Dead climber was leading companions

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 9

Dead climber was leading companions

James Moar, the climber who plunged 1300 m to his death on Mount Cook on Monday, had been leading his companions towards the high peak on the mountain’s summit ridge when he fell.

Mr Moar, aged 20, was missing .when his companions, Derek Chinn and Roger Parkyn, both of Christchurch, reached the ridge.

Mr Chinn, an engineering student at the University of Canterbury, said the group had set off from the Plateau Hut on Monday morning and reached the middle peak on the east ridge about midday. He said it was icy and hard. underfoot, and conditions were cold and windy. They were climbing unroped, which he said was standard practice. They set off along the

summit ridge towards the high peak, about 10 minutes separating each of the men.

Mr Chinn believes Mr Moar fell about 1.10 p.m. as he was climbing within about 300 m of the high peak.

He said that he and Mr Parkyn were convinced Mr Moar was missing at 1.30 p.m. They found no sign that he had reached the high peak. The pair checked both sides of the ridge and checked further down without success.

They climbed down a schrund to the summit ice cap and then down the summit rock which links the ice cap with the Linda Glacier.

The pair were without a rope, which had been carried by Mr Moar, but managed to signal to two climbers descending to the Plateau Hut to leave

them a rope. They collected the rope on the upper Linda Shelf and followed the other climber’s steps to the hut, where they radioed word, of the accident to park' headquarters.

Mr Chinn said neither he nor Mr Parkyn saw their colleague, a philosophy student, fall because of the undulations in the ridge. The pair were flown out to Mount Cook Village about midday yesterday after Mr Moar’s body was recovered. Mr Chinn said he had known Mr Moar, who was an accomplished rock climber, about five years. Mr Moar died on his fourth climb- of Mount Cook. Mr Parkyn is a structural engineer.

Earlier report, page 3