MISSING ALPINE PARTY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 47, 25 February 1914, Page 3

MISSING ALPINE PARTY

ENGLISH TOURIST AND TWO GUIDES SERIOUS FATALITY FEARED. (BY TELEGRAPH rRESS ASSOCIATION.) CHRISTCHURCH, 24th Feb. The Hon. R. Heaton Rhodes, Minister in Charge of Tourist and Health Resorts, this afternoon received an urgent telegram from the Hermitage, at Mount Cook, from Mr. B. M. Wilson, general manager of the Touiist Department, despatched while en Toute from the Hermitage to the West Coast, via Cppeland Pass. The message read as follows; — "I regret to inform, you that I fear that a serious accident has occurred on Mount Cook. An English climber, Mr. S. L. King, with Guides Thompson and Richmond, left on Friday afternoon to climb Mount Cook from the Tasman side. They were seen on the summit at noon on Thursday by Messrs. Turner and Dennistoun, who were at the Haast bivouac, and who were up on the Glacier Dome at i p.m. looking for them. Their steps down again were picked up that evening by those climbing from the Hooker side of Mount Cook — Mr. Friend, with Guides Conrad, Kane, and Brass. "This party followed the tracks until they were obliterated by a huge avalanche, which came off an overhanging icewall on the Linda Glacier, between the Sirberhorn and Tiechelmann Peak. The glacier is very broken here, and if the party were caught, they would be swept into a crevasse and would never bo seen again. • "Mr. Trevor's party reached the bivouac at about 2.30 a.m., where Messrs. Turner and Dennistoun were proposing to start, and on finding no trace of Mr. King and his guides, they became alarmed, and reported on their arrival at the Hermitage. "Chief Guide Graham was with us at the Hooker Hut last night, going to Copeland, when the two guides came from the Hermitage with new& that Mr Thompson's party had not returned. Guide Graham ■ immediately returned to the Hermitage, m dreadful weather, and left at daylight with four guides, and Conrad and Kane, to search for the party, but neither he nor Kane hold out any hope of finding the missing men." Later. It is expected that it will be two days before the search party returns. The Hon. R. H. Rhodes has cabled the British Alpine Club asking them to communicate with Mr. King's people. - TD'IARU, 24th February. Further enquiry at the Hermitage elicits little further than what was stated in the telegram, to the Minister. Mr. Friend's party had intended to make the traverse, and when the two guides arrived at the Hooker Hut, Guido Graham supposed that they were Mr. Friend's 'party. On hearing the news Guide Graham eel out in a vile night for the Hermitage to organise a search party, which Dennistoun and Turner will join. Mr. King was a well-known member of the British Alpine Club. Guide Thompson is a West Coaster, and for some years was Graham's first lieutenant. Guide Richmond belonged to Willowbridge and was also an experienced guide. '