La Perouse was the scene of the most arduous rescue in New Zealand's climbing history in 1948, where Ruth Adams was injured and had to be carried on a stretcher over the summit and through deep gorges to the West Coast road. She was a member in a climbing party including Harry Ayres, Edmund Hillary and Mick Sullivan. The rescue was the first time that Hillary and fellow climber Norman Hardie met; they started a lifelong friendship, with Hardie having been on the board of Edmund Hillary's Himalayan Trust for 22 years.