SAFETY ON RUAPEHU

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22194, 22 August 1935, Page 14

SAFETY ON RUAPEHU

SIGNPOSTING" OF TRACKS SEVERAL URGENT NEEDS AUCKLAND CLIMBER'S OFFER The necessity for the adequate signposting of tracks on Mount Ruapehu and the provision of a telephone communicating with the Chateau at Salt Hut, on Scoria Flat, is stressed by Mr. E. W Yates, a member of the firm of Arthur Yates and Company, Limited, Auckland, who had an unfortunate experience on the mountain on Monday. So imppesscd is Mr. Yates after his experience with the urger.t necessity for the erection of more signposts that he intends to offer £lO to the Automobile Association (Auckland) for the purpose. When returning from Salt Hut to the Chateau with other members of a party which had made the ascent,, Mr. Yates became separated and missed the track, proceeding along a ridge to the left of the Ohakune track. He managed to strike tho Ohakune track, but, in the blizzard, had no sense of direction and proceeded for nearly two hours along the pole line in the direction of Ohakune instead of toward Salt Hut. Ho did not discover his mistake until he reached a signpost pointing in the opposite direction and giving the distance to the Chateau as five miles. It is pointed out by Mr. Yates that had the track been adequately signposted he would have discovered his mistake earlier and have been saved his arduous journey. When Mr. Yates arrived back at Salt Hut he found there two men from Wellington, both expert skiers, who decided to set out to inform any search parties that Mr. Yates was safe. In the meantime anxiety was being felt at the Chateau, and two guides, Messrs. C. Risber and P. Clarkin, set out for Salt Hut. They found that the two Wellington men, although carrying lights, had missed the track and were well away from it. This, said Mr. Yates, indicated the necessity for completing the road from the Chateau to Salt Hut. The distance between the two is three and a-half miles, but half a mile of road remains to be formed. Mr. Yates paid a tribute to the expeditious manner in which the emergency organisation was set in motion and the arrangements for search parties, but pointed out that, had there been a telephone at Salt Hut, the Chateau could have been informed immediately he arrived there. The cost of erecting a telephone would be about £SO. The touring manager of the Automobile Association (Auckland), Mr. R. E. Champtaloup, stated last evening that work of this nature was a little outside the usual activities of the association, but a couple of years ago, as a safety-first measure and in view of the number of association members who frequent the park, the association council authorised the necessary signs, which were erected with the co-operation of the manager of the Chateau. "The cost of a few direction boards proposed by Mr. Yates would not amount to very much," said Mr. Champtaloup, "and I am sure that my council would raise no objection if the signs are likely to be the means of protecting human life."