SOUTH WESTLAND.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19854, 15 February 1930, Page 17

SOUTH WESTLAND.

* THE WORLD'S FINEST SKI ING GROUNDS. (Contributed.) Many New Zealanders, as well as visitors from abroad, are familiar with the beauties of the Franz Josef and lox Glaciers, as seen from Waiho and Weheka, and many have spent a day on the ice, and have experienced for themselves the joys and thrills of this adventure. Pew people, however, are enterprising enough to do more, than this. - They are not aware, perhaps, that a scramble that is within the capacity of most able-bodied men and women will bring tlwm out at the head of these glaciers, into a world of snow and ice and mountain-top, whose beauty and grandeur can be felt, but cannot be described. The Aimer Hut," at the head of the main ice-fall of the Franz Josef glacier, can, under ordinary conditions, be reached in six hours from the hotel at Waiho. It is about the saijie height above sea level as the Malte Brun hut, on the other side of the Divide, and the view from its door is equally magnificent. Upwards and to the southeast lies the great chain of peaks that form the backbone of the Southern Alps that divide Canterbury from Westland. Below the rocky promontory on which the hut. is situated the great ice-fa!l of the Franz Josef sweeps downwards between its high walls of snow-clad peaks, ' while to the west and north can be seen the forest country of Westland, broken here and there by river and lake; in the distance is the sea. Recently a party consisting of Dr. Bevan-Brown, Dr. Murdoch, and Mr W. D, Frazer, led by Guide Frank Alack, spent four days at the Aimer Hut, and during that time accomplished some of the many climbs that the hut gives aecess to. The first day, in thick weather, St. Mildred Peak was climbed, and an ice-cave formed by a schrund was explored and photographed. The next day, in fine weather, Mt. Druinmond was reached. From its summit one loolcs directly across to the great precipices on the western aspect of Mt.. Elie de Beaumont. Peaks without number stretch away to the far distance in the north and south, and nearer at hand, and towering to the sky, are the Minarets, Douglas Peak, Glacier Peak,

Tasman, and Cook. Bolow stretches the vast extent of the upper ,snow-fields of the IVanz Josef and Fox- Glaciers, and their tributaries, broken here and there by chains of rocky peaks. These snowficlds are among the finest, ski-ing grounds in the world. Next morning, at 2.45, by lauternlight, the party set out for Graham's Saddle, four miles away across these snowfields. The night was clear and starry, and as the dawn crept up the cold, steep slopes of Tasman could dimly be discerned. When the Saddle was reached, the early rays of the sun were lighting up the high peak of Cook in a crimson glow. The party turned to thp left, skirting Mt. de la Beche, and reached the snow basin of the Minarets by 7.30 a.m. Both peaks of the Minarets were climbed, also de la Beche, and Graham's Saddle was regained by mid-day. Conditions were good, and no serious difficulties were met with. Though the day was hot, the return journey to the hut, through the snow, was not as heavy as had been expected. The party reluctantly returned to Waiho next day. Such glorious country is hard to leave, and one regrets that many more people do not make Hi" trip and share in that deep satisfaction a mountain-top alone affords.