Source: Radio New Zealand
Plateau Hut on Aoraki/Mount Cook. Supplied / DoC
A pair of climbers missing on Aoraki/Mount Cook are believed to have died in a large ice avalanche, police said on Thursday.
If so, that would make them the fifth and sixth reported South Island mountaineering deaths in the past month.
The two men left the Tasman Valley car park on Friday last week, bound for Plateau Hut. They left the hut on Saturday evening on their way to the top of Aoraki/Mount Cook, via the Linda Glacier route, police said.
On Monday morning the Department of Conservation was told they had not returned.
Due to the weather, an aerial search was not carried out until late on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, search teams deployed a RECCO detector, suspended under a helicopter, Aoraki area commander Inspector Vicki Walker said.
According to the manufacturer’s website, RECCO reflectors “are lightweight passive transponders that require no power or activation to function”, and can be integrated into clothing, helmets, backpacks and harnesses.
“With the aid of the detector and Search and Rescue staff, we were able to identify a key area of interest and located some items of climbing equipment,” Walker said.
“A visual investigation of this area has led to the determination that the overdue climbers have been caught in a significant ice avalanche within a known icefall hazard zone on the upper Linda Glacier.
“Because of the scale and volume of material involved, we don’t believe this avalanche was survivable.”
Ground crews were yet to reach the site because of unstable ground, DoC Aoraki/Mount Cook operations manager Sally Jones said.
“This is a tragic outcome, and our thoughts are with the climbers’ family and friends.
“The Linda Glacier is an unforgiving alpine environment. Conditions can change rapidly, and even highly experienced climbers are exposed to unexpected hazards including icefall, crevasses, avalanches, and extreme weather.
“Aoraki is a place of immense beauty and significance, but it also can be extremely brutal in terms of what it can throw at those who attempt to climb it.”
The exact location of the bodies was not yet known. Police said a recovery operation would be considered when warmer weather allowed it.
“Sadly, for now, we can’t reach them and they lie in rest on the maunga, and our sympathy is with their whānau,” Walker said.
The latest loss followed the deaths 28-year-old Connor Scott McKenzie and 23-year-old Tanmay Shetankumar Bhati on Fiordland’s Sabre Peak earlier this month, and Wanaka-based mountain guide Thomas Vialletet and his client Kellam Conover, who died on Aoraki/Mount Cook in November.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
