One of the climbers missing on Aoraki Mount Cook is an “accomplished” professional climber who taught others in the industry about snow and mountain safety, a colleague has said.
The search for Kurt Blair, 56, and Carlos Romero, 50, from the US, and a Canadian national was launched on Monday after they were reported overdue. The operation has been on hold since late Monday due to the weather, and the search is now considered unlikely to resume until at least tomorrow.
Michael Ackerman, executive director of the Silverton Avalanche School in Colorado, where Blair worked, said the missing climber is a highly experienced mountaineer.
Police have grave concerns about finding the three men alive, Lisa Davies reports. (Source: 1News)
He said Blair is an IFMGA-certified mountain guide and “mountain professional” who is an expert in recognising dangers related to snow and avalanches. He also said Blair is an “accomplished” personal climber with an impressive resume.
“He had a career before mountain guiding, and then he decided a number of years ago to chase this dream to become a full-time professional mountain guide.”
Blair taught those undergoing recreational training, as well as those looking for professional certification as a guide.
Ackerman said Blair provided students with fundamental knowledge of weather, terrain, and the mountain snowpack so they could make informed and less dangerous decisions while climbing.
He said that while the team going up Aoraki Mount Cook was “high calibre”, nature doesn’t care about experience.
“One of the things we teach here is that mother nature bats last in all of these endeavours and ecosystems that we take on as backcountry travellers.
“And she’s fond of hitting a walk-off in the ninth inning when you think you have the victory all sewn up.”
Attempts to reach climbers were unsuccessful
Three men — two from the US and one from Canada — were reported missing on Monday. (Source: 1News)
Asked if he held hope the trio would be found safe, Ackerman said: “You always want to hold out hope that climbers, adventurous people that adventure to heights, have found a way to burrow into a snow cave and share a biscuit for three days.
“I feel very removed from the terrain and the situation on the ground in New Zealand. What I do know is what has been shared with me.”
He said authorities had found gear and equipment that led them to believe the group had suffered a fall.
“What they had deduced is that if the team had fallen, it would be an unsurvivable event, and their presumption was that these guys were gone.”
Ackerman said his group of mountaineers in Colorado had “fairly robust and rehearsed” protocols for check-ins and used satellite communication devices.
“So the authorities reached out to the school and to myself to see if we could provide them with contact information to try to ping his device.
“These units have the ability to do live tracking, and so if that feature is turned on on the device, they could zero in on where the party might be.”
He said he and his colleagues were happy to “lend what we could”, but their efforts ended up being “dead ends”.
“The devices weren’t tracking. We put some messages out to the team, and those went unanswered.”
Community ‘shattered’
Ackerman said Blair told him he was “very much looking forward to a trip to New Zealand” after returning from a local avalanche conference.
“When it came to Kurt, if he said he was going somewhere, it was for a grand adventure.”
He said everybody who knew Blair was “shattered” by what happened.
“Kurt was an amazingly authentic individual. He had a quiet confidence, and he had a humility in both word an actions.
“He had a politeness that I can only aspire to.”