TIMARU MEN MISSING
Anxiety Felt For Safety
Overdue From Cass Valley Trip
Anxiety is felt for the safety of Messrs A. D. Jackson, a member of the staff of the Timaru Boys’ High School, and F. Tozer, son of Mr and Mrs G. V. Tozer, Hewling Street, who are several days overdue in returning from a climbing trip in the Cass Valley region, about 20 miles north-west of Lake Tekapo. Mr Tozer, who is a student at Canterbury College, was expected to return to Tekapo on Friday, and his colleague on Saturday or Sunday, but up till a late hour last night no word had been received of their arrival.
There are numerous possible climbs in the Cass Valley region, which includes the Cass and Jolie Rivers towards the Liebig Range, which lies south of the Murchison, and the difficulty confronting the searchers is to decide the most likely direction which the climbers may have taken.
A search party will leave early this morning in an effort to locate the missing men.
Rugged Country The country is described as very rugged, with peaks rising up to an altitude of 8000ft, and, although a considerable area in this region has been traversed by musterers, it is not well-known to many alpine enthusiasts, and as more or less new territory, this fact may have been an added attraction to Mr Jackson, who has been climbing for many years, to make a trip in this region.
The pair left Lake Tekapo a fortnight ago and no apprehension as to their welfare was aroused until Tozer failed to return on Friday, when he was expected. It was then thought that they had extended their trip by a few days, but when they did not arrive at Tekapo during the week-end it was thought that something was amiss.
Messrs F. W. Chapman, of Timaru, and C. L. Mahan, of Lake Tekapo, both experienced mountaineers, left at 7 a.m. yesterday, proceeding up the Cass Valley, the road being negotiable by car for some distance. A party of soldiers under Colonel Beattie and several men from the Public Works camp also participated in the search.
Food Supplies Found It is conjectured that the missing men may be somewhere in the region between the Waterfall Hut and the Tin Hut in the Cass Valley. Gear and foodstuffs left in the Waterfall Hut by the missing men were found yesterday. The quantity of food remaining appeared to indicate that they had been absent for more than a week. A party of deer stalkers in the country higher up had seen no trace of the missing men.
Messrs L. K. Murray and P. W. Young, of the South Canterbury Alpine Club, left Timaru yesterday afternoon to link un with Constable A. Mackintosh, of Fairlie, and a search party of about 15 men which will commence a search early this morning. The search is being organised from Glenmore Station which lies to the northwest of Tekapo and extends over part of the Cass Valley region. -Timaru Herald, 9/9/1942.
TWO MISSING CLIMBERS
PROBABLY LOST ON AUGUST 27
Observations made by searchers for the two missing climbers, Messrs F. O. Tozer and A. D. Jackson, who set out more than three weeks ago on a trip up the Cass Valley, near Lake Tekapo, indicate that the men probably met disaster on Thursday, August 27, the first day on which they attempted any climb.
Messrs L. V, Bryant, L. K, Murray, C. L. Mahan, and F. W. Chapman, who are members of the New Zealand Alpine Club, were among the searchers for the missing men. A diary belonging to Mr Tozer was found by Mr Murray, and entries in it show that the two climbers left Glenmore Station on August 24, intending to spend 10 days climbing in the Cass Valley region. The first day they covered only three miles, spending the night in a small hut at Joseph’s Creek. On the following day, they went six miles to Waterfall Hut, which they intended making their headquarters. On August 26, the men spent the day in the hut, weather conditions being unfavourable for climbing. The last entry in the diary recorded that the men were retiring to bed early that night (August 26), as the following morning they hoped to climb a rocky peak at the back of the hut.
The searchers found no other record of the missing men’s movements. On Friday, September 4, it was anticipated that they would return from their trip.
Stores and sleeping-bags left at Waterfall Hut indicated that the climbers had left the hut, intending to return to it. Footprints were found by searchers at a high level, but bad weather prevented a thorough search of the higher country being made. The search was practically confined to the peak on which footprints were discovered. There is a considerable area of undefined country in the region, with no particularly prominent peak. Several jagged, rocky peaks surround a large snowy basin, which forms the valley from which the climbers operated. -Press, 17/9/1942.
AERIAL SEARCH FAILS TO LOCATE MISSING CLIMBERS
TIMARU, Monday. Flying right up the Cass Valley at varying altitudes, Mr R. L. Wigley, of the Mount Cook Company, carried out a thorough aerial search yesterday for the missing climbers, Messrs A. D. Jackson and F. Tozer, of Timaru, who are now considerably overdue from a mountaineering excursion in the upper reaches of the valley.
The weather was perfect, and Mr Wigley spent some time in the air. He also saw search parties at work, including the group on the higher levels, but nothing was seen of the missing climbers.
Search parties have been carrying out extensive operations, working from the Waterfall Hut and Tui Hut, in the Cass Valley, north-west of Lake Tekapo, without success.
Nor’-west conditions prevailed for the greater part of the day on Saturday, bringing snow and mist, and although search parties resumed the search, they were soon compelled to cease operations for the day. Yesterday the weather conditions were perfect, but the combined efforts of the searchers, on the ground and in the air, brought no news of the missing climbers, who have now been away from home three weeks and are more than a week overdue in their planned return to Tekapo House.
Telephonic communication with Glenmore Station at noon to-day elicited the information that the weather was suitable for the search, but there are still no signs of the climbers. One search party returned to Tekapo last night. -Pahiatua Herald, 17/9/1942.
