Injured man hitch-hikes out after avalanche

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 1

Injured man hitch-hikes out after avalanche

By

NEIL CLARKSON

A solo climber escaped with cuts and bruises when an avalanche swept him about 300 m down Mount Rolleston on Saturday. Mr John Iseli, a student at the University of Canterbury, said he was rolled over several times during the avalanche and had his ice axe torn from his hand. He completed his descent after the avalanche and walked to State Highway 73. Mr Iseli then hitch-hiked to Arthur’s Pass National Park headquarters and was later driven on to Christchurch for hospital treatment, which included stitches behind an ear. He began his climb about 6 a.m. on Saturday, making his way up Rome Ridge to Mount Rolles-

ton’s Low Peak. He traversed Middle Peak and reached High Peak about 11.30 a.m. Mr Iseli said he intended descending the Otira side. "I saw a gully system that looked okay,” he said. He began sliding down the gully system on his hip, digging in his ice axe occasionally to slow his descent. “It was very warm that day. The snow was quite wet and very soft.” Mr Iseli believes his descent triggered the avalanche. A slab of snow broke loose, breaking up as it dropped down the gully system. “I realised something was wrong when I couldn’t stop. "It was quite scary, really. I got flipped over a few times

while I was trying to arrest my fall and roll out of the avalanche,” he said. “I couldn’t self-arrest because of the snow forcing down from above,” he said. The ice axe was torn from his , hand and his crampons ripped from the back of his pack. He said the avalanche gathered a “fair speed” midway down but slowed as the gradient eased. The avalanche was still sliding slowly down the gully when he freed himself. “There was a bit of blood in the snow. I thought it didn’t look too good at first,” he said. He found the blood was coming from behind his ear and that he had broken no bones. Mr Iseli then began a 90minute walk out of the valley.

“I was fairly close to the bottom of the valley. I kept to the ridges to avoid any more avalanches,” he said. Mr Iseli said the incident had not deterred him and he would be back climbing after his university examinations. The week-end duty ranger at park headquarters, Mr Mark Davies, said Mr Iseli appeared to have been caught in a soft snow slab avalanche. He said warm temperatures meant layers of spring snow became susceptible to sliding off, particularly on steeper slopes. “The extra weight of a person can trigger this,” he said. Mr Davies said conditions in the area had been excellent recently. Ten people climbed Mount Rolleston on Saturday, he said.