Death on the mountain
Less than a fortnight after posting a tribute to a man killed in a rockfall incident, an engineering geologist and his colleague have died climbing Taranaki Maunga.
Police were notified about 10pm on Tuesday that a climber had fallen near the summit.
The bodies of two climbers were found just after midnight, yesterday.
The operation to recover the bodies will resume this morning.
It is understood that the men were Richard Phillips and Peter Kirkwood, of Christchurch, who worked for Tonkin and Taylor, an environmental and engineering consultancy.
It is thought the two men were on a private trip that was not work-related.
Phillips’ LinkedIn page lists him as a senior engineering geologist who moved to New Zealand from London in 2008. He initially lived in Tauranga before moving to Christchurch in 2011.
He recently paid tribute to Antarctica New Zealand field trainer Tom Arnold, who died in a rockfall incident in Fiordland on April 20.
Phillips had worked alongside Arnold to help clear landslides on State Highway 1 following the 2016 Kaiko¯ ura earthquake.
Phillips paid tribute to Arnold in a post on LinkedIn, saying Arnold was safety conscious and ‘‘epitomised professionalism’’.
‘‘No matter how much pressure was applied to get the job done as quickly as possible, Tom never allowed this to compromise his focus on people going home unharmed at the end of each day,’’ he wrote.
Tonkin and Taylor’s managing director, Dr Tim Fisher, said the company was notified by police yesterday that two ‘‘treasured staff’’ had been involved in a climbing incident.
‘‘Our priority right now is to support their families and our people as we deal with this incredibly sad news.’’
Nga¯ Iwi o Taranaki, the eight iwi of the region, acknowledged the climbers’ deaths and had placed a ra¯ hui on all routes to the summit.
The ra¯ hui will be reviewed after a week.
The Department of Conservation has ceased all of its work on the mountain while the bodies of the two deceased climbers are retrieved.
Its two visitor centres would remain open to share information with the public.
Tramper and search and rescue member Jack Osephius was on Taranaki Maunga overnight on Tuesday and said the weather was ‘‘perfect’’.
Osephius was on his way back from his own overnight stay when he received a notification about 11.30am yesterday asking if he could be on standby to help retrieve two bodies.
He was near Tahurangi Lodge, about 1500 metres above sea level on the north side of the maunga, and offered his assistance but was not needed.
Osephius said he understood the incident happened near Syme Hut, which is on Panitahi, or Fanthams Peak, at an elevation of 1940m and about 500m from the summit.
Osephius had helped bring stretchers down the maunga on previous occasions.
However, he said it would be ‘‘absolutely extreme’’ to do so from the highaltitude hut.
Veteran mountaineer Lindsay Maindonald said he was surprised and saddened to hear of the deaths.
‘‘This affects our province. It’s a sad day for all of us.’’
Maindonald had planned to climb Taranaki Maunga today.
Trying to summit the mountain at this time of year was dangerous for the general public and inexperienced climbers, he said.
Climbers would likely encounter verglas, a thin coating of ice or frozen rain on an exposed surface.
‘‘From now on when you’ve got anything that looks like snow up there you can say that it’ll be ice,’’ he said.
‘‘You can’t really see it. It’s like black ice on the road.’’
The dark-coloured volcanic rock scoria also froze and became like concrete, which caused difficulty for even experienced climbers, he said.
‘‘Even if the ice is not there the scoria freezes solid.’’
A Taranaki man tramping on Taranaki Maunga around the time two people died considered trying for the summit but turned back as conditions worsened.
The decision may have saved his life. Despite the picturesque cone-shaped volcano looking benign, the maunga is New Zealand’s second deadliest, claiming more than 80 lives since 1891.
Many of the deaths occur in autumn and early winter when the slopes are largely free of snow. However, that often ‘‘hides’’ treacherous conditions near the summit, which climbers say often glistens with black ice.
Yesterday police confirmed they had found the bodies of two Christchurch men about midnight on Tuesday after one of the climbers fell near the summit.
Search and rescue teams were unable to retrieve the bodies yesterday and will start the recovery operation again today.
Stratford man Anthony Wedgwood had been in the same area of the mountain on Tuesday.
He had reached Syme Hut, about 500 metres from the summit, at about 2pm when he decided to make the three-hour trek back to the Dawson Falls car park.
‘‘Looking at the summit from Syme Hut I was like ‘nah I’m not going to do it’,’’ he said.
‘‘All you could see was this glistening slab. It wasn’t snow; it was just ice.
‘‘Even though I had the gear, it wasn’t something I would have done. It was vertical ice.’’
He said it was very cloudy and windy as he climbed to the hut.
‘‘I couldn’t see two markers ahead of me often throughout the day, so I’d have to stop and wait.
‘‘The clouds were getting very thick, so visibility would have been very low.’’
While coming down the mountain, Wedgwood said he passed a group of four climbers, one of whom he thought could have been better prepared.
‘‘I should have said ‘hey, do you mind coming back to the car park because you don’t look like you’re going to make it’,’’ Wedgewood said.
‘‘But then bystander apathy kicks in, and you chose not to do it.’’
Ease of access and a seemingly straightforward task of reaching the summit attracts many climbers to the mountain, especially during the summer months.
But the area is prone to sudden and severe weather changes that often catch even experienced climbers out.
Following a fatality in 2017, Taranaki Alpine Club member Ivan Bruce said it could be time for a dedicated alpine trained ranger to be permanently based on the mountain, as the Department of Conservation does in the Aoraki/Mt Cook region.
The ranger would offer advice, and check and monitor climbers and experience levels.
‘‘It’s technically a difficult mountain to climb. It looks close and it’s only 2500m high but it’s steep and gets very icy,’’ he said at the time.
‘‘If people are not proficient and get into trouble, they are not only putting themselves at risk but also those who come to rescue them.’’
On Wednesday Bruce, who is now the Alpine Club president, said conditions on the mountain could be treacherous this time of year due to the change in seasons.
‘‘It’s extremely dangerous,’’ he said.
The North Ridge is the track
‘‘All you could see was this glistening slab. It wasn’t snow, it was just ice.’’ Anthony Wedgwood
most used by climbers, and it is no longer snow and ice free, which means climbers need to use crampons and ice axes.
‘‘And they need to know how to use them,’’ Bruce said.
Before Tuesday’s deaths, the most recent fatalities on the mountain were in 2017, 2016 and 2013.
Morgan Ross Fraser, 22, died in June 2017, while in June 2016 French national Victor Roucher,
25, died after falling hundreds of metres while trying to reach the summit.
In October 2013, Dr Hiroki Ogawa and his partner Nicole Sutton died in a snow cave after becoming stranded on the maunga in a storm.
In July 1953 six people died on one climb, an event that became known as the ‘‘Nurses Accident’’ because four of those who died were nurses.