Mt Aspiring, near Wanaka, is the highest peak outside of the Aoraki Mt Cook region. Ruth Trotter and Ralph Lucas died near the base on November 12, 1970. Photo / Supplied
Mt Aspiring, near Wanaka, is the highest peak outside of the Aoraki Mt Cook region. Ruth Trotter and Ralph Lucas died near the base on November 12, 1970. Photo / Supplied
Fifty years after watching his friends plummet to their deaths on Mt Aspiring, a climber has returned to pay his respects.
Graham Batchelor, 72, of Burkes Pass, last week walked to a spot beneath the mountain where he could view the "Breakaway" on the edge of the Bonar Glacier wherehis climbing companions — Ruth Trotter, 20, of Woodlands, Southland, and Ralph Lucas, 22, of Dunedin — died in a fall on November 12, 1970.
Lucas' body has never been recovered.
Graham Batchelor and friend Caroline Thomson at Shovel Flat beneath Mt Aspiring and the Breakaway on the edge of the Bonar Glacier. Photo / Jane Batchelor
Batchelor said their deaths had affected him hugely and made him much more cautious.
He completed his physics and surveying degrees, went on to teach in Christchurch, and continued to climb.
"It was difficult for a start but I had a few good mates.
"They dragged me up the southwest ridge of Aspiring three years later."
Ralph Lucas. Photo / Supplied
Lucas was the son of Dunedin town clerk (1950-68) Colin Lucas.
Dunedin lawyer Garth Lucas said yesterday his father died in 1969 soon after retiring; Ralph's death the next year was traumatic for his late mother Hazel.
She funded a hut at French Ridge on Mt Aspiring, which had since been replaced.
Batchelor was accompanied on last week's trip by his wife Jane and friends Caroline Thomson, of Christchurch, and Morris Hall, of Dunedin.
