DEATH ON RUAPEHU

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 144, 19 June 1936, Page 8

DEATH ON RUAPEHU

DROWNING IN CRATER LAKE TAUMAEUNUI INQUEST FINDING. [ Per Pres« Association. ] TAUMAEUNUI, June 17. An adjourned inquest was held today before the coroner, Mr. A. S. Laird, concerning the death of James Alexander Gordon, solicitor, who was drowned inthe crater lake on Mount Ruapehu. ID. Bayfield, manager of the Chateau Tongariro, stated that a notice was posted up giving hints to mountain climbers. Gordon’s party notified its intention of climbing. . The chief guide, Carl Risberg, was recalled and said that he experimented two days after the accident by sliding on a similar graded slope and found that ice axes would not hold or make the slightest impression in the ice. Even with crampons and rope they could not hold a thirteen-stone man from sliding down. W. S. Rennie, former secretary of the Ruapehu Ski Club, gave evidence that the Tourist Department had been repeatedly approached to have more equipment at the huts and to have the huts connected by telephone to the Chateau. The club offered assistance in erecting a telephone line, but received no response from the department. Each member of a climbing party should be equipped with an ice axe and the party should be roped together if there was a danger of sliding. The finding was that Gordon was accidentally killed, death resulting from internal injuries, shock, and exposure. The coroner said that he considered Gordon had an attack of syncope or fainting that rendered him unable to attempt to save himself. The coroner highly commended the work of Messrs. A. Sandel and J. Bryan and Guide Risberg in the recovery of the body.