Ski guide deviated from plan

Photo / Sarah Ivey

An experienced alpine guide, who died in an avalanche in the Ragged Range last August, had deviated from the agreed heliskiing plan for the day with a last minute decision for an extra ski run with four clients on a steep slope.

Methven Heliski guide Jonathan Harvey Morgan, 38, was killed in a massive avalanche on August 14 last year but his clients, two Australian men and a Japanese couple, survived.

In his report to an inquest before coroner Richard McElrea in Ashburton yesterday Labour Department health and safety inspector David Bellett said some of the clients wanted to make an additional ski run that day and Mr Morgan agreed to guide them.

Company director and senior Methven Heliski guide Kevin Bloekholt had approved the additional run but had not ascertained exactly where the group intended to ski.

Mr Bellett said Mr Morgan had initially chosen Sunset Bowl for the last ski run but, at the last minute, had changed to a nearby slope, above Totara Stream, which was outside the parameters decided for the day. The chosen slope was steeper than the agreed slope grade for the day, it had a poor escape path and steep bluffs at the bottom.

Mr Bellett said the landing site chosen for the helicopter had also been ill-advised. "Given the company [Methven Heliski] did have relatively clear operational guidelines about requiring all [ski] runs to be approved by the director yet did not actively enforce this and given it [the company] was aware of the variety of safety equipment available yet did not supply it to their employees, the company may have breached provisions of the Health and Safety in Employment Act as it did not take all [practical steps to maintain a safe work place]," Mr Bellett's report said.

The company said in a report that some available equipment was impractical and could create additional hazards. The situation may change as technology improved but there was a limit to the amount of gear a ski guide could carry.

Just three weeks earlier Mr Morgan had been one of two guides with a Heliksi party on July 24 when an avalanche buried two men and partially buried another. One of them, Llynden Reithmuller, died at the scene but John Castran, 53, of Melbourne, and his son Angus, 23, survived.

Mr Reithmuller's death was the subject of a hearing before Mr McElrea yesterday.

Mr McElrea reserved his findings on both deaths.

- NZPA