PERILOUS POSITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 6

PERILOUS POSITION

TWO HOURS ON CLIFF YOUTH DRAWN UP BY ROPES Cut off from his shack by the tide, a youthful deerstalker at Mahia, in the Gisborne district, who attempted to scale a cliff face, was rescued by holidaymakers with the aid of ropes. He was hauled 200 ft up precipitous slopes. The climber was one of five who were faced with the alternatives of finding tracks up the forbidding cliffs or climbing several hundred feet over a hill. Four chose the longer route, but the fifth attempted to scale the cliffs. Mr V Bluck, who was fishing in the bay, saw the youth clinging to the cliff in a precarious position, unable to make headway or to retrace his steps. He was facing a perpendicular wall of rock on which there was not a visible hold for hand or foot, and the track behind him was almost equally bare of foothold. , Mr Bluck returned to the shore and enlisted the aid of Mr W. G. Cummings. One of Mr Cummings’s sons on a pony carried ropes to the top of the cliff, and he and his brother gave assistance in lowering another member of the shooting party. The youth was about 200 ft below the crest of the cliff, and much difficulty was experienced in assisting him to a point where it was possible for him to help his rescuers by his own efforts. The youth spent about two hours in danger and was much shaken by the experience. While struggling to make progress on the cliff face, he had jettisoned his pack and rifle.