BURIAL IN ALPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25430, 11 January 1944, Page 2

BURIAL IN ALPS

BODY OF LOST CLIMBER RECOVERY ATTEMPT FAILS (Special) OAMARU, Jan. 10. The attempt to recover the bodies of Sergeant Patrick Morton, of Auckland, and Leading Aircraftman Wilfred Frank Wallis, of Christchurch, who met their deaths in the Southern Alps last March, has proved unsuccessful. The party of two guides and two mountaineers, under police supervision, which attempted the task has returned from the scene of the discovery, after having buried the body of Leading Aircraftman Wallis. On Tuesday last a rope attached to the bodies was found by two climbers when they were returning after a successful ascent of Mount Maite Brun. The discovery was reported to the police, who organised a party to go to the scene and, if possible, to bring out the bodies. The party was under the supervision of Constable Preston, of Fairlie, who went to the Hermitage on Thursday night. The weather cleared on Friday evening following a day of rain, and the party proceeded to Ball Hut. Next morning at 5 o’clock they left on the climb to Maite Brun Hut, and thence to the scene, which they reached at 1 o’clock. Their instructions from the police, If they found it was not possible to bring the bodies out, were to bury them at the spot. Tne body of Leading Aircraftman Wallis was found in an exposed position, and the other body, it was presumed, was at the end of the rope, down in a crevasse. The members ol' the party dug down six feet, and struck hard ice, and the body of Sergeant Morton, at' the end of the rope, is presumed, to be buried under many feet of ice. The body of Leading Aircraftman Wallis was buried in the crevasse alongside, and the party then returned to the Hermitage.

It is the opinion of the members of the party that the two men must have fallen, when they were at a height of probably 9000 feet, down a narrow couloir; that their bodies had lodged in this couloir out of sight, and during the winter or spring had been brought down by an avalanche to where they were discovered, at a height of about 7500 feet. The locality is about 12 miles from Ball Hut, the route lying over the glacier and most difficult terrain, and it Was considered an impossible tqsk to bring out Leading Aircraftman Wallis’s body. Such an undertaking, it was stated, would be fraught with considerable danger to those carrying it out. The difficulties, it was further pointed out, would be fully appreciated by experienced mountaineers with a knowledge of the locality. Sergeant Morton was 24 years of age, and was the son of Mr W. A. B. Morton, of Auckland, and formerly of Fairlie. Leading Aircraftman Wallis, who was aged 27, was the son of Mr F. L. Wallis, of Christchurch. They failed to return to the Hermitage, which they had left on Wednesday, March 17, 1943, on a projected trip to Malte Brun Hut. Search parties were sent out, and the air force party discovered gear and other materials on top of a steep incline near the Malte Brun Glacier, these articles being identified as the property of the missing men. After the search for the missing men was abandoned an inquest was held. The Barents were flown over the mountain y an air force plane, and a funeral service was conducted.