IN MOUNT COOK DISTRICT.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13358, 25 February 1909, Page 8

IN MOUNT COOK DISTRICT.

AN ENGLISH ALPINE CLUB MEMBER. From letters received in Chri.-t----chui-ch, -we hear that Mr Claude Macdonald, of Wantabadgery, New South Walts, and a member of the English Alpine Club, who, with his family, lias been making a lengthened stay at tlie Hermitage, Mt. Cook, has been making some interesting expeditions there. _l<-asct-uded Mt. Kinsey. finding .it <ii very soft snow en the top. (in February 2nd. with Guide Peter Graham, lie niiido the first lraverso of Mt. Se-ly, ascending by ilu- we.-tera arete, a lid descending by tho eastern cue. On February sth he crc,_.e.! Harper's Saddle, the ice-fall of the Honker Glacier, as it iva'. hue in the season, In-ing very difficult. On the l'.hh. at 3.30 a.m.. Mr Ma«vk>nald. with 'tho guides, started lrom a bivouac on the Hooker Glacier lor the a-cent of Jilt. Cook, and at, 10.15 a.m. arrived on the final snow slope, at an estimated distance of al-out GOGft from the top, when a violent sou-wester .sprang up. enveloping the top of the mountain in cloud:, for the rest of the day. and forcing the party to give, up 'the attempt Tlie party descended by the head oi the. Linda Glacier, and crossing over to the Ball hut. arrived there in 17 hours (including halt.-.) from tho start, returning to the Hermitage on the 20th. Mr Macdonald points out what a very great coi>-.-i.-nicix-o it would be to parties making expeditions to the West Coast and to tin- head of th. Hooker Glacier if a small Alpine hut was put up on the Hooker Valley, just b..-!ow the Copland Pass.