Bodies remain on mountain as poor weather persists

Erica Jane Beuzenberg

The bodies of an acclaimed climber and two tourists she was guiding in the Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park today remain on the mountain as poor weather hampers retrieval efforts.

Guide Erica Jane Beuzenberg, 41 of Fairlie in Canterbury, was roped to John Lowndes, a 59-year-old salesman from Stoke-on-Trent in England, and Kazuhiro Kotani, a 29-year-old from Hyogo, Japan, when one of them slipped while crossing Ball Pass yesterday.

All three went over a cliff and slid 200m before coming to a rest.

Bad weather yesterday meant the bodies of the three climbers had to stay on the mountain overnight and Senior Constable Brent Swanson of Twizel said conditions were still poor in the Mt Cook area.

Heavy rain was falling and winds were strong. The recovery of the bodies would be on hold until the weather improved.

The company guiding a party today said it would be back leading climbing groups on the mountain tomorrow.

Director of the Lake Tekapo-based Alpine Recreation, Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, said their operations had been suspended since the accident but would resume tomorrow.

"We have got a party starting tomorrow," he told National Radio today.

"I don't see any reason why the guide should not take this party up there."

Mr Braun-Elwert, who has regularly guided keen climber Prime Minister Helen Clark, denied guides took clients who were not up to the task.

"I don't think that is a fair comment. If you find that they are not really up to it we turn them around before we get there."

He said prospective clients completed a rigorous questionnaire and prior to the climb their fitness and how steady they were on their feet was determined.

They also received rescue training.

Mr Braun-Elwert said Ms Beuzenberg had been over the same ground as yesterday's climb more than 200 times.

"I probably wouldn't have done anything different at all myself," he said, adding there was always a possibility of danger.

"Even the most experienced people can get caught out in a moment of inattention or a moment of whatever circumstances come into it."

Mr Braun-Elwert agreed there were risks to climbing in the mountains. "The risks are quite many-fold. You have got rock-fall, you can have a strong a gust of wind, you can have avalanches.

"This is where the accumulated experience of a guide comes into it to make the right decisions at the right times."

- NZPA