ALPS TRAGEDY

Southland Times, Issue 21604, 16 January 1932, Page 5

ALPS TRAGEDY

SURVIVOR’S STORY

A BITTER EXPERIENCE

LONEY INTERVIEWED BATTLE WITH BLIZZARD (Per United Press Association.) Christchurch, January’ 15. "We walked into a howling blizzard on Sunday afternoon near the summit of 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. He had a blanket wrapped round him. He looked cold and worn, but was in fair condition. “I am the least 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, I curled up in a blanket in the lee of a rock and spent the rest of lhe 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 Sunday. Dawn on Tuesday broke fine and warm. 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 and 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 the night trip to Carrington Hut to give them the news and to bring assistance from Bealey. I stayed at the Park Morpeth hut and on Thursday at about eleven o’clock two men who had travelled in racing kit from Carrington Hut arrived and brought me over the pass to the Carrington Hut, whore 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 wc left Hokitika on Sunday (January’ 3) but we had not gone very far when it commenced to rain. As we pushed up the mountain toward 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 Taipoiti riverbed we would tackle the pass, when we walked into a 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 getover on my’ own, but soon gave that up. Apparently Smith and Robbins also lost touch with each other. It was all devilish hard luck and might easily have happened to anyone. The trip was not tackled rashly. Smith and Robbins knew the country well. Wc had maps and we knew where we were going. It was not like tackling unknown country, but had we gone down the riverbed I think wc 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.” BATTLE WITH WEATHER THE FATAL MISTAKE. SEARCHERS’ HEROIC EFFORTS. 4» Christchurch, January 15. The story’ of the Hampers’ battle against the weather conditions is 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 in following too high a path. After they had crossed Whitehorn’s Pass into Canterbury they should have descended several hundred feet to reach the Saddle at the head of Taipoiti Gorge. Instead they kept on at a high level and ended up in a fog and the gathering darkness on the bluffs of a spur on 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, and it was necessary’ for the rescuers to make almost a complete circle round Mount Isabel, ploughing through deep masses of sliding shingle. Five men took turns at carrying the body, but all they could manage at a time was ten or fifteen steps. The body was finallytransported by packhorse to the Carrington Hut. Inquest Held. Loney 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 Smith and Robbins died at Harmans Pass on or about January 11 while endeavouring to cross over the pass to 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 J. P. Wilson, H. M. Sweney, F. W. Cochrane and Constable Robb. Sympathy was extended to the relatives of the unfortunate trampers.