MOUNTAIN VIGIL IN BLIZZARD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22284, 9 June 1934, Page 22

MOUNTAIN VIGIL IN BLIZZARD

■♦■ TRAGEDY IN CUMBERLAND A DYING SISTER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 26. A pathetic and vivid story of a sister's devotion has come from Cumberland. Without food, for 18 hours, wet through, and having spent .all night in a blizzard on Kirkfell, lying over her sister's bodv, Miss Clara Bartle, aged 41, of St. Clare's drive, Southport, staggered into a shepherd's hut at Wasdale Head, exhausted. "For heaven's sake .get a stretcher," she said to a man who stood in the doorway. Jock Mac Duffie, the shepherd, caught the woman in his arms and took her into the house. She said that her sister, who had been hiking with her, was Miss Marion Bartle, aged 38. In broken accents she told briefly how they had come from Dungeon Ghyll, and after passing through Wasdale Head at 5.30 _ p.m. the previous evening, were making their way up between Mosedale and Kirkfell to spend the night at the Youth Hostel at the head of the Ennerdale Valley. WALK OF SIXTEEN MILES. At the inquest yesterday Miss Bartle said: "We left home for a walking holiday in Cumberland. The first day we went to Coniston and then stayed at Grassmere. Next day we were at Langdale. I knew the district very well, and we started off about i noon for Wasdale, which was reached about 6 o'clock at night. "There was very heavy rain when we started from Wasdale to climb Black Sail. The mist was very low, but we could see the top and thought it would be quite all right to go on." The coroner: By the time you got to Wasdale you must have walked 16 miles? Miss Bartle: "We thought it would be about 16 miles up to Black Sail lrat. After we got up to Black Sail bridge it started to hail very heavily. Ultimately we got to the top. and then it began snowing. Very soon it was over our boot tops. We could see where the path' ought to be, but as it was getting worse and we could hardly see anything and did not know exactly where the hut was we decided to return to Wasdale. DARKNESS AND SISTER FAILING. " Instead of returning by the path we intended following the stream, but even then we had difficulty in keeping our feet because the snow froze as soon as it fell, and both of us kept falling and getting up again. We went on like that for quite a long time. Then darkness fell and the storm developed into a proper blizzard. I was a yard or so in front of my sister, and I heard her say,' Oh, my legs do hurt me.' I stopped and rubbed her legs for a little time. DELIRIOUS. " She was quite cheerful, but after going a few yards further she could not keep her feet at all. I then got hold of her and started to pull her along. After a bit she could not stand, and finally rolled over and over, and I thought she was going' to roll into the stream. Luckily, she stopped rolling about 10 yards from the water, and then lay on her back in a place where her head could rest on a stone. She never moved from that position. She was talking all the time, and never complained of being tired. TORCH FLASHES ON DEAD FACE; " She then hecame delirious, waving her arms about and moving her legs, and I had difficulty in keeping her in her position. She kept calling my name and groaning a little in between. She stii! kept calling in a quite strong voice. Finally, she breathed heavily and then became quiet. I had a torch and kept flashing it on her. face. Then I noticed that she was dead." The coroner: You stayed with her all night? WHEN DAYLIGHT CAME. Miss Bartle: I did start off once to get help, but my torch gave out. As soon as it became daylight I went for help. You wrapped her up in your own coat? —I put my mackintosh round her and pulled my helmet on her head. It must hove been very cold?—lt was. I felt like breaking down myself, but T knew I could not go for help if I did. I quite believe she died from exposure. She was never able to stand the cold. ( The coroner complimented Miss Bartle on the way she had given evidence on the terrible ordeal through which she had been. A police constable told how, with four shepherds, he recovered the body about half a mile from Black Sail bridge. Mr Bartle, the father, said: " It is a great blow to lose our youngest daughter, but my wife and myself are very thankful that it was not a double tragedy."_ A verdict of death from exhaustion and exposure was returned. Recent discoveries at Tell-el-Amarna, the ancient Egyptian city, include a university of 3000 years ago and police barracks, with stalls for the horses.