Missing on the mountain
‘‘So there’s a little bit of process from the policing side of things about how we manage that with the families, but, you know for the Doc staff here, I suppose, it’s the nature of the environment.’’
‘‘Some families, you know, they’ve had the funeral, it’s done and dusted, they’ve moved on. I’ve contacted one family once and they said ‘dispose of the body, we don’t care, we’ve moved on’.’’
Another of those still missing in the park is Malaysian tourist Kok Liang Wong, who was 32 when he disappeared.
Swanson calls him his ‘‘one failure’’.
Wong spent the night of September 29, 2009 at the YHA at Mt Cook Village. The next day he inquired about walking tracks to undertake that afternoon.
He missed his bus the next day and failed to show for a flight from Christchurch to Melbourne on October 2. He was never seen again.
The remains of people missing in the park do occasionally turn up. Swanson believes that will happen increasingly often as global warming continues to have an impact.
‘‘Glaciers are retreating, for us the climbing season’s earlier, so we’re having to react to that.
‘‘Anybody that goes into a glacier, it’s like an inch by inch river each day, so they come down, and then as they get to the surface, then they come up.’’
Some people have been missing in the park for many decades.
On March 20, 1943, RNZAF Sergeant William ‘‘Paddy’’ Morton was attempting to summit Mt Malte Brun with Frank Wallis when the pair fell more than 600 metres into the head of the Malte Brun Glacier.
Wallis’ body was found by another climbing party in January 1944. Morton has never been found.
Others have been lost more recently.
Just a couple of weeks ago, on November 26, the parents of former Pleasant Point man Stephen Dowall made the journey to Mt Cook to mark two years since he went missing on the mountain.
Dowall and climbing companion Rob Hawes set off from Mt Cook Village at 4am on November 26, 2015 on what was an annual sojourn into the park.
Their destination for the night was the Empress Hut, at the head of the Hooker Glacier and under Mt Cook’s Sheila Face, about 12 hours away.
Dowall never made it to the hut. Police suspect he may have fallen into a crevasse on the Empress Shelf on the western slopes of Mt Cook.
Unfortunately his father, Alf Dowall, knows all-too-well what his son’s final moments may have been like.
‘‘I went into one myself, but I didn’t go in below my waist, fortunately,’’ Alf, also a keen climber, said.
‘‘Suddenly it just went. I Plan your trip – plan the route you will take and how long you expect it will take you to complete.
– Let someone know your plans and date you expect to return by. Check the weather – New Zealand’s weather can be highly unpredictable, check the forecast and expect changes. unfortunately know what it must feel like.’’ A large photo of Stephen, taken during one of his ascents up the mountain, hangs in pride of place on the lounge wall at Alf and Anne Dowall’s Pleasant Point home. He looks happy, in his element.
‘‘Family man, first, humanitarian, mountaineer, in that order,’’ is how Anne describes her son.
Dowall was an experienced climber whose love for the mountains spanned decades.
‘‘I suppose I started him off when he was in high school, and maybe I shouldn’t have,’’ Alf said, with a short, deflated laugh. The look on his face said no humour was intended.
Dowall worked for the United Nations in Myanmar, helping to improve the food security of low- Know your limits – Challenge yourself within your physical limits and experiences. Take sufficient supplies – Take enough food, equipment, clothing and emergency rations for the worstcase scenario. Take an appropriate means of communication. Do not expect cellphone coverage in parks. Radios and beacons can be hired.