MOUNTAINEERING SPORTS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27213, 3 December 1953, Page 9

MOUNTAINEERING SPORTS

ADVICE ON SAFETY To show people the pleasure that could be gained from mountain sports, and how those pleasures could be enjoyed with safety, the Canterbury Mountaineering Club last evening held a public meeting, which was attended by some 400 persons. Seven speakers, all enthusiasts and experts in various forms of mountain sports, spoke and illustrated their lectures with lantern slides showing scenery from the Southern Alps. All the climbers emphasised the value of joining a club. Whether a person was going in for high alpine climbs or merely tramps in the foothills it was useful to have company, especially when the leader was experienced. Of the fatal accidents in the mountains last year, two-thirds were to people who did not belong to a club, and most were caused by ignorance rather than flagrant breaches of mountaineering rules. Advice varied from the type of boots to be worn to the way to cross a river and mountaineering etiquette. Clothing, equipment, the choice of camping sites and what to do in a fog—“stay still unless you know where you're going”—were other subjects mentioned. A deerstalker, who distinguished himself from a deershooter, urged that there should be training for all who proposed to go stalking game. In the past, he said, deerstalkers had a code of ethics, one of which was not to shoot until one saw a vital part of the animal. That meant that an animal was killed humanely, though not all deerstalkers killed when they had reached their quarry, and that there was no danger of shooting another stalker or climber who had caused a movement in bushes which might be mistaken for a deer. With ski-ing there was an element of danger, which added spice to the sport, another speaker said.