Overview
- Authorities were alerted late Monday that four members of a climbing party needed help on New Zealand’s highest peak.
- Two climbers were airlifted off the mountain early Tuesday and were reported uninjured by police.
- Search teams later located the remaining two climbers deceased, and recovery operations are continuing.
- A police sergeant told a local newspaper the pair who died were roped together when they fell near the summit.
- Aoraki/Mount Cook is a technically demanding 3,724-meter peak with a long record of fatalities exceeding 240 in the mountain and surrounding national park.