Ascent a tribute to avalanche victims
Avalanche survivor Jo Morgan is determined to take her fallen friend’s ashes to two unclimbed peaks after he and a fellow guide died trying to complete their summit challenge.
Wolfgang Maier and Martin Hess died in October, when an avalanche struck their climbing party on Mt Hicks, near Aoraki/Mt Cook. Morgan survived after struggling to set off her locater beacon and digging herself free.
Last week Morgan, Maier’s partner Tracey Bell and six others made an emotional two-day journey up the 2338m Turners Peak in the Mount Cook National Park as a tribute to the pair.
Morgan, who was close friends and a climbing companion of both Maier and Hess, said the hiking party reminisced about the good times they spent together.
"It was pretty emotional for some of the people and also there were lots of really good stories told,’’ she said. The group also carried Maier’s ashes to the top of the peak. ‘‘For us all it was a closing of an era.’’ Maier had guided Morgan on 22 of the 24 New Zealand peaks higher than 3000 metres.
Bell met Maier when the qualified mountain guide led her up Turner Peak, in 2008. They shared a love of nature and the outdoors.
Morgan had set a goal to climb Mt Hicks and Torres Peak – the last two peaks they failed to climb after the avalanche in October. ‘‘Tracey has given me some of Wolfgang’s ashes so I can take him up the last two peaks, which I haven’t given up on after the avalanche, so I’m hoping to get up the final two peaks hopefully this year.’’
Maier would have wanted her to finish the remaining climbs, she said.
Hess was a glacier guide, who led trips on Fox Glacier, on the West Coast. A joint funeral for Maier and Hess was held in Christchurch on November 6.