CHRISTCHURCH, Dec 31 (PA). — The decision to prevent seven deaf Japanese climbers from tackling Mount Cook had set a dangerous precedent, although many people would think it was the right thing to do, said the chairman of the Canterbury Mountain Safety Committee, Mr J A Coleman.
Mr Coleman said he was glad that the climbers were off the mountain. It could be very frustrating for an organisation like the Mountain Safety Council that it could not do what the Prime Minister had done — “bring climbers out whether they want to come out or not.”
But if regulations were made to enable people to be forced off a mountain it would destroy the whole point of climbing — the freedom.
The climbing fraternity would be very upset at any moves towards regulations and rules applied to climbing and general safety, he said.
Climbing could be made so safe, and permits so difficult to get, that it would be pointless.
Risks were inherent in climbing. It was the controlled risks, the calculated risks, and the mastery of those risks, that climbing was all about.
Some people had completed fantastic climbs, after being advised not to go, he said.
The removal of the Japanese climbers from Mount Cook was “most unusual” but the fact that they were foreigners, and disabled, would have been overriding factors.
The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, said he would have words with Mount Cook Airlines for flying the party up to the mountain. The airline had been very unwise to carry the passengers, he said.
The airline flew the party up to the Plateau area on Thursday.
It was not up to the airline, a commercial company, to make decisions about passengers, the Mount Cook Group’s public affairs manager, Mr E G Beckett, said.
The company had little option but to accept a fare-paying passenger, he said.
Any restrictions would have to be made by the park board, provided it had the power.
Mr Beckett said that conditions were “very good indeed” when the group was flown to the mountain.
The climbers were the fifth party to be airlifted that day.
The manager of Alpine Guides Ltd, Mr B Carter, said his company had been asked to provide one guide for the group, but the company believed at least four guides were needed.
“They turned that down, possibly because they were a bit hard up, but also because they are a very determined group of people.
A guide cost $120 a day, Mr Carter said.
The climbers’ deafness would have been a severe handicap on the mountain, the president of the New Zealand Deaf Amateur Sports Association, Mr M L Coutts, said.
Other senses, like touch and smell, compensated to some extent.
“But up on a clean, clear, cold mountain I think you need all your faculties,” Mr Coutts said.
At the least, they should have taken guides. Mr Coutts said the climbers had probably been wrongly advised about the difficulty of Mount Cook before they left Japan.
As far as he knew, there were no profoundly deaf climbers in New Zealand.
