KEY POINTS:
A climber was trapped and killed by a rock slide on the slopes of Mt Cook last night - the third fatality on the mountain this year.
Emergency search and rescue teams arrived too late to save the 29-year-old woman, who was hit by falling rubble near the summit of Mt Sealey, 4km south of Mt Cook Village, at 5.30pm yesterday.
The woman was in a climbing party of four but Alpine Search and Rescue arrived by helicopter to find she had already died, and airlifted the body to Timaru Hospital. No further details were available at the time of going to press.
Two Japanese climbers fell to their deaths on Mt Cook in January when their abseil anchor rock shifted under their weight and dragged them off the summit.
The mountain has claimed 218 lives in total.
