MELBOURNE – Two experienced Australian climbers killed in a fall off a New Zealand mountain are being remembered for their sense of humour, passion for the outdoors and incredible achievements.
Melbourne-based mountain guide Stuart Jason Hollaway, 42, and his partner Dale Amanda Thistlethwaite, 35, were last heard from via a radio call on December 28 during a climbing trip at Mt Silberhorn in the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.
The duo were near the top of New Zealand’s seventh-highest mountain when they fell a considerable distance to their deaths early on December 29, police say.
The bodies of the two experienced climbers were found on New Year’s Day at the bottom of a steep face on the eastern slopes of the 3300m Mt Silberhorn.
It is understood they fell close to where they had been camping and were roped together.
Mr Hollaway and Ms Thistlethwaite, who worked at the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, were both life members of the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club.
“Today we have lost two great friends and mentors,” club president Daniel Cocker said.
“Dale and Stu we will sorely miss you.
“You were admired and loved and the club won’t be the same without your stories, quick laugh and passion for the outdoors.”
Mr Hollaway, a school teacher at Melbourne’s Wesley College, was an internationally qualified guide with the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations and had recently started training new guides in the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association.
He showed outstanding care for clients and made solid, sound decisions while in the mountains, NZMGA vice-president Jane Morris said.
“He was also an entertaining guide to be amongst, with an impressive story telling ability,” she said.
“He would regularly take time out to share adventures with Dale, and the care for her wellbeing in and out of the mountains was impeccable.
“The guiding community is one large extended family and many of us will miss our mountain brother with his welcoming hug and quick humour.”
A rescue team had to wait until the evening of January 1 to recover the couple’s bodies because of the risk of melting ice.
The families of the pair have been informed and their deaths will be referred to the coroner.
They were the second and third Melburnians to die on a mountain in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park in less than two weeks.
Nicola Anne Andrews, 28, died when she fell 300m from the side of The Footstool onto the Eugenie Glacier on December 23.
