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Climbers missing on Mount Cook feared dead, New Zealand police say | |
(35 minutes later) | |
An Australian and two Germans missing on New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki (Mount Cook), are believed to have died. | |
Two helicopters failed to find any evidence of the three climbers on Thursday morning, police said. | |
“The situation is grim. It was hoped that if they had survived the storm they would have been spotted from the air today,” police said in a statement on Thursday. | |
“It is still unknown what has occurred to the men, but it is believed that they have perished on the mountain.” | |
The men’s families have been informed. | |
Sydney doctor Michael Bishop, 53, and Johann Viellehner, 58, and his son Raphael, 27, from Germany, have not been seen since Monday morning. | |
All were experienced climbers. | |
They had planned to climb to the 3,724m summit via the Linda Glacier route, but concerns were raised for their safety when they failed to return from their attempt. | |
Bad weather hit the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, hampering search efforts. | |
Police said the search would be re-evaluated, and more aerial searches would be carried out in the coming days in an attempt to locate the climbers’ bodies. | |
About 30cm of snow has fallen at Plateau Hut with larger amounts settling higher up the mountain. | |
The Christchurch alpine cliff rescue team has returned home and the Department Conservation rescue team is on standby at Mount Cook village. | |
Bishop’s son, Joshua, had hoped his father, who had been thwarted in two previous attempts to reach the summit, had been sheltering from the storm in a snow cave. | |
Earlier this month, experienced mountaineer Stuart Haslett, 28, died in a climbing accident on the peak. | |
In July, a 44-year-old Australian soldier was killed on Mount Cook after falling down a crevasse during a winter exercise. |
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