Climber dies after 6-day ordeal

A Japanese climber stranded for six days just below the summit of New Zealand's highest peak Mt Cook has died just hours before rescuers reached him and a compatriot, local media reported. The two Japanese climbers were forced to huddle in a tent 50 metres below the 3,754-metre peak, as poor weather and high winds foiled attempts to rescue the men by helicopter.

Search and rescue personnel had located the pair on Tuesday, and were able to drop emergency supplies, but the wind was too strong to attempt to remove them from the mountain.

The rescued climber was Hideaki Nara, 51, while his companion Kiyoshi Ikenouchi, 49, died just a few hours before rescue arrived at first light on Friday, the New Zealand Press Association reported. Both men were from Tokyo.

Rescuers said Nara, who is recovering in hospital, was in remarkably good condition after his ordeal, suffering frostbite to his face, after temperatures fell as low as -20 Celsius.

Ikenouchi became the 69th climber, and the seventh Japanese national, to die on Mt Cook, in New Zealand's Southern Alps mountain range.