MOUNTAINEERS LOST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 19 July 1929, Page 3

MOUNTAINEERS LOST.

I ('.W OHT IN A BJJZZARD | AM KIM (AN CLIMBING TRAGEDY. SEATTLE. July 3. While feeling his way ni’ong a mountain lodge in an attempt to bring hdip to a- pari/ oj mountaineers trapped on the brink of a chasm and threatened with destruction by g. blizzard which nearly blew them over, Edwin Wetzel leli and was lost n the depths# below. __ A. little while before his companion, Forrest Greathouse, had fallen and dropped thousands of feet. Both were leading American mountaineers. They were killed in a tragic attempt to find u new trap around Mount Rainier-, one. of the highest peaks on the western coast. Almost- within sight, of the famous hotel. Pairadise Tun. they perished.

The members of the party, roped together, were returning from the pinnacle at an altitude of 12,000 ft-., when a blizzard struck them. One man slipped, and six were dragged over -the edge, of a. cliff. Five landed on an iceshei’f. hut Greathouse, dropped thousands of feet- below. The wind, which was of terrific force, threatened to dash the others* into the chasm. Finally Wetzel disengaged himself from the rope and attempted to go forward to get. rescuers, hut he himself fell and wais lost. When the storm abated Robert Strohei 1 made his way inch by inch, and hours later arrived at Camp Muir, where heln was obtained.