FALL TO DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22688, 29 March 1937, Page 8

FALL TO DEATH

MOUNTAIN TRAGEDY THREE LIVES LOST SLIDE OF 1000 FEET MOUNT TRENT ACCIDENT [ry telegraph —press association] DUXEDIX, Sunday A mountaineering tragedy, which resulted in the loss of three lives, occurred at .Mount Trent, near Lake Ohau, South Canterbury, yesterday. Those killed were: Symon D. Divers, of Dunedin, aged 21 years. George M. Edwards, of Dunedin, aged j 21 years. Roy Stevenson, of Oamaru, aged about i 18 years. Twenty-one climbers from Dunedin j and Oamaru wore in a party which had j arranged to scale Mount Trent during the holidays. The party left Oamaru | on Thursday night by car and spentj Friday packing their gear at a high j camp at the head of the north branch j of tlie Huxley Hiver making ready fori the ascent. One Party Reaches Summit Nineteen of the party set, out yestcr- 1 day on the expedition. The mountain carried many snow patches and the, surface proved difficult to cut into with j ice axes for the making of steps. The party divided into fiv#* groups, ; each group being roped together. Good progress was made and the leading ; party, in charge of Mr. Gordon Ed- j wards, brother of one of the victims, ! was the first to reach the top, thus I realising tlie aim of making the first j conquest of the peak. Almost immediately upon this sue-j cess news was flashed along tiie route ! of the climbers that the three young! men had been hurled to death. Avoiding Falling Stone Messrs. Divers, George Edwards and : Stevenson formed the final party in the ascent, Mr. Stevenson being in the i middle of the trio. \\ hen they were about 7000 feet up .Mr. Stevenson, in ! avoiding a falling stone, failed to get j his foot into one of the steps cut byj the leading climbers. The three young j men were on a steep snow slope on j which small rocks were scattered. Mr. Stevenson stumbled and jerked j his two companions out of their steps, j although Mr. George Edwards managed j to delay the impending tragedy for a few seconds. The weight of his companions, however, pulled him off his feet and the three were launched on a 1000-foot slide over hard snow to death. Bodies Found On Glacier Well-known climbers, Messrs. W. G. McClymont and Russell Edwards, immediately started down the slope reaching the bottom an hour later to discover the three young men dead. Arrangements were made to bring out the bodies, which are on a glacier 6000 feet above sea level. Auckland alpine authorities last night were unable to identify Mount Trent, which they believed to be a secondary peak in an area not usually entered by seasoned mountaineers. One informant stated that there was some fine climbing country beyond the headwatery of the Waitaki River and those of the Dobson and Hopkins Rivers, flowing into Lake Ohau. Oamaru members of the New Zealand Alpine Club did much climbing in this region, and it was proposed to build a hut tliere. The lower country, in which Mount Trent appeared to be situated, did not offer very much to mountaineers, but. as there would bo much snow on it at present, the probability was that the deceased and their companions were using it as a practice ground.