SECRET OF THE SNOWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 13

SECRET OF THE SNOWS

TRAGEDY OF PYRENEES ENGLISH GIRL’S DEATH. While broken-hearted by the news of his daughter’s death in a mountaineering mishap, a comedian performing in “ The Belle of New York” at the Empire Theatre, Newcastle, England, had a poignant experience.

True to the traditions of the theatre, the comedian; played his part of “ the polite lunatic” while holding back the tears, and those in the auditorium found it hard to realise that pathos was masked by the grease-paint. The stricken father was Mr Laurie Wensley, whose friends kept from him as long as they could the new of the fate of his daughter, Miss Molly Russell, a member of the secretarial staff of the United States Embassy in Paris. She was lost in the snow-covered Pyrenees while on a holiday tour, and after a search which lasted two days her body was discovered by a company of guides near Cauterets. ,

Miss Russell was one of a party of three —her companions being a French professor, M. Pierre Walter, and M. Coquelet, employed in the French postal service—who set out a few days previously to motor across the Pyrenees. Engine trouble developed in their car near Cauterets, and the travellers determined to employ the time they would have to wait by exploring the surrounding mountains, which were covered by a fresh fall of snow. They went by the main road over the plateau to Lake Gaube and reached a refuge on Viquomale Peak. M. Coquelet decided to push on, though he was without mountain equipment, possessing not even an ice axe, and wore only canvas shoes. He left his two companions at the refuge, but when he did not return M. Walter went to seek him, leaving the girl behind in the hut all night. M. Walter was unable to find his friend, and after receiving an Injury to the leg he returned to the refuge. He then discovered that the girl had disappared. Some tourists he encountered declared that they had seen her fall over a ledge, a distance of 40ft. From the information, however, M. Walter was unable definitely to establish whether the tourists saw the girl or M. Coquelet. The search continued all through the next day without any success. Guides headed parties that scoured the snowy slopes for M. Coquelet and Miss Russell, who, when last seen, was wearing only ordinary clothing. The body of the , girl was eventually discovered at the foot of a ravine. It was brought down to the Lake de Gaube, nsd from there to a spot known as the Bridge of Spain, and thence finally to Cauterets. . . It was believed that Miss Russell started out to return to Cauterets to obtain help for her friends and ventured on to a ledge too close to the face of the cliff. Local guides, who said they had no doubt in their minds that M. Coquelet had also perished, continued to search for his body. About the time that the tragedy came to light a 15-year-old boy met a shocking fate while attempting to climb a dangerous peak called Canals Encoules de Poute, in the Pyrenees. He was inexperienced and alone, and after ascending a short distance slipped and fell 200 ft into a chasm.

As the lad’s fall was broken by rocks, he was not killed. He lay for five days in a crevice with both grists broken, unable to move, and without provisions. When rescued he was just alive, and he died while being carried down the mountain.