Windy Tops

Tag: history

  • Re-living The Sutch Search (Part 3 of 3)

    Following from part one and part two.

    “It is, therefore, reasonable that the actions of Trampers who become—or are believed to be—lost should be thrown open to examination, and, if necessary, to criticism. When a party that was expected to return in about three days does not return for about fifteen days, and then says, it was “never lost,” a difficult precedent is created.”

    —The Evening Post, 1st May 1933.
    From Evening Post, Issue 100, 1 May 1933, Page 10 (additional):
    RECALL OF SEARCHERS
    A LONG PROCESS

    It is expected that it will be several days before all the searchers can he recalled. A party consisting of Messrs. H. Anderson, B. McGregor, and W. E. Davidson, of the Tararua Tramping Club, and Mr. F. A. McNeil, of the Radio Emergency Corps, left Wellington yesterday for the mountain house, and will remain there until the withdrawal of the search parties has been completed.

    About thirty-five members of the Tararua Tramping Club and a number of others belonging to kindred clubs are still on the ranges, and arrangements have been made with the Railway Department for trains to sound three blasts on their whistles between Otaki and Levin on the west side and Carterton and Masterton on the east side as an indication to the searchers that they should return. It is stated that train whistles can be heard from almost any point on the ranges under normal circumstances.

    About 150 trampers have taken part in the search. Most of them belong to the Tararua Club, the other clubs represented being Paua, Victoria College, Hutt Valley, Levin-Waiopehu, Manawatu, Carterton, Wairarapa, and Masterton.

    The four missing people were finally safe, but a lot of cleaning up and analysis was still to be done. It took about three days for the last search party to return from the range, but criticism of the group began immediately, firstly in an editorial context on the same day in which their return was reported, and then with additional criticism from members of the public, fanned by the media. At least one searcher had sustained an injured foot, potentially serious in the back-country of the 1930s, and this at the very least highlighted that those who obliged others to search for them can put those people at risk. Comments that had been made on a whim by the rescued party about “never being lost” were now being taken out of context, and were received by some as insulting.

    Fred Vosseler, who’d played a large part in organising the search effort, made comments while wearing his authoritative hat as President of the recently formed Federated Mountain Clubs organisation, publicly criticising virtually everything the group was reported to have done. In a war of written words waged through letters to the editor, his criticism provoked responses from the party members, who claimed that he’d been mis-led by media reports and inaccurate assumptions about their situation.

    Eventually the arguments died down and fell out of the media, and what followed was a larger analysis, now beginning to be recorded in minutes of meetings and annual reports, of how the search effort had worked and what needed to be improved upon and done differently before there was need for another search of a similar nature. The structure for New Zealand’s largely voluntary and club-based Land Search and Rescue system that was set up in the 1930s, following what was partially learned from this event, lasted for 70 years.
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  • Re-living The Sutch Search (Part 2 of 3)

    This post follows part 1 and is continued in part 3.

    From Evening Post, Issue 100, 1 May 1933, Page 7:
    TRAMPERS FOUND IN THE TARARUAS

    After a fortnight in the ranges

    AFTER A FORTNIGHT IN THE RANGES.— The four trampers who have been travelling through the Tararua Ranges since Easter Saturday, having been delayed by bad weather and swollen rivers. From left, Mr. A. H. O’Keefe, Miss M. Williams, Dr. W. B. Sutch, and Mr. E. Hill.

    On the 30th of April, 1933, a large group on a Sunday walk, from a recently formed Carterton Tramping Club, happened to look over the Waiohine River. They spotted a party of four trampers on the far side, trying and failing to wade across. The group was soon recognised as the four missing people who had left Te Matawai Hut more than two weeks before. Once they’d made their way to the nearby cable-way and been ferried across, they were quickly fed and given warm cups of tea.

    The story of the group’s plight was finally known. Bert O’Keefe had slipped whilst sidling the Broken Axe Pinnacles, after wind prevented them from going over. He fell about 40 feet, dragging Eric Hill with him as he fell. Mr Hill was protected when he fell onto his pack, but Mr O’Keefe sustained a gash to his face and was unconscious for about an hour. From then on he wore a balaclava perpetually, to protect the wound. Despite this injury, the unforeseen problem brewing was the loss of time. With two fewer hours of daylight, they were unable to reach Holdsworth before dark, and had to camp on the bush-line.

    They had expected they might need to camp somewhere for a night, but the weather then deteriorated severely, bringing snow and biting winds to the tops that would prevent them from accessing what were typically referred to as trampers’ highways of the time. Their situation became serious, especially when the weather lasted for the better part of two weeks. Having left with about two days of food between them and anticipated no more than a single night out, they were faced with miserable and extremely slow travel, attempting to escape through land below the bush-line that was not well known and (at the time) barely tracked at all.
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  • Re-living The Sutch Search (Part 1 of 3)

    This post is followed by part 2 and part 3.

