EXPERIENCES AMONG THE SNOWS.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10042, 21 May 1898, Page 10

EXPERIENCES AMONG THE SNOWS.

! PLUCKY TRIP OF A WELL-KNOWN GUIDE. Probably there is no more popular guide in New Zealand than Mr Jack Clark, and I many a tourist and alpine enmber can testify to the pluck and perseverance shown by this young cragsman. He is one of the most ; modest of men, and it is with difficulty that lie can be got to talk about his doings among the snows. He has just returned to Christchurch after a journey, taken single- handed, over Fitzgerald's Pass from the Hermitage down the Copland river to the West Coast and up the coast to Hokitika. The journey is one which few men would care to undertake. It was accomplished by Fitzgerald ;ind Zurbriggen, and afterwards by Harper, and by Malcolm Ross, and later still by Adainson and McKay. With these exceptions no one has been over the route. Jack Clark, for he prefers to be known by that familiar title, started on his hazardous trip on the 3rd of May, directly after the tourist season. The tourist season had been a fairly successful one, and although the wet weather prevented much climbing oeing attempted, a good deal of travelling was done. The only peak surmounted by tourists was the Huchstetter Dome, and this was accomplished by Rev. Mr Fisher, head master of the ArmidaJe school. A great convenience for tourists has been the erection of the '• Broderick " hut, on the opposite side of the Tasman glacier to the De la Beche bivouac, and a, little higher up the valley. It is about 5600 ft above sea level, and places the Hochstetter Dome within an easy day's climb. Chirk was delayed for a day or two before starting the Copland trip by wet weather, but he got away at seven in the morning on the 3rd May. 'The weather was foggy, and he intended returning if it remained unsuitable, but after a climb of about 1000 ft tiirough the fog towards Fitzgerald's Pass on a spur to the north of the Col (which was somewhat easier travelling), the sun came out and the fog began to lift. He describes the scene as one of the grandest he litis ever witnessed. Two great seas of rolling log hlled the valleys below him on either side; he seemed to be standing on an island in an ocean of white mist. The sun suddenly broke through the clouds and dissipated the fog in ten minutes. It simply vanished, and a magnificent panorama of icecapped mountains and glistening glaciers lay beneath him. The etfect was ennanced by myriads of icicles which the wet weather had formed, and which glittered in the sun like so many jewels. He had a long glissade down from the main divide for half a mile, and had lunch on some bare rocks on the other side of the range. He then began his journey down the Copland river. He describes the scenery during the whole trip as magnificent, but tihe route as unconscionably bad; in fact, down the river there is no track at all. For the first two days' journey he travelled through dense bush overgrown with supplejacks and lawyers. He was encumbered with a 451b swag, made up of 61bs of bread, some lunch biscuits, a 21b tin of meat, a tin of Liebig, another of Bovril, and another of sardines, a change of clothes, a small bottle of whiskey, tea and sugar, and a billy, a small axe and an ice axe, a sleepingbag, and log book. In the evening lie camped under a large boulder, having passed Fitzgerald's former camp (distinguished by the meat tins) half a mile further up the river. Next morning he made Welcome Flats, an island in the river, half an hour before mid-day, still passing through the same dense bush. In the evening he camped at Palaver Creek. The most serious work was over; the bush after this was not so dense. The scenery of the two last days' journey had, however, been very beautiful; the bush itself, though difficult to travel tiirough, was magnificent to look at, and a splendid view was often obtainable of the ice-clad mountains around him. Clark attempted to go down the bed of the river as much as possible, but was continually forced back into the bush. He got wet through scrambling through the dense undergrowth, and had to strip to the skin and put on his dry clothes before turning in in the evening, and again don his wet ones in the morning before proceeding on hia journey. He had no great difficulty in crossing Architect creek, with which Adamson and McKay had so much trouble. He managed to get over on some large boulders in one of the rapids. The bush during the third day's journey became less dense, and he was aole to keep more to the river. He reached Scott's house—the nearest habitation on the West. Coast side—early, but as to have stayed there would have necessitated his crossing the river, he kept right on to the Ferry house, on the coast at the mouth of the Karangarua, arriving there just before six, after a very long day. This house is kept by Mr Neal Nicholson, who received the traveller very kindly and seemed considerably astonished at hia having performed tho journey alone. Next day he had an easy journey to Gillespie's, fording Cook's river by means of a horse ferry. Travellers generally wait for low tide before continuing tho journey along the coast, as at high water they are forced to travel over the soft sand. Clark, however, left early, and took the higher part of the beach, reaching the Waikukupa river at 3 p.m. On the road he had a very fine view of the Tasman and Franz Josef glaciers and Mount Cook. Next day he forded the Waikukupa and Omoeroa rivers, and reached Waiho at noon. He proceeded to Okarito, and arrived there wet to the skin, having done the last two hours in pouring rain. The Waitaha river was in flood, and it was not until the following day that he managed to get away. He made Mataroa in the evening, and on the succeeding day crossed the Poerua river at the Wanganui ford. He arrived at the Waitaha river at 7 o'clock that night after thirty-four miles hard travelling. The next morning he rode into Ross, and thence rode to Hokitika. He states that horses coald be taken, if a track were made, to the foot of Fitzgerald's {Pass, and also from the western side of the range down the Copland to the West Coast. He however points out that it would be impossible, without the expenditure of any amount of money, to construct a track suitable for horsfs over the Pass. Mr Clark describes the country as very fine, and the trip as one which would repay all lovers of good scenery for their trouble and inconvenience.