WELLINGTON: A Cat‑and‑Mouse Story on the Snowy Peaks
It’s the kind of tale that makes you reach for your umbrella even when it’s sunny out. A New Zealand woman—Jo Morgan—found herself buried under a nasty avalanche on Mount Hicks, a 3,200‑meter summit that’s as dangerous as it is beautiful.
The Unexpected Snowfall
Mid‑morning, Jo and her two German‑born mountain guide buddies, Martin Hess and Wolfgang Maier, were cruising halfway up the slope. Suddenly, fresh snow began to shift violently—the sort of move you’d mistake for a giant icy wave crashing onto the ground.
Jo described it like a surf session gone wrong:
“It’s a terrifying thing, like the surf coming down on you, just a huge big wave of ice coming down the slope towards you.”
Trapped, But Not Broken
Quick as a flash, the avalanche slammed everyone in its path. Jo was buried but managed to free a single hand. She used that hand to scrape snow away from her mouth, sip a little – the essential “keep breathing” trick – and began the slow, exhausting dance of pull‑and‑scrape that would last an hour straight.
- Freeing her hand to breathe
- Scraping snow off her mouth (because you can’t survive a full‑blown avalanche without oxygen)
- Wrestling herself out of the 30‑plus‑centimetre snow pile step by step
She told the Radio New Zealand that it took her 30 minutes to get her locator beacon out, and another 30‑60 minutes to get herself out of the ice. She emerged just as rescue teams were arriving.
When Experience Wins the Day
Police Inspector Dave Gaskin said the key to Jo’s survival was experience. He explained that in avalanches you have to “swim” and keep your upper body above the moving snow to stay afloat. Jo did just that—and even after the slide had stopped, she had one or two arms sticking out, giving her the leverage she needed to dig herself out.
It you said, she was “unlucky” to hit that patch of loose snow, not “foolish.” A seasoned climber by every metric, she never ventured into dangerous territory by mistake. She simply met a deadly slope, and the rest happened.
Aftermath and Recovery
The bodies of Hess and Maier were recovered the same day. Only a handful of mountaineers can say that they have survived an avalanche and emerged fully healed.
When you’re at the top of the world and suddenly buried beneath a giant icy wave, you tend to think of your life bigger than you. Jo’s harrowing escape reminds us that courage, skill, and a bit of survival logic can keep you breathing even when the winter storm takes over.
Big thanks to the rescue crews and local authorities
It’s stories like these that remind us of how unpredictable the mountains can be, and how the human spirit stands up to the raw forces of nature.
