Devoted protector dies in glacier
The 38-year-old Wanaka-based guide was killed when a 5m snowbridge collapsed underneath him while he was taking a Christchurch client ski touring near the head of the glacier on Tuesday. A mountain rescue team consisting of Fox Glacier volunteers climbed through the night to the site but was only able to confirm that Mr MacQueen had died instantly in a fall of up to 60m – about the same height as Christchurch Cathedral.
His body was retrieved from the crevasse at 5pm yesterday by the Mount Cook alpine rescue team, which spent several hours in hazardous and confined conditions inside the crevasse after an initial attempt by the Fox Glacier team was abandoned as too dangerous.
Search manager Rodger Millard said Mr MacQueen's client, a Christchurch man, was shaken but unharmed after having to work his way back alone through the crevasse field to a climbing hut to raise the alarm.
The client told rescuers Mr MacQueen had tested the snowbridge several times before deciding to cross.
"Snow ridges are a feature in crevasse fields. Most people use them, but now and then they collapse," said Mr Millard, who said he was not prepared to put his volunteer rescue team at risk to recover Mr MacQueen's body.
"They're all young men with wives and young kids and they didn't deserve to be put at risk."
News of Mr MacQueen's death had stunned and saddened the close-knit outdoors community, which was supporting his widow, schoolteacher Ellen Sagmyr.
However, friends and family say the emphasis on the safety of the rescue team is exactly what he would have wanted.
In the past year, Mr MacQueen had completed his guiding qualifications, begun guiding in the Nepalese Himalaya, and co-authored a handbook on avalanche safety.
In the book, his reborn passion for safety in the mountains was attributed to "a few personal wake-up calls", including being caught in an avalanche.
Previously he had been part of the avalanche safety team at Mount Ruapehu and helped improve the army's safety standards after the deaths of several soldiers in a blizzard on the mountain.
Mr MacQueen was also going to be part of a bid by Adventure Philosophy, a consortium of Kiwi adventurers, to buy Sir Peter Blake's boat and continue the worldwide environmental crusade of the murdered yachtsman. Adventure Philosophy member Graham Charles said he had been friends with Mr MacQueen since their schooldays in Blenheim.
They learned to climb together as teenagers and were part of the same white-water kayaking team that represented New Zealand in an international tournament in Europe. Mr MacQueen had been a moderating influence in their climbing aspirations, tempering the over-ambitious enthusiasm of other climbing companions, but still climbing Mount Cook while he was still in his teens, he said.
Avalanche expert Steve Schreiber described Mr MacQueen as "an awesome bloke" and one who balanced his winter and summer guiding with outdoor instructing at Aspiring College in Wanaka and at Otago Polytechnic. His emphasis on safety was reinforced by the deaths of two of his students, who were killed in an avalanche on Mount Strauchon near Lake Ohau in Easter 2000. Mr Schreiber questioned whether the low snowfall that has blighted the ski season might have contributed to the weakness of the snowbridge that collapsed under Mr MacQueen. Normally winter was a time when snowbridges were at their strongest and ski tourers tended not to be roped together.
Mr MacQueen's oldest brother, James, said their parents had imbued them with a passion for the outdoors, starting with an ascent of Mount Angelus near St Arnaud when Will was nine. "He's always had an interest in avalanches, having been hit by the odd one over the years including being buried by one near Mount Sealy in the mid-1990s," he said.
His body was retrieved from the crevasse at 5pm yesterday by the Mount Cook alpine rescue team, which spent several hours in hazardous and confined conditions inside the crevasse after an initial attempt by the Fox Glacier team was abandoned as too dangerous.
Search manager Rodger Millard said Mr MacQueen's client, a Christchurch man, was shaken but unharmed after having to work his way back alone through the crevasse field to a climbing hut to raise the alarm.
The client told rescuers Mr MacQueen had tested the snowbridge several times before deciding to cross.
"Snow ridges are a feature in crevasse fields. Most people use them, but now and then they collapse," said Mr Millard, who said he was not prepared to put his volunteer rescue team at risk to recover Mr MacQueen's body.
"They're all young men with wives and young kids and they didn't deserve to be put at risk."
News of Mr MacQueen's death had stunned and saddened the close-knit outdoors community, which was supporting his widow, schoolteacher Ellen Sagmyr.
However, friends and family say the emphasis on the safety of the rescue team is exactly what he would have wanted.
In the past year, Mr MacQueen had completed his guiding qualifications, begun guiding in the Nepalese Himalaya, and co-authored a handbook on avalanche safety.
In the book, his reborn passion for safety in the mountains was attributed to "a few personal wake-up calls", including being caught in an avalanche.
Previously he had been part of the avalanche safety team at Mount Ruapehu and helped improve the army's safety standards after the deaths of several soldiers in a blizzard on the mountain.
Mr MacQueen was also going to be part of a bid by Adventure Philosophy, a consortium of Kiwi adventurers, to buy Sir Peter Blake's boat and continue the worldwide environmental crusade of the murdered yachtsman. Adventure Philosophy member Graham Charles said he had been friends with Mr MacQueen since their schooldays in Blenheim.
They learned to climb together as teenagers and were part of the same white-water kayaking team that represented New Zealand in an international tournament in Europe. Mr MacQueen had been a moderating influence in their climbing aspirations, tempering the over-ambitious enthusiasm of other climbing companions, but still climbing Mount Cook while he was still in his teens, he said.
Avalanche expert Steve Schreiber described Mr MacQueen as "an awesome bloke" and one who balanced his winter and summer guiding with outdoor instructing at Aspiring College in Wanaka and at Otago Polytechnic. His emphasis on safety was reinforced by the deaths of two of his students, who were killed in an avalanche on Mount Strauchon near Lake Ohau in Easter 2000. Mr Schreiber questioned whether the low snowfall that has blighted the ski season might have contributed to the weakness of the snowbridge that collapsed under Mr MacQueen. Normally winter was a time when snowbridges were at their strongest and ski tourers tended not to be roped together.
Mr MacQueen's oldest brother, James, said their parents had imbued them with a passion for the outdoors, starting with an ascent of Mount Angelus near St Arnaud when Will was nine. "He's always had an interest in avalanches, having been hit by the odd one over the years including being buried by one near Mount Sealy in the mid-1990s," he said.