CLIMBING IN THE HoLLYFORD

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21988, 12 January 1937, Page 8

CLIMBING IN THE HoLLYFORD

A DISTRICT OF GREAT

BEAUTY .v...

CANTERBURY PARTY’S TRIP

Members of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club .are going further and further afield in their search for climbing and tramping experience, and Messrs T. N. Beckett and E. W. Rich, two club members, have just returned from an interesting visit to the Hollyford .district in company with Messrs H. Smith and G. Speden (Gore) and M. F. Foate (Christchurch). Members of the party made ascents of several peaks, including the previously unclimbed northernmost peak of the Crosscut range. , , . Boxing Day found the complete party at the Homer Hut in the Eglinton Valley, and on the following morning an early start enabled the climbers to reach the Homer Saddle at 7 o’clock. Mount Macphersdn (Was climbed from there in about two hours, -and four of the party continued' a traverse of the ridge to Mount Talbot. The traverse was continued to the Gertrude Saddle, between the; Gertrude and Gulliver rivers, the former a tributary of the Hollyford and the latter a tributary of: the Cleddau river. The return to, the hut was made m the evening by way of the Gertrude, valley. , ■.■ , An attempt to reach the. Crosscut range on December 28. was frustrated by the weather, button the following day, .leaving at 5 a.m., the party of four climbed the bluffs, at th 6 junction of the« Gertrude.' and, Hollyford riyers and reached the summit of the (southern peak on the rapge ? atl 9 o'clock. A descent was made to the;(glacier below and a route was. picked through the snowfields to below the unclimbed northern peak. This was reached by way of a couloir and a rock bridge which provided soiree first-class climbing. The summit was reached at 4, pan;, and a return to the .hut was made in - five hours. , On Wednesday, December 30, a late start—l.3o p.m.—let the party in for trouble on the crossing of the Grave-Talbot Pass. All went well until the climbers, carrying 451b packs,. had to negotiate, the . bluffs leading down to the Esperance river. They were still wrestling with the bluffs and the packs at nightfall and a bivouac was made for the night on a rocky ledge. Many of; the fixed ropes which are meant to help heavily-laden travellers on this difficult part of the route have been; swept away by winter avalanches.

An hour’s scramble next morning took the party down' to the Esperance -hut, and they walked on to Milford. A break in the weather ended all immediate prospects of climbing arid the party walked back to the Eglinton Valley road by way of the Milford track. The opening up of the new motor road has made widely known the beauties of the Hollyford and Eglinton valleys, but only the tramper and climber can erijoy the glories of untouched bush and mountain- that lie- in the less easily penetrable parts of the mountains. Members of the party were enthusiastic in . their • praise of the scenery in the district, Which, iri spite of . the recent activity by southern mountaineers, still offers plenty of virgin climbing.