by davidp » Sun 16 Oct, 2011 11:59 am
for completeness Here is inserted a recent newspaper article on the inquest into James Poland's death
Tourist could have been 'misled by book'
Last updated 05:00 07/10/2011SharePrint Text Size 0 comments JAMES POLAND: Was on the Barrier Knob, between Gertrude Saddle and Lake Adelaide, when he slipped and fell to his death on January 21.Relevant offersAn Australian tourist who plunged 130m to his death while tramping in the Darran Mountains area of Fiordland National Park might have been misled by a tramping guide book, a coroner suggested yesterday.
The inquest for 48-year-old Tasmanian James Peter Raimund Poland was held in Te Anau.
Mr Poland was on the Barrier Knob, between Gertrude Saddle and Lake Adelaide, when he slipped and fell to his death on January 21.
He was in the South Island on a one-month tramping holiday with his wife and children, but was doing the walk alone.
Mr Poland's wife, Elizabeth, told Otago-Southland Coroner David Crerar her husband had walked half of the Gertrude Saddle route 23 years earlier and wanted to complete the whole distance.
Mrs Poland said her husband was an experienced tramper, but was not experienced at rock climbing.
He was fit and well prepared and had walked what she considered to be insanely unsafe routes in Tasmania. He knew the Gertrude Saddle walk was dangerous and precautions were required, she said.
He did not return from the tramp on the evening of January 22 as planned, so Mrs Poland notified authorities early the next morning. A Southern Lakes rescue helicopter crew found his pack on Barrier Knob and his body was found 300m away, at the bottom of a 130m sheer drop off a prominent rocky knob.
He was about 1 kilometre from the normal tramping route. He suffered extensive head injuries and would have died instantly.
Mr Crerar said he believed Mr Poland had gone off track and was looking for a safe route down when he slipped on rocks and fell. He had left his pack behind while looking for an escape route in bad weather.
Mr Crerar, himself an experienced tramper, said a guide book he read of the route was "a bit misleading".
It said there was an alternative route where Mr Poland was walking, but did not describe it.
Mr Crerar suggested Mr Poland might have been looking for the alternative route before his death.
Having listened to the evidence of Dunedin rock climbing instructor David Brash, Mr Crerar said he agreed the guide book authors were wrong and he would be writing to them asking that advice on the route be reviewed.
The coroner added that solo tramping came with risks, and Mr Poland might have been more careful if he had been tramping with his family.
Mrs Poland said she wondered if the tragedy could have been avoided had there been signs warning of the difficulty of the terrain, the dangers of walking alone and the sudden changes in weather.
Ad Feedback Mr Poland's father Peter, of Sydney, said after the hearing: "My wife made the comment that James died in a beautiful landscape."
- The Southland Times