‘Inexperience’ a factor in climbers’ Fiordland deaths
Inexperience and a lack of climbing together were probably factors in the deaths of two climbers in Fiordland National Park in 2020, a coroner has found.
Peter John Adler and Mark Benjamin Herzog died after falling while descending the 2162m Sabre Peak, Coroner Marcus Elliott said.
The coroner quoted from a report prepared by NZ Mountain Safety Council representatives that found the men attempted to climb the north face of the peak on January 27 when it started raining, making the climb difficult and dangerous.
It appeared they decided to retreat from their attempt before reaching the summit.
However, the distance they needed to descend was further than the length of their rope and meant that their retreat required a series of abseil pitches.
They chose to employ a single rope descent method, which was generally considered acceptable practice, but it was more time consuming and increased the workload for both climbers.
It also required climbers to create anchors to use for their descent, as there were no fixed anchors available, the report writers said.
Adler and Herzog used an anchor made with a cut section of accessory cord, which was normal practice for such a descent.
Shortly after Herzog started descending, with Adler waiting to descend, an anchor failed.
Both men fell a considerable distance and sustained fatal injuries.
Adler’s mother contacted police on January 30 to advise that her son and Herzog had not returned.
A police search located their bodies in a waterfall system at the base of the North Buttress. Both men were entangled in ropes.
Adler, 25, had returned to New Zealand from the United States of America, where he worked as a stream technician, in December 2019.
His mother described him as an avid sports person who played soccer and basketball. He started climbing in 2018 and quickly progressed.
A family member said climbing the route he and Herzog attempted up Sabre Peak was within his limits.
“Physically, Peter was in incredible shape.”
Herzog, 27, was an American medical student who was doing his medical rotation at the Cromwell Medical Centre.
He competed as a multisport athlete at high school and university and was an avid runner, cyclist, and climber for more than 10 years.
They met in mid-January 2020 when they joined several others on a trip to Milford Sound to scramble up Mitre Peak and Copper Point.
While there, they saw Sabre Peak and decided to climb it.
Adler spent a lot of time researching the Sabre Peak climb and the weather forecasts.
The report authors found the men’s deaths were almost certainly due to a failing natural anchor that they constructed.
The factor that likely contributed most to this outcome was the pair’s lack of experience climbing alpine routes, in particular in the Fiordland area, as well as their lack of experience climbing together.
“Like many outdoor incidents, there was not one specific factor or decision that led to this accident, but rather several smaller factors and decisions that all contributed,” the report said.
Their deaths occurred only a week after Sarwan Philip Chand, 27, and Conor Jon Neil Smith, 22, who fell while climbing nearby Marian Peak.
It appeared an anchor also failed when one of them fell, leading to the fatal fall.