Mt Cook park has claimed more than 200 lives

More than 200 people have lost their lives on the ice, snow and rocks around Aoraki-Mt Cook.

The attraction of Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park in the South Island, particularly the mountain, has soared in the past decade since global publicity during the 1994 centenary of the first successful ascent of New Zealand's highest mountain.

In recent years, 250,000 visitors from around the world have flocked to the 70,011ha park and between two and five people die every year from accidents or misadventure.

The park has New Zealand's greatest concentration of mountains, with 19 peaks of more than 3000m.

Notable dates in the park's history include:

Dec 25, 1894: New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, George Graham and Jack Clark become the first to reach the summit of Mt Cook.

Jan 19, 1930: Four women and a guide, 20, die of hypothermia after being caught in a blizzard.

1970: John Glasgow and Peter Gough become the first to successfully climb Aoraki-Mt Cook's notorious Caroline Face.

July 23, 1975: Four Air Force men undergoing snowcraft and survival training are swept to their deaths by an avalanche in the Ball Pass area.

Jan 30, 1977: Four New Zealanders die when Three Johns Hut, at the head of Mueller Glacier, is blown off a 2135m saddle into Dobson Valley.

1997: Human remains are discovered in the park in three separate finds.

Oct 2001: The bodies of Swiss climbers Johann August Manser and Edwin Kunz, last seen on December 28, 1963, are found on Mt Cook.

Dec 14, 2001: Australian climber Justin McDonald falls 300m on Mt Cook. He dies two days later.

Jan 2, 2003: A Japanese climber is killed after falling about 300m below the Zerbriggen Ridge near the Plateau Hut on Mt Cook.

Jan 9, 2003: Police find human remains below the Hochstetter Icefall which they believe may have been there for years.

Feb 2, 2003: A Nelson man who successfully climbed Mt Cook on January 30 is injured while climbing Mt Dixon.

Feb 5, 2003: Two climbers stranded below High Peak on Aoraki-Mt Cook are rescued.

June 5, 2003: The bodies of Christchurch climbers Warren Campbell, 32, and Jonathan Smith, 47, are recovered after they were trapped in a glacier.

Dec 10, 2003: Four Latvian climbers, including climbing legend Teodors Kirsis, are found dead.

Dec 14, 2003: Two Australians are rescued from the hazardous Haast Hut area, the sixth rescue from the mountain in seven days.

Dec 22, 2003: Nine Indonesians who had trained on sand dunes are airlifted from Haast Hut.

Dec 31, 2003: Four people are killed on Mt Tasman.

- NZPA