Climbing In Southern Alps During Holidays

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27538, 21 December 1954, Page 6

Climbing In Southern Alps During Holidays

While others are relaxing during the Christmas and New Year holidays several hundred young and energetic New Zealanders will be climbing among the snow and ice of the Southern Alps, which have been described as one of the finest training grounds in the world for Himalayan climbing. Almost every member of next year’s Canterbury expedition to Mount Masherbrum, in the Karakoram Himalayas, will be in the Alps during the Christmas period. Only a fortnight ago Mr G. Harrow, who reached ♦he summit of 23.580 ft Baruntse, the highest peak climbed by this year’s New Zealand Alpine Club expedition to the Barun Valley, and Mr R. H. Watson, who is a member of the Masherbrum expedition, nearly set a new record in climbing Mount Cook in a week-end after travelling from Christchurch after work on Friday find returnin'’ in time for work on Monday. The two experienced climbers left Christchurch at 7 p.m. on the Friday. They were at the Hermitage at 11.30 p.m., and at 4 a.m. on Saturday they reached the Hooker hut. Later in the day they moved on to the Canterbury Mountaineering Club’s hew high bivouac at 8300 feet on the west side of the mountain, claimed to be the highest climbing hut in New Zealand. The climbers planned to set out for the summit of Mount Cook at 1 a.m. on Sunday, but stormy weather and low cloud delayed their start until 6.45 a.m. Heavy rain and high winds later forced the climbers to give up the climb after they had reached 11,000 ft. They were back at Christchurch at 5 a.m. on Monday rend” +n resume th* I !’' daily work Mr Watson will be OacK in the Hermitage area during the holidays. With him will be Messrs W. K. Jones and E. Feasey, a New Zealander now teaching in a school for aboriginal children at Delissabille, about 11 miles by air from Darwin. Climber From Darwin Mr Feasey, a member of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club who has ascents of Mount Cook and Mount Tasman to his credit, will join the party when he flies home to visit relatives. He has been in Australia for about two years. At first he worked on a cattle station, thbn he trained i n Sydney as a teacher of native children. Before going to Delissabille he was at another native school about 30 miles north of Tennant Creek on the road north from Alice Springs. Mr Feasey attended the Teachers’ Training College in Christchurch. Members of this party will live in a snow cave •in the Tasman Valley, but like members of many other parties they are reticent about discussing what thev plan to do. They prefer to wait and see what the tricky weather in the Alps will let them do.

Mr Stan Conway, who will be leading the Masherbrum party, Mr J. Harrison, another member of the party, and Messrs L. G. Osborne and W. Gray will also go into the Tasman Valley. They, too. will live in a snow cave.

Mr L. R. Hewitt, a North Island member of the Karakoram expedition, will be with a Wellington party that will go into the head of the Rangitata. Messrs Allan Morgan and Peter Bain, who are also to go to the Himalayas, will climb with Messrs S. C. V. Muirson, J. C. Pattie, and another Ashburton climber in the Mount Cook area. Members of this group may tackle Mount Cook by Earle’s route from the Empress hut, and carry out a traverse. B. Barley and Morgan may also attack Mount Sefton by a new route from the Copland Pass, and climbers in this expedition may also get on to La Perouse. Attacks from West

At least two parties will tackle Mount Sefton by differernt routes from the west, and a party of three or four will climb in the Balfour glacier area south of the Fox glacier. There will be a number of North Island parties in the Southern Alps. A party of 12 will spend about 14 days tramping and climbing in the Wilkins Valiev in the Otago Alps. Six climbers will enter the Tasman ranges behind Nelson, and four will explore the Godley Valley for several dqys before heading for the Hermitage area. A party of four headed by Mr G.

H. Thompson will attempt a crossing from the Hermitage area to the Fox glacier, on the West Coast. They will carry no shelter equipment, according to a Wellington report. “We will sleep in snow caves in the tops. On the glaciers, if marooned by storms, we will have to crawl _into the crevasses for shelter,” Mr Thompson is reported as saying. Dropping of Supplies Dropping of supplies by aircraft to climbing parties in the mountains is becoming an increasingly common feature of holiday mountaineering. Between about December 27 and 29 blankets, utensils, and fuel will be dropped to climbers, at the Canterbury Mountaineering Club’s Empress hut, on the western side of. Mount Cook. The materials for the hut were dropped from the air a year ago, and the building was put up between last Christmas and New Year. The fuel will be dropped in metal larvicide containers, which take about a gallon and a half of liquid. They have been found very suitable for this purpose. Mattresses and fuel will also be dropped to the Alpine Club’s Pioneer Hut at the head of the Fox glacier; fuel will be dropped to the club’s Murchison hut; and parts for a small hut at the Onslow stream in the Lower Murchison are also to be taken in by air.

Emphasising the need for safety in the mountains, Mr C. H, Turner, secretary of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, said last week that climbers who were not regular club members should advise relatives where they 'were going before departing on expeditions, and in the mountains they should leave messages at huts and bivouacs indicating their movements. .