THE ALPINE TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21544, 16 January 1932, Page 12

THE ALPINE TRAGEDY

MEN TOOK WRONG PATH FINE WORK BY SEARCHERS (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, January J 5. The story of the trampers’ tattle against the weather conditions in obscure, but they seem to have held out for two or three days. The fatal mistake that led to the deaths of two of the party (Robbins and Smith) was iu following too high a path. After they had crossed Whitehorn’s Pass into Canterbury they should have descended several hundred feet to reach the caddie at the head of the Taipoiti Gorge Instead, they kept on at a high level and ended up in a fog and gathering darkness on the bluffs of a epur of Mount Isabel, whence they found it impossible to proceed in any direction. During the night on. which they remained there, the sleep of death overtook Smith. Robbins apparently awoke in time, but his frantic efforts to release himself from the maze of bluffs and precipices ended in his slipping over a bluff into the Upper Taipoiti Gorge, where his body was found. Loney, the survivor, made his way back over Whitehorn’s Pass and found help at the camp of Wilson and Sweeney in the Wilberforce Valley. The heroic efforts of the searchers were favoured by good weather. To retrieve the body of Smith it was necessary for the rescuers to make an almost complete circle round Mount Isabel, ploughing through deep masses of sliding shingle. The five men took turns at carrying the body, but all they could manage at a time was ten or fifteen steps. The body was finally taken by a pack horse to the Carrington Hut.

LONEY TELLS HIS STORY RAIN. MIST. AND FOG CAUGHT IN A BLIZZARD ON THE MOUNTAIN FOR 36 HOURS. (Peg United Press Association.! CHRISTCHURCH, January 15. “We walked into a howling blizzard on Sunday afternoon near the summit of the Harman Pass. There was sleet and snow driven by a raging wind, and we could not see,” said Keith Loney, the only survivor of the ill-fated trio of Canterbury school teachers, in an interview at Bealey. Loney arrived at Bealey at 5.10 p.m. to-day. He had a blanket wrapped round him, and he looked cold and worn, but he was in fair condition. “I am the I" 0 - 1 experienced of the three, and I have come out alive because I carried an extra blanket and wrapped it round myself after we had lost each other on Sunday night. While the blizzard was still raging I tried to find, the way to the top of the pass, but was driven back. Smith and Robbins must have tried to fight their way over, too.

“ Finding that I had completely lost my way 1 curled up in the blanket in the lee of a rock and spent the rest of the night there. I was on the face of the mountain all} day Monday, and several times I thought I was gone owing to the intense cold. I lost all sense of time, and was very weak through lack of food. Darkness came again, with the storm showing signs of abating. I spent the night in the same fashion as on Monday. Dawn on Tuesday broke fine and warm, and the sun saved my life. “I walked back, down the way we had come, and found Smith dead beside a rock, where he had apparently fallen while trying to get up a steep face. He had lost his pack. I could not find Robbins anywhere. I left Smith and went back to the Park Morpeth Hut. It took me all day to get there, and I met Wilson by chance. I was relieved to see him. He put me inside the hut, and gave me food, which revived me. “Wilson then set out on a night trip to Carrington Hut to give them the news, and to bring assistance from Bealey. I stayed at Park Morpeth Hut, and on Thursday, at about II o’clock, two men who had travelled from Carrington Hut, arrived and brought me over the pass to the Carrington Hut, where we arrived about 6 p.m. It was my first experience of a mountain trip of this sort. Smith and Robbins were experienced men, and we had made all preparations for the journey, carrying plenty of food and clothing. The weather was fine when we left Hokitika on Sunday (January 3), but we had not gone very far when it commenced to rain. “As we pushed up the mountain towards the Harman Pass, mist and fog made it very difficult to see any distance, and, although it was in the afternoon, it was quite dark. We kept pretty well together, and decided that instead of going over the route along the Taipoiti Riverbed we would tackle the pass. When we walked into the blizzard I asked the others to go on and leave me, but Smith said: “No, we will fight it out together.” We kept on pegging away, but gradually we became lost. I lost contact with the others, and made an effort to get over on my own, but soon gave that up. Apparently Smith and Robbins also lost touch with each other.

“It was all hard luck that might easily have happened to anybody. The trip was not tackled rashly. Smith and Robbins knew the country well. We had maps, and we knew where we were going. It was not like tackling unknown country, but bad we gone down the riverbed I think we would all have got through. I was 36 hours on the mountain sides before the sun came, and I do not know how I lasted to see it. Both the other fellows were stronger than I am, and I think they died of cold. I am glad I carried my blanket. Had I not met Wilson the chances are I would not be telling the story,’ for I was all in and could not have carried on much longer.” THE INQUEST (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 15. Loncy repeated his story at the inquest held at Bealey to-night before Mr M. Fitzgerald, J.P., and a jury. The following verdict was returned: "We find that Harold Smith and Charles Bernard Robbins died at Harman’s Pass on or about January 11 while endeavouring to cross over the pass to the Carrington Hut, the cause of death being exposure, following exhaustion in a storm.” A rider was added commending the work of the search parties, particularly that of Messrs J. P. Wilson, H. M. Sweney, F. W. Cochrane, and Constable Robb. Sympathy was extended to the relatives of the unfortunate trampers.