MOUNTAINEERING.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 12 August 1932, Page 10

MOUNTAINEERING.

THREE REGIONS DESCRIBED

LECTURES TO LARGE CROWD. Hundreds of climbers who filled the Radiant Hall last evening heard three interesting illustrated lectures on different climbing regions in the Southern Alps, by Messrs W. Kennedy, T. M. Beckett and R. R. Chester. The lectures were arranged by the Canterbury Mountaineering and Tramping Club, and the money which the meeting raised will be devoted to the Rakaia Hut Fund.. This fund will be used to provide further accommodation in the Rakaia Gorge area, which has recently become a popular centre of climbing activity. Of the three regions described, the llakaia and "Three Passes" areas are well known. The third, the Godley Glacier region, the subject of Mr Kennedy's lecture, is comparatively little known, on account of its inaccessibility, but is the attraction of all mountaineers because of its splendid peaks, many of which are unclimbed. Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson. (president of the club) acted as chairman. Bough Region. The Godley region was very rough, very little kaown, and very inaccessible, said Mr Kennedy. But was a magnificent bit of country, and such a judge as Mr Johannes Andersen had compared its magnificence as above that of the Mt. Cook region. Sir Julius von Haast and Sir Arthur Dudley Dobson had made the first recorded visit to the area, and Mr G. E. Mannering (who was present at the gathering) had been one of its pioneer explorers. After describing some of the first climbing expeditions to the Godley, Mr Kennedy named and exhibited slides of many of the country's great peaks. Mt. Sibbalt (over 9000 feet), Mt. Moffit (unclimbed, and the most desirable peak on the range), Mts. Livingstone, Loughnan, Seymour, Denniston. and the Fletcher Range were all shown on the screen, and described by the lecturer, who led several expeditions into the area. The Three Passes. The Three Passes—Browning, Whitehorn, and Hartn an—which have been the objective of so many Canterbury men, were dealt with by Mr Beckett, who told of a trip up the Bealey, through the passes, and int# Westland. Mr Chester's lecture took his listeners up the deep gorge of the Rakaia, over the Matthias and Whitcombe Passes, to the West Coast bushland. He showed, with many splendid slides, the suitability of the Rakaia region as a field for all types of climbing, describing the easv and difficult peaks, and the accessible passes. Much of the region is still open to extensive exploration.