CLIMBER DIES AFTER FALL NEAR COPLAND PASS

Grey River Argus, 25 February 1949, Page 3

CLIMBER DIES AFTER FALL NEAR COPLAND PASS

CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 24. James Butcher, aged 60, of Karori, Wellington, died at 8 a.m. to-day at the Hooker Hut, 37 hours after he suffered severe head injuries in a fall down the mountainside in the Mount Cook district, near the Copland Pass. He did not regain consciousness.

A. medical student, Mr A. Williams, of Timaru, reached the Hooker Hut with the rescuers yesterday. He did all he could for the injured man, but Butcher’s condition deteriorated about six o’clock this morning. A member of a party of seven trampers from the Tararua Club, Butcher suffered his injuries when he slipped over a steep rock bluff and rolled 100 feet to' the shingle bed of a creek, only 20 minutes walk from the Hooker Hut, where the party intended .spending the night. The accident occurred about 7.15 p.m. on Tuesday. The trampers, live men and two women, had just crossed the Copland Pass. When the two women members of the party and Guides Douglas and Burke returned to the Hermitage at o’clock yesterday afternoon, they brought word that Butcher had been brought unconscious to the Hooker Hut by a rescue party. The five members of the Tararua party had been unable to move him on the previous night but had rigged up a tent for his protection. TIMARU, Feb. 24.

Atrocious weather prevented the rescue parties from bringing in Butcher. After his death, Chief Guide M. Bowie made his way to the Hermitage, .which he reached at 10.45 a.m. Rain is still falling but an attempt will be made to-day to bring the body Io the Hermitage. The road between the Hermitage ‘ and Lake Pukaki is blocked, but it is hoped to make the road passable to-day.

Body Brought Out to the Hermitage P.A TIMARU, February 24. After the death, at 8 o'clock this morning of James Butcher, of Dasenr. Street, Karori, retired, aged 60, who fell down a 100-foot bluff while traversing the Copeland Pass in the Mt. Cook region, the body was brought from the Hooker hut to the Hermitage at 2 o’clock this afternoon and will be transported to Timaru to-morrow. The rain cleared sufficiently to allow a rescue party to 'bring the body out by stretcher.