MOUNT SEFTON ASCENTS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25389, 12 January 1948, Page 6

MOUNT SEFTON ASCENTS

CLIMBING IN MOUNT COOK AREA Ascents of Mount Sefton (10,354 ft in the Mount Cook area were made by two parties on Monday and Tuesday of last week. Three bhristchurch mountaineers—Messrs A. Barley T. Newth, and J. Clegg—climbed the peak on Monday and on the following day it was climbed by Guides Harry Ayres, Alan Mace, and Jim Forsyth Mr Frank Gillett (Christchurch), Misses Cicely Ramsay (Dunedin), Peg McMahon (National Park), and Mrs Junes Mulvay (Hermitage). The climbs were made from the Hermitage. Both parties travelled over the Copland pass to the Douglas Hut and pushed through thick West Coast bush to a bivouac at 5300 ft on the Tekano glacier. From there the climbs took about seven hours through soft snow. Messrs Barley, Newth and Clegg were fortunate in striking the last fine day before the weather broke. The party which followed them was unable to see more than 50 yards in any direction throughout the entire climb. An ascent of Mount Torres, a littleclimbed peak at the head of the Fox Glacier on the West Coast, was made by Mr A. Anderson, of OUra, with one companion. A party of climbers intends leaving to-day for the Gardiner Hut in the Hooker Valley. . Climbing parties from Christchurch which visited the headwaters of the Rakaia and Rangitata rivers during the Christmas holidays reported on their return that they had been able to do hardly any climbing during the wet weather Jhat prevailed. Climbers who visited the Rangitata area and climbed Mount McClure had great difficulty with swollen streams. They said on theis return that floods had menaced both the Eric bivouac and the Forks Hut during their stay in the area. If both these huts were to be saved before the next flood they would have to be moved to higher ground. Weather during the week-end at Mount. Cook made any climbing inadvisable. On Wednesday 2i inches of rain fell and there was another small fall on Saturday. Yesterday it was overcast with slight rain. One party set out during,the week-end on a fortnight’s climbing, but returned to wait for better weather.