Grieving sister reveals haunting last image of missing climber
Saturday, 18 January 2025
Kurt Blair was one of three climbers who went missing on an ill-fated summit attempt of Aoraki/Mt Cook in December. Now his sister has revealed the last image she has of her brother alive and tells Nadine Roberts why it gives her comfort.
It’s a haunting image.
Under a starry sky a dark smudge is silhouetted by a snowy peak in a moment of time that will forever memorialise the climber it captures.
Not long after, on a clear sunlit morning near the summit of New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki/Mt Cook, Kurt Blair, Californian based climber Kique (Carlos) Romero and a Canadian climber they were guiding vanished.
The trio had set off from Plateau Hut, a base camp at 2200m, at 11pm on Sunday November 30 after an evening with some skiers. Blair had openly shared with them how the mountains gave meaning to his life.
At 56, the American was at the peak of his climbing career having become one of a select club to gain International Federation of Mountain Guides certification - enabling him to guide clients all over the world.
Coming from a family of mountaineers, Blair, who was based in Colorado, had forged a reputation as a knowledgeable enthusiastic climber.
Ahead of Blair, friend and fellow guide, Romero, a Californian based guide, led the group up the Zubriggen Ridge.
As the trio climbed they were intercepted at various points by two of the skiers they had met at the hut the previous evening, who were intending on skiing down the east face of Mt Cook.
Conditions were clear and perfect Blair’s sister Katrina was later told by one of the skiers who last saw the trio around 9.30am on December 1, three quarters of the way up the Zubriggen Ridge that led to the 3724m summit.
But later that day, the three climbers failed to turn up for a pre-arranged helicopter flight to take them off the mountain.
Families and colleagues were informed the party was overdue and search and rescue operations immediately got underway, but Katrina Blair wasn’t overly concerned.
“I just thought that things happen in the mountains,” she tells Stuff from an office desk in her Colorado home in Durango. “So I’m not even going to begin to worry about it.”
Unusually, her brother, who was an avalanche educator, and staunch safety advocate, left his emergency beacon at the hut.
Normally he wore a device that meant others could track the progress of each climb - but not this time, Katrina says
“It was an unusual pattern. Was it the dynamic of all of them together? Or did they just feel like it wasn’t necessary? It’s possible…”
As time went on without any communication, and the weather closed in, Katrina had few answers as to what might have happened.
But the discovery of Romero’s jacket and an ice axe 1000-2000m below where the trio were last spotted offered a clue - they likely fell after one of them was hit by a rock, she believes.
Optimistically she thought they might still be hunkered down somewhere, but the waiting became unbearable when a storm blew in, forcing helicopters to stay grounded for three days.
Still, she held on to hope, even though she knew they had more than likely been swallowed by a large crevasse on a mountain that it and the surrounding national park has claimed more than 240 lives since the start of the 20th century.
That hope evaporated two days later when she woke up with Blair’s favourite song, Pinball Wizard by The Who, “blasting” in her head.
“And it was at that moment I just felt okay, he’s in a different dimension.”
Kiwi at heart:
No trace of the climbers was found and the search was eventually called off leading to Aoraki police area commander inspector Vicki Walker saying what all the families hadn’t wanted to hear.
“We do not believe that the men have survived. We believe they have taken a fall,” she told media five days after the trio were first reported overdue.
In the midst of grief Katrina was comforted by one of the skiers who last saw Blair “painting a picture” of her brother’s last night.
“He was just so touched by Kurt in particular - just his enthusiasm and passion for the mountains was just pure joy and it was really noticeable.”
Knowing he was happy helped her come to terms with the loss - as did the last image taken.
“It’s like he’s walking into the light,” she smiles. “It’s so beautiful.”
Philosophically, Katrina finds beauty in the way Blair died.
“Just knowing he went out doing exactly what he loved, pursuing his passions to the highest and going out at that highest level - that’s going to live on forever and inspire all of us to live our best dreams.”
That attitude has also helped Blair’s family accept that his body won’t be returned home, but instead will remain in the country he had always wanted to live in.
As teenagers the siblings lived in Christchurch for a year after their geologist father took a sabbatical to teach in New Zealand.
It was then they fell in love with the people and the land, and both returned soon after. Now Katrina’s returning in late January to bless the mountain her brother lies in - something she thinks he is encouraging her to do.
“I personally feel like he’s where he wants to be - in the icy mountain that swallowed him and I’m at peace with him there. I think he wanted to live in New Zealand so there’s something beautiful about that.”
In a strange twist, 21 days before Blair is thought to have died, a giant boulder crashed into Katrina’s house at around 9.45am - the same time she believes he fell.
And then there’s her father’s death in 2015, just steps away from a giant billion year old quartzite rock he and her mother had excavated from the wilderness to carve for their tombstone.
It took nine years to get the tombstone finished and erected at a cemetery. Just days later, while skiing near the original site where the rock had been excavated, her father passed away.
“I just hold all of these things sacred. This earth that we live on is alive and there’s something magical in it that I can’t explain,” Katrina says. “We don’t have all the answers.”
Legacy:
Last week more than 300 people gathered in Durango to commemorate a man who had a large presence in both guiding and his local community.
Remembered as a loving father who invested deeply in his two sons, and a man who inspired others, Blair’s family now want his legacy to continue.
A global fund has been set up in his name to financially help others who want to pursue their dreams and Katrina hopes it will honour what he stood for.
Recently, when she was going through Blair’s possessions she came across a “dream list” of mountains he wanted to climb from 1997.
Aoraki Mt Cook was second to last on the list.
The final mountain is in Colorado and Katrina wants to climb it this year to complete his dream.
“Even if we don’t know when we’re going to go, we might as well go out in full passion, versus living scared and not risking what we really want to do,” she says. “Kurt did just that.”