MISSING CLIMBER
Mr F. O. Tozer’s Career
Although the search for the missing climbers, Messrs A. D. Jackson and F. O. Tozer, of Timaru, has been officially abandoned in the meantime, it is the intention of the members of the New Zealand Alpine Club who participated in the search to visit the region again at an early date.
Mr Tozer, who is 24, received his early education at the Waimataitai School and the Timaru Boys’ High School. He gained a Junior National and a University National Scholarship and proceeded to Canterbury College, where he was awarded a Soames Scholarship and later a Charles Cooke Warwick House Memorial Scholarship. In 1941 he graduated M.A., with Honours in Mathematics. During this year, while coaching students and studying for a science degree in Geology, he was treasurer and billiards captain of College House, secretary of the Canterbury College Mountaineering Club, a member of the Christchurch branch of the Alpine Club, and secretary and treasurer of the College Photographic Society. He did a great deal of climbing during the last few years and had two first ascents to his credit. -Timaru Herald, 19/9/1942.
MOUNTAINEERS' FATE
(P.A.) TIMARU, Monday. The bodies of Mr A. D Jackson and Mr F Tozer of Timaru, who were lost on a mountaineering trip in September, were recovered by searchers this afternoon.
Jackson was a master on the staff of the Timaru Boys' High and Tozer was. a student at Canterbury College. -Auckland Star, 22/12/1942.
DEATHS
TOZER — On August 27. 1942, at Cass Valley. Frederick Oswald, dearly loved only son of Gilbert and Hilda Tozer, 8 Hewling Street, aged 24 years. -Timaru Herald, 23/12/1942.
BODIES OF CLIMBERS TAKEN TO TIMARU
(O.R.) TIMARU, December 23. The bodies of Messrs A. D. Jackson and F. O. Tozer, who perished in the mountains of the Cass Valley region, near Lake Tekapo, were brought to Timaru early last evening. Leaving the Waterfall and Tin Hut at an early hour yesterday morning, climbing parties reached the spot where the bodies were found by 8 a.m. Good weather and climbing conditions facilitated the journey and the bodies were carried back to the Cass riverbed by noon. They were then transported to Glenmore Station, motor-trucks being used for the last stage of the journey to Timaru.
Eight members of the Alpine Club were in the party, together with 14 men lent by the Army, and Constable A. Macintosh, of Fairlie. Special equipment for transporting the bodies through the rugged country of the Cass Valley had been provided, and no unforeseen difficulties were encountered.
It was found that the climbers had not been roped together when they apparently fell from a rocky face, and indications were that they were overwhelmed by an avalanche. -Press, 24/12/1942.
Further details of the finding of the bodies of Messrs A. D. Jackson and F. O. Tozer, who were reported missing in the Cass Valley about three and a-half months ago, are reported in the Christchurch ‘Press.’ The bodies were found on Monday by Mr and Mrs F. W. Chapman, of Timaru, at an altitude of 7,500ft. The bodies were lying at the base of a high rock face, which the climbers were apparently attempting to scale; that of Mr Jackson was almost completely covered with snow, while Mr Tozer’s body was partially covered. The place where the bodies were found is at a considerably higher altitude than the large snow basin behind the Tin Hut. If is presumed that the bodies may have been buried by snow which came down in an avalanche from the peak above, and which is still lying in the basin to a considerable depth. The first clue indicating that the bodies were in the vicinity was the discovery of a broken piece of an ice axe. About four or five chains away was the body of Mr Tozer, and nearby that of Mr Jackson. Mr Tozer’s ice axe was badly splintered, indicating that the climbers probably fell from the rock face. The rock in this neighbourhood is reported to be especially steep, jagged, and loose. Messrs Jackson and Tozer set out from Glenmore Station on August 24, intending to spend 10 days climbing in the Cass Valley region, which is about 20 miles north-west of Lake Tekapo. -Press, 24/12/1942.
DEATH OF CLIMBERS
INQUEST AT TIMARU
An inquest was opened at Timaru on Thursday into the deaths of Frederick Oswald Tozer, aged 24, and Albert David Jackson, aged 45, who perished while on a climbing trip in the Cass Valley at the end of August, The bodies of the two men, which were found on Monday, were brought to Timaru on Wednesday.
The Coroner (Mr H. Morgan) presided, and the police were represented by Sergeant D. R. Sugrue.
Gilbert Victor Tozer, a music teacher, gave evidence of having identified a body at the Timaru Hospital morgue as that of his son. He stated that his son had left for the Cass Valley, in company with Jackson, on August 24.
Dr. G. H. Ussher detailed his observations when making an examination of Tozer's body, and stated that death had apparently been caused by suffocation.
In the inquest on Jackson, evidence of identification was given by Lindley Kennedy Murray, a master at Timaru Boys’ High School, where Jackson had been senior mathematician and science master. Witness, who said that he was a member of the New Zealand Alpine Club, and an experienced mountaineer, explained that the bodies of the two men had been found lying close together. Both men were fully clothed and were wearing crampons. There were no outward signs of injury, and they were apparently overwhelmed by a minor snow avalanche while attempting the ascent of an unnamed peak.
Medical evidence, similar to that concerning Tozer, was given by Dr. Ussher, after an examination of Jackson’s body. Death had been caused by suffocation. Dr. Ussher added that Jackson was a particularly well-built man, with an athletic body.
Both inquests were adjourned sine die.
A special service was held on Thursday afternoon in the Memorial Library at the Timaru Boys’ High School. Mr Jackson was a master at the school and Mr Tozer was an old boy. -Press, 26/12/1942.
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