NSW: Snowboarders father has hope of finding boys alive

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-1999
NSW: Snowboarders father has hope of finding boys alive

SYDNEY, Aug 14 AAP - Poor visibility on the New South Wales snowfields is hampering the
search for four snowboarders missing for a week in sub-zero temperatures in the Snowy
Mountains.

Search authorities said today's efforts had been reduced primarily to a ground search
outside the Smiggins and Guthega resort areas.

Scott Beardsmore, 26, a naval architect, his brother Paul, 24, and their friends Dean
Pincini, 25, who works in an employment agency and Tim Friend, 25, who works in construction,
were last seen on Saturday of last week when they left on a three-day snowboarding adventure.

Paul Beardsmore, who works in marketing, resigned from his job the day before the
expedition and was due to start a new job next week.

After seven nights of freezing conditions, families and searchers clung to hopes that the
group had built a snow cave to escape the weather.

Scott and Paul's father Trevor Beardsmore today said the group had been well prepared for
the expedition.

He said a press conference with the families yesterday had made it easier for him to talk
about the ordeal.

"We're getting better, but I couldn't have spoken up until yesterday - we were going to
pieces every time we spoke to anyone up until then, now we're getting used to it," Mr
Beardsmore told Sky News.

He said the families were clinging to the hope that the group had built a snow cave and was
waiting it out until the weather cleared.

"It was their intention to build a snow cave - Dean did it in the three months he spent
snowboarding in Canada, and he, Tim and Scott did it last year as well," he said.

"They are very well constructed with arches - they have drawings at home of how they were
going to do it so we know what they were going to do."

Mr Beardsmore, who said he regretted his sons' adventurous streak, said the pair had spent
$600 each upgrading equipment in the past week and had spent a lot more over the years
purchasing adequate gear.

Meanwhile, a woman who survived 24 days lost in the Snowy Mountains 30 years ago has urged
authorities not to give up hope.

Dr Pamela Johnston was part of a group which survived more than three weeks in same region
in 1966.

She said the four snowboarders were young and fit and had every hope of surviving.

"There is hope, I believe those young men are still alive," she said.

AAP nd/jjs/wjf

KEYWORD: SNOWBOARDERS SECOND DAYLEAD

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.