SLIDE OF 500 FEET.

Wairarapa Age, 5 June 1930, Page 5

SLIDE OF 500 FEET.

CUMBER ON MOUNT EGMONT BADLY INJURED. MIRACULOUS ESCAPE FROM DEATH. HEROIC EFFORTS OF RESCUERS. NEW PLYMOUTH, June 4. The story of the heroic rescue of W. Carmau, of Stratford, who was seriously injured through sliding 500 feet down the side of Mount Egmont, was told when the rescue party returned to Stratford at midnight last night. A recent heavy fall of snow on the mountain had frozen with the cold weather and the surface was like When negotiating a narrow ledge of rock skirting Priest’s Fingers, Carman slipped and slithered five hundred feet into a gorge over the ice and occasional jagged rocks.

He was held up by a jutting rock and lay unconscious for a time. The remainder of the party, looking down, saw him partially recover as he lay against the rock. A slight movement would have sent him sliding another six hundred feet. With great difficulty the party descended and gave Carman first aid and then commenced the extremely arduous journey to Dawson Falls. Cannan was in a bad way and had to be carried over rocks and along a boulder-strewn creek bed. The small party laboured as darkness set in and soon the two electric torches became exhausted. At various stages the

rescuers were reinforced till at last the Dawson Falls House was reached. The journey had taken from 3.30 till 8.30 and the rescuers were exhausted. Dr. Doris Gordon had tramped over the mountain from Stratford House to Dawson Falls to render medieal attention. Carman is suffering from a broken breast bone and broken collarbone. Both he and G. Irving, of Stratford, who suffered shock and bruises as the result of a fall on the south side of the mountain, are progressing favourably.—(P.A.) (An earlier message from Stratford stated that Irving lost his footing in helping one of his party who had slipped, and he slid over the rocks and ice for 400 feet.)