Mountain yields missing son

By Martin Johnston and NZPA

The 90-year-old mother of a missing Wellington climber died on Friday, the day before her long-lost son's body was found in a glacier that flows off Mt Cook.

John Cousins, then aged 25, and Michael Goldsmith, then 22, of Timaru, disappeared in November 1963 while attempting to climb the notorious Caroline Face of Mt Cook.

A climbing party's discovery of the young men's decomposed bodies with ropes, ice screws and other equipment on Saturday has thrown up a mountaineering mystery matching that of whether George Mallory beat Sir Edmund Hillary to the top of Everest.

Cousins and Goldsmith may have pipped by seven years the pair credited with the first ascent of the prized face, John Glasgow and Peter Gough. All eyes are now on a camera found with the dead climbers to see whether it yields photographic evidence.

Glasgow, a tramping guide, said yesterday that there was a strong possibility the 1963 pair had snatched the first ascent, given the Department of Conservation calculations on where they had died.

"At this range it's a fitting memorial for them," he said.

The bodies were removed on Sunday and taken to Timaru. Mr Cousins was identified by his name scratched inside his climbing helmet.

His sister Liz, of Wellington, who yesterday attended her mother Rita's funeral, said it was amazing that the bodies had been found after so long. The discovery tied up all the loose ends of the tragedy.

The 67-year-old said John, six years her junior, had been passionate about mountaineering and had planned to go to the Andes.

He was a final-year Canterbury University engineering student. The family was shocked at news the pair were missing as they believed John was studying for exams.

"It seems the weather was so good at the time they decided to go for it ... The search was delayed because of bad weather and seemed to go on for a long time."

The bodies emerged from the Hooker Glacier near Hooker Hut, on the opposite side of the mountain from the Caroline, or southeast, face. That indicates the pair ascended by the face - or another route - to Porter Col and perished while descending to the Hooker.

Based on known glacial flow rates, the Department of Conservation calculates that the pair may have died near Porter Col, which is on the mountain's summit ridge, their bodies being carried slowly down within the ice.

"It's possible they climbed it [the face]; it's possible they climbed the East Ridge," said a department spokeswoman, Shirley Slatter. "We will never know that unless the camera found produces some amazing results."

Complicating the picture are department documents indicating that observers from near the Ball Hut base for the climb did not see the pair on the face.

They assumed, wrongly, that they were overcome by an avalanche at the bottom of the face.