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Miles Vinar -
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The Australian climber rescued on Aoraki-Mt Cook didn't think he would survive the nightmare conditions that killed his older brother.
Miles Vinar spoke to ONE News about seeing his brother plunge to his death on Thursday, and about his own desperate battle to stay alive on the mountain.
The two were climbing to the peak when bad weather forced them
to turn back. It was while climbing down Zurbriggins Ridge that he
saw his brother, Perth doctor Mark Vinar, fall hundreds of meters
to his death.
"The manoeuvre that we did to get over the ice step is not really
that complicated. Why it killed him I don't know, maybe he was
unlucky, maybe a bad bit of ice, maybe he was tired," says
Miles.
At first, he thought Mark may have survived. "I cried out to him... my hopes were that he'd just fallen a couple of meters, and then saw his body continue down the slope."
The pair had been climbing in New Zealand before, on Mt Aspiring and Mt Tasman. Climbing Mt Cook was part of a programme working towards a more difficult climb in Alaska.
But now Miles Vinar says after two days in a snow cave, and after losing his brother, he won't be making that trip.
Saturday's early morning rescue has left him praising the search crews and he says he had expected to die on the mountain.
Experts say the brothers were well prepared, but Miles admits he didn't take enough water and that they had made another mistake.
"One of my great fears...was no one would know we were missing - foolishly when we were getting ready to depart, we'd forgotten to sign the book up there," he says.
Seventy climbers have now died on Mount Cook, 18 of them Australians.
Experts say there is little chance of finding Mark's body.
But Miles says he can't think of a better place for his body to rest in peace.
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