Lions Bay Search & Rescue
                             Task Report:

           Search for Earl Kurz & William Leboe at Cypress Bowl.
                        December 21st-22nd 1992.

Sunday December 20th

Lions Bay Search & Rescue were notified on the evening of Sunday 
December 20th that its help would be required in the search for two 
downhill skiers, Earl Kertz and Jerry Leboe. The two downhill skiers 
had been reported missing earlier that afternoon at Cypress Bowl. 
Preliminary searching on Sunday of the ski area boundaries, and 
perimeter searching by helicopter, had failed to produce any clues 
as to their location. 

Monday December 21st.

Lions Bay Search & Rescue were initially requested to search the 
various arms of Montizambert Creek, a natural catchment route for 
downhill skiers who have lost there way off Mount Strachan. While 
members of North Shore Rescue searched the upper mountain areas of 
Black Mountain and Mount Strachan three teams of Lions Bay SAR 
members progressed from Highway 99 up the arms of Montizambert Creek.

Earl Kurz was found by ski patrol members after he climbed out of 
the gullies on the Mt Strachan side of Cypress Bowl. Lions Bay SAR 
team members were then put on general call-out as the focus of the 
search switched to Mount Strachan. The members in Montizambert Creek 
began their descent to Highway 99, during which time a pair of 
goretex gloves and overmitts were lost in the snow and waterfalls 
that filled the gullies. Other LBSAR members gathered at NSR Rescue 
1 Base, at the Cypress Bowl downhill parking lot.

M. Colwell arrived at Rescue 1 at approximately 11am and was 
despatched at ca 1200 hrs in a media helicopter to check the gullies 
and drainages on the East side of Mount Strachan. Cloud cover was 
quite heavy at the time and no useful air-searching was possible. At 
approxiamtely 3pm Tim Jones, Dave Brewer and M. Colwell were 
despatched to begin searching in the South Australia Gully, a 
'popular' out-of bounds gulley on the SE side of Mount Strachan. 

Dave Brewer set up a radio relay on top of the Sunrise Chair of 
Mount Strachan, while Jones and Colwell continued to the top of the 
South Arm of the Australia Gulley. There they met four other NSR 
members were setting up a base camp at the top of the gully.

Jones, Colwell and Don Jardine (?)  descended into Australia Gully 
at about 4pm, while the remaining NSR members erected an Advance 
Base tent at the top of the gully. Snow conditions were fairly poor, 
as the fresh snow in the steeper sections of the gully slid under 
the searchers snowshoes. All team members were carrying avalanche 
beacons. At approximately 900m elevation flagging was found, 
indicating a possible 'alert' by the previous avalanche dog team. 
Avalanche probes were assembled and the entire gully width in that 
area was probed. Other NSR searchers arrived and assisted with the 
probing. At aprroximately 5pm Johnathon Longe and Mike Jury of LBSAR 
arrived in the gully and assisted in probing a short distance lower 
down.

At approximately 8pm, with Don Jardine acting as an avalanche 
spotter, Martin Colwell descended further down the gully into a 
region enclosed by rockwalls on both sides. The entire gully in this 
region was filled with avalanche debris. No sign of skis, poles or 
of Jerry Leboe were found in this chute. At the ca 600m elelvation 
the gully levels out as the North Arm of Australia Gully meets with 
the South Arm. The snow depth appears quite deep here and is a 
natural collection spot. Again no sign of the missing skier was 
found. After about an hour of slow climbing on soft snow Martin 
Colwell returned to the large group of approximately 12 searchers in 
the middle region of south Australia Gulley. Here he noticed that he 
had lost the avalanche beacon from his jacket. 

The searchers re-grouped and organised another probe line to look 
for Jerry Leboe. More side-chutes and run-outs were probed and 
searched for signs of skis, or other clues. When this was completed 
the team moved higher up the gulley and spread out to search the 
tree-wells for signs of Kurz's skis. A metal detector was brought in 
and used, without success, in the upper gulley system. By 
approximately 11pm the searchers had searched much of the gully 
system, above the chute, fairly thoroughly, and were becoming tired. 
At this time the search was called off for the night. 

All team members climbed out of the gully to the Base Camp region. 
Fresh snow began to fall as the searchers hiked back to the ski runs 
on Mount Strachan. 	

The search to this point leads to a few general comments:

1.  The radio relay post set-up at the top of Australia Gulley
    appears to be very effective.

2.  Snow wands were available to the team, but they were too short.
    They should be at least 1.5m tall to be effective.

3.  Faster deployment of searchers into the gully would improve the
    probability of a succesful recovery, if the missing person was
    found. 

4.  Detailed maps of the local terrain would be a real asset, as the
    ski-hill and the 1:50,000 maps lack sufficient detail to be very
    useful.

Post Script (October 1993): 

Leboe's body was found in the spring in 
the small level step where the Sounth Arm of Australia Gully meets 
the North Arm. This area was covered with large quantities of 
avalanche debris during the search.


     Report written:  23rd January, 1993

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