MAN INJURED AT EGMONT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 146, 23 June 1931, Page 11

MAN INJURED AT EGMONT

MISHAP ON F ANTHAM’S SLOPE. SLUMBER SLIPS ON CRUSTED SNOW. INJURIES TO HIS HEAD ANID ARM. As a result of slipping about 200 feet over a slope of crusted snow on Mount Egmont yesterday Mr Gordon M. Bly th, aged 23, Hawera, was badly cut abou., the head and his right arm was injured to an extent not ascertainable last night. It was reported from the Hawera hospital that his condition was satisfactory. He was to be X-rayed. The accident occurred sometime after mid-day, when Bly th. and Mr Ken Tompkins, New Plymouth, were returning to the Dawson Falls house from the direction of Fantham’s Peak. Immediately advice was received at the house, where a large number of alpinists were assembled, Mr J. P. Murphy started for the scene of the mishap with a party, leaving Mr L. O. Hooker, president, of the Mount Egmont Alpine Club, to arrange for further help. Blyth was carried down on a stretcher and at 3.45 p.m. reached the house. There he was attended by Dr J. I. R. Gray, Kaponga, and Nurse Ellis, before being sent on to the hospital by ambulance. It is stated that it was against the wishes of those in charge of the alpinists that Blyth and Tompkins set out, minus full equipment, with the object of skiing on the ground at Fantham’s Peak. If conditions had been favourable it was the intention of the alpinists to go to the peak as one big party for skiing practice. However, the conditions were not good, and Mr Rod Syme, the Egmont club captain, who was in charge, and those associated with him, decided the trip should be abandoned. Tompkins and Blyth started from Dawson Falls early yesterday morning. Neither of them had a rope, though Tompkins had an axe. Blyth was wearing a good pair of boots, but did not carry an alpenstock. Finding conditions unfavourable they turned back before reaching the top of the peak, and it was on their return journey that the accident occurred. Blyth slipped, and in his descent struck a boulder, which deviated his coarse slightly. Continuing on, he came to rest finally in soft snow at the bottom of a 12ft. bank. This saved him, no doubt, from more severe, if not fatal injuries. The nows was conveyed to the house much more rapidly than it would have been otherwise, owing to the fact that the accident was witnessed by two alpinists sent up by the main party to report on the conditions. Blyth is a “student guide” and has had some experience at Mount Cool. His father, Mr Joseph Blyth, schoolmaster. Ohakune, and formerly a resident of South Taranaki, is a noted alpinist with over 100 ascents of Ruapehu to his credit. Blyth is a nephew of Mr T. A. Winks, Ara rat a.