TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF ALPINE HERO

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6864, 20 March 1929, Page 3

TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF ALPINE HERO

TRAGEDY IN SNOWSTORM. Rescue parties battling through tho fury of au Alpine snowstorm recently arrived in the nick of time to save the life of a young journalist who had spent two nights of terror on the peak of the Sasquc de Nerou, in thc_ French Alps, next to the corpse of a girl companion. The journalist, M. Jacques Duboiu, and the girl, Mile. Renaux, set out from Lyons with two other friends to make the ascent of the Casque do Ncron. Halfway up the mountain the snowstorm began, and two of the climbers decided to remain at a little mountain inn. The others, however, insisted on continuing the attempt, and when, after 24 hours, they had not returned, a search party was sent out, and finally heard the feeble cries of M. Doboin. When first located he was hanging by a rope caught in a crevice with a perilous drop below -and the sheer face of the mountain above.

It was feared that before the rescue party could relieve M. Doboin from his dangerous plight he would succumb to sleep—which would have inevitably meant his death. All night, therefore, Ihc rescuers shouted to him at intervals through the falling snow, encouraging him to keep awake.When he was ultimately rescued the young journalist mountainer was found in his shirt sleeves. He had gallantly wrapped his coat and his woollen pullover around the body of his girl companion, a native, like himself, oi Lyons, in si, last effort to preserve her from the cold. Mile Renaux died, however, and it was then that her companion set off alone in the dark to attempt to descend the mountain. He had climbed down •i. part of the mountain when the rope attached to his waist was caught in a projecting rock, and he could neither tscend nor descend.