Three Johns plus Four

Machine-read text (unproofread)

Read from the scans by software, so it contains mistakes. Typing it up properly would help blind readers: use Suggest an edit.

Three Johns plus Four Barry Biggs (Memories of the Three Johns Hut A Jet Ranger was soon at the village Tragedy) and the first of several parties was At around 9 p.m. Sunday night the 30th ferried into the head of the Mueller January 1977 a bad strom struck the Glacier. In cold, wet and windy Mt Cook area. Sleep came hard for most conditions, two people managed to people in the village that night. locate debris of the hut several Extremely high winds, semi-continuous hundred feet down the Dobson Valley thunder and lightning, and driving rain side of the face alongside Barron shook the buildings for most of the Saddle. Failing light and cold stopped night. The C.M.C. hut had a large any further searching that night. section of its roof blown off, letting Later it snowed fairly heavily and at rain drive straight into the bunkrooms. first light the party retreated down Sheets of roofing iron were found the the glacier. following day over half a mile away, wrapped around matagouri trees and By 9 a.m. the weather had cleared consome driven several feet into the siderably. With no sign of the missing ground. None of the high huts appearparty in the Mueller, Lisle Irwin the ed to have suffered much damage. On search co-ordinator, decided that I the Monday night radio sched only one should do a quick trip up the Dobson hut, Three Johns was not accounted for. Valley and check all the huts, in the A party had reported in from there on event that the party was able to retreat the Sunday night but it was assumed on that side. There was no sign of them that they had since left to come out. in the lower valley huts, and low runs over the track and riverbed revealed By Wednesday concern was running high nothing further. The only hope lay in as there was still no sign of the party. their being at the last hut at the head Hugh Logan and Mal Clarborough made a of the valley. quick trip up the Mueller to see if they could locate them. A call came With a solemn deflated feeling I found through in the early evening from Hugh the hut empty. The last log entry read and Mal - Three Johns hut had disappear- ". . . arrived via Tragedy Col. Leaving ed and there was no sign of the four in doubtful weather for Three Johns". man party

We continued up to the head of the lifted up as a unit (Wizard of Oz valley checking all possible places style) and dumped over the edge of where the party may have been sheltering. the cliff. At the head of the valley a 2500 foot rock and snow face rose up to Barron 4. There was some discussion following Saddle. The chopper slowly worked its the tragedy about whether any of the way up the face. About 600 feet below party were able to get out of the hut the top we spotted a lone ice-axe before it was blown away. The two lying on the snow. We continued up bodies that were found were well and several hundred feet below the away from the hut with two ice-axes top we saw the wreckage of the hut, half way down the slope. It is thus jammed in the top of a rocky gut. likely that they were able to get out of the hut, but it may not have been An hour or so later Hugh Logan, Wilf until after the hut went, as the way Lammerink and myself were dropped in the people were dressed indicated the basin at the head of the valley. that they weren't prepared for the We climbed rapidly up steep snow under worst. They may have died later of fire of falling rocks, to the bottom exposure. of the final rock band that leads up onto the saddle. We had given up hope The Three Johns tragedy was very unfortof finding anyone alive at this stage. unate and highlights the need for good Climbing up the rock was more diffcult siting, high strength construction and than expected, especially with quite extremely good mooring wires for high large packs. Just below the wreckage altitude huts. Only several weeks we cleared spindrift off a large ledge before the hut was demolished several to find two sleeping bags - empty. people had commented during a discussion Hugh and Wilf climbed up above the on huts, that they had lain awake all wreckage and gave me a top rope enablnight, at different occasions in Three ing me. to hang down and have a good Johns, fully clad and ready to run, as search through the wreckage. Spindrift the 'hut was buffeted by high winds, with had been forced into much of the roofing iron flapping. wreckage making searching very difficult. After much probing and pulling The hut was erected in memory of three apart wreckage I decided to call it a Australian climbers who died in the day. It was becoming too dangerous. area = all called John. I wonder what Sections of the structure were moving they will call a new hut (if any). and I didn't fancy having it fall on Maybe it's bad luck remembering the top of me. dead when naming huts. Meanwhile another party had been dropped in to have a closer look at the lower section of the face. Several rock falls made searching extremely dangerous, one huge boulder bouncing only a snifter away from where a person was sheltering. They found two bodies partly buried in avalanche debris. We had apparently walked right past them earlier. DONZ We climbed the rest of the face above the wreckage and then dropped down into the Mueller where the chopper picked us up. Now over a year later, I often reflect on that day. There are a few things about the events that stand out in my mind. The following are among them:- 1. The hut site was completely bare following the storm except for some shallow pits marking where the piles had been. 2. Most of the guy wires had been ripped completely from the ground. HAT The rest of the wires were sheared clean off at ground level. 3. The wreckage was all together, jammed in the neck of the rock gut. Only a few items were found more than 100 feet from the wreckage. This indicates that the hut was not blown away bit by bit, but rather KG