Canadian tourists killed by an avalanche ignored warnings on Kepler Track

Two Canadian tourists killed by an avalanche while walking the Kepler Track ignored repeated advice against doing the tramp due to the bad weather and avalanche risk, according to a Coroner's report.

In early July last year Louis-Vincent Lessard and Etienne Lemieux, both 23-year-old Canadian tourists, set off to walk the Kepler Track in the Fiordland National Park.

Southland Otago Coroner David Crerar's report into the tragedy says the two men spent the night of 8th July at a Department of Conservation (DOC) shelter called the Hanging Valley Shelter, but the following morning they were engulfed by an avalanche while walking along the track towards Luxmore Hut and Lake Te Anau.

They were swept several hundred metres down the slopes by the avalanche snow and both died of suffocation.

Coroner Crerar's report says the two men underestimated the hazards they encountered, as had other visitors who had lost their lives in the back country and high country of New Zealand.

It states "they did not understand the dangers they were facing and, more significantly, did not understand the fact they did not understand these dangers."

Authorities did not know Lessard and Lemieux were missing until their parents alerted police when the pair did not arrive home on their scheduled flight to Montreal.

Investigations began into their whereabouts and searchers recovered the bodies on 27th July.

Local service station operator Diane Holmes had recommended to the two men on about 7th July they not attempt to walk the track due to the "very bad" weather, the coroner's report says.

The sky had snow clouds, it was dark and sleeting and the forecast was for the weather to worsen.

However, the report says the men told Holmes the weather got much worse in Canada and they were used to it.

The report quotes Holmes as stating “it was my impression they didn't take my advice seriously and they were going to do this tramp.”

Beverly Thorne, who hires out tramping equipment, said the two men, speaking to her before the walk, discussed the needs for ice axes and crampons and told her they were experienced in snow and ice conditions.

She told them there would be snow on the track and it would create an avalanche hazard and advised them to check on conditions at the DOC visitor centre and leave advice about their intentions. They did not hire any equipment from her.

Former track guide Shirley Mouat said the two men told her they intended to walk the Kepler Track and she told them "oh my god, don't do that, it is too dangerous."

Mouat told the pair that there had been far too much snow and she would not consider traversing the higher sections of the track, the coroner's report says.

They told her they really wanted to walk the track.

Karin Doughety-Van Amerongen, a DOC ranger at the Te Anau visitor centre, said she told the men the Kepler Track could not be done at that time of year due to the snow and advised them of alternative tramps.

She showed them maps detailing avalanche paths on the Kepler Track and told them the huts were unserviced, the coroner's report says.

The men's failure to heed the advice given to them was a major contributing factor to the accident.

The Coroner’s report highlights that the pair were dismissive of verbal warnings and ignored warning signs at the track entrance, billboards at the visitor centre and they did not accept the weather/avalanche forecasts provided for them.

In addition, they did not record their intentions to do the walk and there was no entry in any hut book indicating the two men had stayed in any huts in the area. They were evasive and deliberately concealed their intentions, the report says.

The two men carried no avalanche receivers, shovels or probes, considered mandatory for alpine travel during the winter. They did not carry ice axes, crampons or an emergency locator beacon, the coroner's report says.

It also says the Mountain Safety Council provides a back-country avalanche advisory for 12 areas of New Zealand but no specific Fiordland forecast was provided for the Kepler Track area at the time because there was no suitably qualified forecaster available for recruitment.

Crerar's recommendations in the report suggest an "enhancement to existing practices" at the visitor centre at Fiordland National Park.

This includes future Kepler Track management and a focus on the management of avalanche hazards.

He endorsed DOC recommendations which include a proposal to upgrade the ability of visitor centres to give current information to track users on avalanche hazards and to investigate the rollout of security cameras to record staff and public interactions.

Crerar also adopted a suggestion by the dead men's parents that DOC investigate the installation of signage on the Kepler Track identifying to trampers the areas of acute avalanche risk.

Kepler Track images used for illustrative purposes only.

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