    “There are so many possibilities in regard to the whereabouts of the missing party that anything in the nature of “combing the country” is out of the question. The most that can be done is to investigate a few of the probable directions they may have taken.”

    —The Evening Post, 26th April 1933.

    After the recent post regarding the search for Esmond Kime, I’ve decided that the New Zealand National Library’s Papers Past service is a treasure trove of interesting history.

    Another historic event that I’ve been keen to discover more about is what’s come to be known as The Sutch Search, which occurred in the Tararuas during the latter part of April in 1933. I’m posting this in three parts over a few days (see also part 2 and part 3), because there are so many newspaper articles that it’s a lot to take in. Part one covers the search effort, part two covers the return of the party, and part three covers the media storm and arguments that followed about responsibilities of those in the wilderness.

    I’m unsure why it’s popularly called The Sutch Search. Bill Sutch was only one of four missing people and he wasn’t considered to be leading the trip. It may be because he became high profile decades later in 1974 when he was accused, unsuccessfully and with no presented evidence, of trying to pass secrets to the Soviet Union. A more complete biography of Dr Sutch, although one which doesn’t even mention his influence in tramping, can be found here. Forty years prior to 1974, Bill Sutch was a young tramper exploring the mostly-unexplored Tararua Range. When he and three other people went missing, they became the subject of one of the most significant land search and rescue operations in New Zealand’s history.

    From Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 95, 24 April 1933, Page 5:
    A VIEW OF THE TARARUAS

    G. L. Adkin Photo.
    LOST IN THE TARARUAS.—Looking across the Tararua Range, the area in which four trampers, including a lady, are reported to be lost. The photograph shows the Mitre-Holdsworth ridge of the Tararua Range, looking NNW from Mount Holdsworth. Arete Peak (4935ft) and Mount Dundas (4944 ft) are seen in the extreme distance, with The Mitre (5154 ft) on the right and Mount McGregor (5080 ft) and Angle Knob on left.

    On Saturday 15th April 1933, four young trampers—Mr Eric Hill, Miss Morva Williams, Mr Bert O’Keefe and Dr. Bill Sutch—left Te Matawai Hut near Levin, and set out to follow a route to Mountain House, below Mt. Holdsworth. At a time when the northern Tararuas were only beginning to be explored, this route had been completed several times in summer, often in a single day. They wanted to see if it would be possible in winter.

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  • In Search of Esmond J. Kime

    Here’s a slice of history:

    From Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 137, 13 June 1922, Page 8:
    MISSING TRAMPERS

    Two Wellington youths, who set out to cross the Tararuas last Thursday morning, have not since been heard of, and their long absence has aroused anxiety for their safety. They are Mr. Allan Bollons, son of Captain Bollons, of Wellington, and Mr. E. J. Kime, of Rongotea, and both are employees of the Post and Telegraph Department. They expected reaching Otaki on Saturday night or Sunday morning, but in view of the amount of snow on the ranges, it is considered that they may have taken shelter in the Mt. Alpha hut, and remained there.

    Mr Vosseler, the chief guide of the Tararua Tramping Club, has organised two search parties to go over the range from each side, and the parties left the city this morning.

    The year of 1922 was probably a turning point for how the Tararua Range was seen and treated by people in outdoor recreation circles. At a time when best practices for visiting the back-country were in a comparative infancy, two serious accidents, first in January and then in June, were a catalyst for improving tracks and the building of a new hut on the Tararuas’ Southern Crossing route.

    1425662741_39bea50ee8_m-6583631
    Kime Hut as it currently stands. The current
    hut is the first replacement on the current site,
    having been built during the 1970s.
    [Update 12-Dec-2013: Kime Hut has been replaced
    again, so is now in its third incarnation.]

    Tellings of both accidents are given through Chris MacLean’s history of the Tararuas titled Tararua: the story of a mountain range, to which I often refer on this blog because I think it’s such a great book. It was only when searching for more information after a query that I noticed the National Library has very recently added another 30 years of issues of The Evening Post to its public online and searchable archive called Papers Past. This makes it easier to view another perspective through the Evening Post as things unfolded. It also reveals additional information that isn’t widely circulated, especially around Alan Bollons’ side of the story as was related through interviews in the Evening Post, which I wasn’t very aware of until now.

    Below, I’ve reproduced a batch of newspaper articles about the search for Esmond Kime as it occurred, and some of the consequences that eventually led to the improvements of tracks and hut facilities along the Tararua Southern Crossing route. Thanks to the National Library for resourcing the Papers Past service and making this possible, and thanks to Ms Hamilton nee Bollons for starting the discussion that led to me coming across this. I’ve found reading the whole lot really fascinating.
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