Missing American and Canadian climbers feared to have ‘taken fatal fall’ from New Zealand’s highest peak

Rescue teams have found the equipment belonging to three climbers who went missing while climbing the tallest mountain peak in New Zealand.

American nationals Kurt Blair, 56, and Carlos Romero, 50, and a Canadian man flew by helicopter on Saturday to a camp on Mount Cook, known as Aoraki in Maori, with plans to summit the 3,724m-mountain. Police have withheld details of the Canadian national until authorities can contact his family.

The trio was reported missing on Monday after they failed to arrive to meet their prearranged transport after the climb. Searchers hours later found several climbing-related items believed to belong to the men, but no sign of them, police said.

The search and rescue efforts on Tuesday were temporarily suspended due to the deteriorating weather conditions on Aoraki, with heavy rain and snow forecast. Operations were unlikely to begin again until conditions improved, expected to be on Thursday.

The local police said they have been working with the US and the Canadian embassies to "inform and support the families of the three men".

The Silverton Avalanche School in Colorado, US, said it was notified the climbers appeared to have "taken a fatal fall from the high upon the peak".

“Gear and equipment found from the party has helped SAR [search and rescue] piece together the tragedy although remote, technical and heavily glaciated terrain coupled with deteriorating weather has prevented a recovery of the climbers," it said in a post on Facenook.

The school remembered Mr Blair as a "beloved fixture" of the "San Juan mountains who comes from a proud lineage of mountain adventurers".

It said Mr Blair's "calm demeanor and positive presence ran counter to the rough edges and sharp tongues so often exemplified by the hard scrabble ranks of mountain guides".

"He was the nicest guy you'd ever share a rope or trail or skin track with, and his humility, competence and polite nature made him a client and student favourite."

Mr Blair “leaves behind a loving family, two amazing sons and a mountain community that stretches along the entire length of the 550 corridor and beyond”, it added.

A leading mountain guide told the New Zealand Herald that the missing trio could have faced treacherous conditions such as deadly rime ice.

“With warming trends, you’ve got ice cliffs that can fall down and they’re incredibly hard to predict compared to avalanches,” Gary Dickson said.

He said rime ice was an "ice formation in which cold water droplets grow on to each other and build out ... if that falls off it’ll either kill you, injure you or give you a massive fright at the very least".

Aoraki is part of the Southern Alps, the scenic and icy mountain range that runs the length of New Zealand's South Island. A settlement of the same name at its base is a destination for domestic and foreign tourists.

The peak is popular among experienced climbers even though its terrain is technically difficult due to crevasses, avalanche risk, changeable weather and glacier movement.

More than 240 deaths have been recorded on the mountain and in the surrounding national park since the start of the 20th century.