Almost five days after three climbers from the US and Canada went missing on Aoraki Mt Cook, police revealed today they “do not believe the men have survived”.
The search for Kurt Blair (56) and Carlos Romero (50) from the United States, and a Canadian national was launched on Monday after they were reported overdue.
Due to poor weather conditions on the mountain, the search was paused late Monday and only resumed today when two drone operators were helicoptered up.
Police believe the trio suffered a fatal fall, Donna-Marie Lever reports. (Source: 1News)
Today, Aoraki Area Commander Inspector Vicki Walker said a top and energy gel believed to belong to the trio was found. On Monday, a jacket and ice axe were found.
“While we cannot confirm that the property belonged to the men, we believe that it does,” she said.
Walker said the items found, the length of time it has been since the group was reported overdue, and the lack of communication from them led police to believe they did not survive.
“We believe they have taken a fall.
“This is certainly not the news that we wanted to share today.”
Police believe the group fell while trying to cross a face on the ridge.
She said police were now formally advising the Coroner of its belief that the men did not survive the fall.
The trio planned to summit the 3724m peak via Zurbriggen Ridge, having flown into Plateau Hut at 3.30pm on Saturday. The alarm was raised when they failed to meet their 8.30am flight out on Monday.
Police have grave concerns about finding the three men alive, Lisa Davies reports. (Source: 1News)
Walker said footage from the drone team showed evidence of where the climbers had begun to traverse the slopes beneath Zurbriggen Ridge.
“This evidence includes footprints and the items that we have mentioned we have retrieved.”
Police spoke to the men’s families today, and “as you’d expect, it is not the phone call they wanted to receive,” Walker said.
“Myself and the team are devastated for them, we all wanted a positive result.”
She told the media that police were officially moving toward ending its active search for the men.
“However, we remain poised to reactivate our search if we receive fresh information, or credible reports or sightings, especially from the climbing community.”
The feasibility of recovering the men’s bodies would be “carefully considered” and managed.
“I know that finding the man will be what the family wants,” Walker said.
She said any recovery operation would be “dependent on the information that we receive”.
Asked if there were any plans to go back up the mountain to find the men, Walker said: “Not at this stage.”
