New Zealand avalanche victim named as Sydney man Roger Greville
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Version 0 of 1. A Sydney man who died after being buried in an avalanche while skiing in New Zealand has been named as Roger Greville. The 58-year-old was pulled from avalanche debris near Queenstown on Monday afternoon but died a short time later. He was one of a party of five on a guided heli-skiing trip run by Southern Lakes Heliski, near the Devil’s Staircase in the Hector Mountains. The company’s director Julian Field said it was “a tough day” and the company had suspended its operations while the tragedy was investigated. “Heli-skiing is not dangerous, however – like any adventure activity – it carries inherent risk,” he said. “We take our responsibilities very seriously which is reflected in the fact that this is the first incident of this kind for our company and its predecessors in over 30 years of operations.” Field said a Southern Lakes Heliski pilot had called the operations team at 2.38pm on Monday to raise the alarm, saying a group of skiers had been caught in an avalanche. One skier had been buried in snow and emergency response procedures had been activated. “At 2.48pm we received confirmation that the skier had been located,” he said. “However, despite the considerable efforts of guides and paramedics, the skier was pronounced dead at the scene some time later.” The trip was “part of our normal operations”. The cause of death was still unknown and police had referred it to the coroner. A postmortem examination was to be carried out on Tuesday. A regional avalanche forecaster, Chris Cochrane, said strong southerly winds had created “wind slab” conditions and stiff snow, causing tension in the snow pack. |