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Far) jament Hud dings

Wickaria Te le

WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1991
Vol. 7, Issue No. 21

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Phone 635-7840
Fax 635-7269

Serving the communities of Terrace, Thornhill, Usk, Cedarvale, Kitwanga, Meziadin, Stewart and the Nass Valley 75 cents plus GST

Rescuers pluck
fallen hiker from
mountain crevasse

Nine Terrace people in their mountain began to fall and two of
early twenties had a holiday week- the four began to run. Although he
end outing cut short when one of told Sweeting he doesn’t remember
their party fell 20 feet down a 60- the accident, Kwiatkowski appar-
foot-deep mountain crevasse. ently ran straight into the hidden
Injured in the fall was Marvin crevasse. A witness told Sweeting
Kwiatkowski, 23, of Terrace who Kwiatkowski simply disappeared.

is now in hospital in his home
town of Prince George recovering
from a fractured knee and
hypothermia. His condition is
reported to be stable.

The incident occurred on 4
mountain side near Pollywog

Creek, about 44 kilometres west of

Terrace, at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday
afternoon. According to RCMP
Cpl. Gary Moritz, Terrace Search
and Rescue volunteers where
called into action at about 6:15
p.m. Moritz says 14 volunteers
tesponded to the call.

Land search and rescue
coordinator Gord Sweeting says
the nine friends were hiking when
four members of the party decided
to use an avalanche chute to return
to ihe highway rather than their
original route they had used to
climb the mountain. As they were
crossing hard-packed snow on the

Sweeting says the crevasse, about
a 30-minute hike up the mountain-
side, narrows towards the bottom,
and as he fell Kwiatkowski was
able to wedge himself between the
crevasse walls using his arms and
one good leg. If he hadn't, says
Sweeting, he would have fallen the
full 60 feet and would probably
have become tightly wedged in the
narrow crevasse bottom making
the rescue much more difficult. —

Dressed in only jeans, a light
jacket and running shoes, Kwiat-
kowski managed to hold onto his
precarious perch for about five
hours before he was rescued. For
the entire time, says Sweeting,
Kwiatkowski was showered by icy
water pouring from an outcropping
of rock and at any time during the
rescue there was a very real possi-
bility that he might have lost his
grip and fallen the rest of the way.

chute, loose rock higher on the — Continued on page Az

Belated sighting
of missing plane

Stewart RCMP attempted earlier this month to follow up a
siphting of the TransProvincial Airlines plane that went missing last
November, but a thick covering of snow prevented them from
identifying anything as wreckage.

Stewart RCMP Cst. Craig Reid said yesterday the sighting was
reported after the file on the missing aircraft had been turned over
to the RCMP from the Coast Guard. Reid said a local man recently
came forward and told them that he had seen an airplane flying
low in bad weather 14 kilometres east of Stewart that sounded
"scarily" like the missing Navajo Chieftain. Reid was unable to
explain why the man had not reported the sighting at the time of

the search.
Reid said he was toid the aircraft made a sharp right turn while

flying into cloud at about 1,500 feet and flew into the entrance of
a box canyon. The aircraft was eastbound, and Reid said it may
have been trying to make it into the Stewart airport and failed.
The canyon will be searched again, probably in July, he said.
The airplane was flown by Terrace pilot Max Neubacher and was
carrying a woman from Telegraph Creek and her two chikiren.

| THIS ONE’S CALLED THE TRIPOD. The seventh annual Elks Fun Day held at Elks Park
last Monday attracted hundreds of kids and parents and there wasn't one sad face in the crowd.
Races, treasure hunts, clowns and plenty of food made made sure of that. The event began with
a bicycle parade and as the day progressed a variety of events like the three- -legged race shown
above provided plenty of activity for everyone.

Where are
those
secrets,
anyway?

Terrace is in the lower
mainland press again,
and as usual the
coverage is sensational.
Are we missing
something? Page A6.

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