in snow caves before they made their way out. The guide, Paul Scaife, and his clients, Tony Morgan, of Pine River, Tasmania, and Danny Luz, a Sydney marketing consultant, caught up on lost sleep and food yesterday at Wanaka. A searching helicopter

picked them up as they made their way out through bush on Sunday.

Their unscheduled stopovers were on Mount Aspiring, 3036 metres, the highest peak in the lower Southern Alps.

They had climbed the mountain and skied off the top only to be caught in a snowstorm on the Bonner Glacier last Thursday, having set out a week ago on a climb to celebrate Mr Morgan’s record of one million vertical feet (305,000 metres)

of downhill heli-ski-ing which he set earlier this month.

Mr Scaife said the aim was to climb the peak and ski down to the bush line, a feaat done only once before by Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmond Hillary, about 10 years ago. On the descent, the weather broke and a gale brought whiteout conditions to the glacier. The climbers began rationing their food and spent the night in a snow cave. They set out again

the next day during a break in weather, but the snow closed in again and

the wind was so strong it blew the skiers skm up hill and well off their compass course. They built another snow shelter in which they slept last Friday night and got out on Saturday to the French Ridge Hut, one of the regular bases for climbing in the area. Mr Scaife decided to spend a night in the hut to rest, but was unable to advise national park

headquarters in Wanaka that the party was safe because the hut does not have a radio. The pilot of a helicopter sent out as a precaution on Sunday spotted their ski tracks and landed at the French Ridge Hut where he read a note that confirmed they were on their way out. Tony Morgan has been heli-ski-ing in the Wanaka region for about five years, but this was his first attempt at ski mountaineering.