FALL OVER PRECIPICE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 72, 24 February 1932, Page 4

FALL OVER PRECIPICE

MOUNTAINEER INJURED. HAZARDOUS RESCUE EFFECTED. How a man named Mr S. Studholme, of Wellington, who had fallen over a precipice in the mountains west of Lake Wariaka, was rescued and brought back to safety under the most difficult and hazardous conditions was related by Mr N. G. McLean, a medical student at Otago University, who was a member of the rescue 1 party.' Advice of the accident was received in Dunedin on Sunday, February 14, by Mr E. Miller, of the Otago branch of the New Zealand Alpine Club, and he immediately set about organising a party' to proced to the spot and rescue the injured man. A party was quickly formed, consisting of Messrs Miller, McLean, J. Aitken. Scott Gilkinson, Roland Ellisj and Maurice Ellis, the lastnamed of whom joined the others at Alexandra. Arrived at the Niger Hut, 26 miles past Lake Wanaka, at 8 o’clock on the Sunday night, the party was joined by Mr J. Aspinall, of' Mount Aspiring station. At the station they met Messrs H. Boddy and E. Wilson, who belonged to the party with whom Mr Studholme was climbing when he piet with the accident, and who had returned to the station to secure assistance.

It was then learned that 'the original party, consisting of Messrs Boddy, Wilson, <J. Shanks, G. Pryor, and Studholme, had left Mount Aspiring station on the previous Sunday morning, February 7, and had made their way up the east branch of the Matukituki River. They continued climbing for several days, and all went well until the evening of the 11th. when the members of the party who had been climbing a ridge of what is known as the Glacier Dome had just reached the last of the ice and had discarded their crampons, the climbing nails fitted to the boots, and the rope to' which each man was attached for safety. Up to this time Mr Studholme had been in the middle of the party,but suddenly he rushed to the front and fell over „a bluff about 35. feet in height, landing on snow and it>B. As the hour was- growing late, and darkness was coming on, the most the other climbers could do was to carry the injured man to a more suitable spot, where a camp was made at about the 6000-feet level. The next day the men made their comrade more comfortable, and rendered what assistance they could. On the thirteenth Messrs Boddy and Wilson left for Mount Aspiring Station in order to secure assistance, and after they had been joined there by the rescue party a start was made for the place where the accident occurred, the party being joined by Mr Aspinall and Nlessrs G. Simpson and J. Thomson, of Dunedin. The men made their, way that day through birch forests along the bank of tne Matukituki and over bluffs, their direction necessitating three crossings of the river, About 6 o’clock that evening they reached what is known as the top flat, where they camped, and sent tip a smoke signal as a sign to the other party that rescue was at hand.

The next morning they climbed another 3000 feet, and when they met the men who were with Mr Studholme the rain was falling and it was bitterly cold. Mr McLean examined Mr Studholme, and found that although he was badly bruised no bones were broken, but he had contracted pneumonia as the result of exposure. Secure in his sleeping .hag, Mr Studholme was placed on a stretcher, and then began a hazardous journey over very rough country. As a result of heavy/rain, the river was rapidly rising, and the patient had to be carried across the river three times on the shoulders of four members of the party. The last fording was made practically in the darkness. An idea of the extremely difficult and precarious nature of the task of transporting the injured man over such rough country may be gained from the fact that at one stage a sloping tree was used as a bridge over tne river, . and the stretcher was held by two men who slid down the tree trunk to the opposite side of the river. About 10 o’clock on Thursday night the party regained Mount Aspiring Station, and it was found that, owing to bracing and splinting having been carried out, Mr Studholme had travelled well over the 18-mile journey, and had not been subjected to much jolting, while he had been kept warm in the sleeping bag. The next morning he had improved considerably, but there were still signs of lung trouble, and he was taken that day to the Cromwell Hospital, where he- is still a patient. It rained a great deal during the middle of the week, and Mr McLean declared that had they not managed to get away from the back country when they did they would still have been there, as it would have been impossible to cross the river while it was in flood. It was the first time that anyone had gone to the head of the east branch of the Matukituki River, and Messrs Ellis and Aitken, who have each made two ascents of Mount Aspiring, state that there could hardly be a worse'place in New Zealand for such a venture to be undertaken.