LOST ON EGMONT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20628, 29 July 1930, Page 8

LOST ON EGMONT.

YOUNG MEN'S EXPERIENCE.

BITTER COLD AND FOG. NIGHT UNDER ROUGH SHELTER. [BV TELEGKAI'H.—own correspondent.] NEW PLYMOUTH, Monday. A party of three young men who were lost on Mount Egmont in fog last night had an anxious time out in the open, on one of the coldest nights of the year. Concern was felt for their safety in New Plymouth, and at North Egmont Hostel, from which a search party set out this morning. The searchers, however, came across the three men making their way back to the hostel, safe after a trying .night. The three men, Messrs. F. Sutton, K. C. Knight and R. E. Whitwell, all of New Plymouth, set out from North Egmont yesterday morning, with the intention of tramping over the ranges to Upper Mangorei Road, and thence to New Plymouth. Until about noon to day nothing had been heard or seen of them, and it was feared that they might have become lost.

This morning Messrs. R. Larson, 11. Larsen and IT Lambert set out to search for them. They left at 9.30 a.m., and proceeded down to the head of the Waiwakaiho Gorge, about an hour's walk, when they met the missing men making their way back to the house. Owing to a, dense fog yesterday afternoon they had become lost, and had been forced to spend the bitterly cold night in Bell's Falls swamp. Fortunately they were able to rig up a shelter, which afforded some measure of protection against the wind and weather, although they were unable to light a fire, owing to dampness. The men were adequately clothed and had plenty of food. When they set out yesterday morning they were advised, if conditions were too severe, to seek shelter in Holly Hut, about half a mile on the Noilh Egmont side of Bell's Falls. They were unable to find the hut in the dense fog, and walked on past their objective. Realising that their plight was a serious one, they set to work to make a shelter. Had they not done this the consequences would certainly have been much more serious. As it was they were all suffering from exposure. At a meeting of the North committee of Lhe Egmont Park Board this evening Mr. R. W. Larson, the ranger, said that had fho three men not possessed alpine knowledge, and had they not been able to apply that in building a bivouac, they would surely have perished. It was the shelter which they built when they realised that they were lost which had saved their lives.