Mountaineering Has Increased In Popularity

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29107, 20 January 1960, Page 11

Mountaineering Has Increased In Popularity

J7VERY year it seems more and more New Zealanders are learning of the pleasures of New Zealand’s unrivalled bush and mountain areas. In the field of mountaineering- alone there has been an unprecedented increase in the numbers of climbers, and their enthusiasm, and awareness of the challenge which the high peaks provide. The season at present under way is regarded by most senior mountaineering and alpine club officials as one of the best ever, and as far as enthusiasm is concerned, there are probably more climbers than ever before heading into the alps. Nearly 200 climbers from the North Island and other centres passed through Christchurch during the Christmas period, and their numbers were swelled by local mountaineers and those from further south, who penetrated into every major river valley and climbing area from the Waimakanri to the Southern Lakes and Fiordland.

They could be found in remote huts in the river valleys, in improvised fly-camps, even in snow caves thousands of feet up, overlooked only by the ice-covered peaks which were their goal. Full Use

Two of the most strategically placed huts in the main alpine region around Mount Cook—the Pioneer hut, 8000 ft up at the head of the Fox glacier, and the Haast hut above the Tasman glacier, have been fully taxed throughout the holiday period. Both are close to the majority of New Zealand’s 27 peaks above 10.000 ft, all found in this region. The Mount Cook region provides the finest ice and snow mountaineering, and the highest climbing, in either Australia or New Zealand. Its extremely high precipitation, because of the predominantly north-wester-ly winds, give it vast areas of continual snow and ice which are encountered from 3000 ft lower than .in the world-renowned climbing areas of Switzerland. Club Strength

An indication of the growth of the sport of mountaineering can be gained from the big increase in membership of alpine and mountaineering clubs. In the last 10 years the membership of the New Zealand Aloine Club has increased from 689 to 947. while the Canterbury Mountaineering Club now has 425 members compared with about 300 in 1949. The Tararua Tramping Club, one of the leading

bodies in the North Island, has also maintained its steady growth. These and other allied clubs have performed an outstanding service in fostering a lively appreciation of the pleasures to be derived from high country climbing and, by regular intensive training schools, an awareness of the potential dangers of mountain and river travel.

This training has been excellent for the New Zealand scientific and mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas and Antarctica; and these in turn have further publicised the sport. Although most New Zealanders climb without the assistance of professional guides it is pleasing to note that there is again being established at Mount Cook, under the sponsorship of the Mount Cook National Park Board, a team of efficient trained guides led. by the board’s well-known Chief Ranger, Harry Ayres. New Zealand’s alpine regions first became known and appreciated in the early 1930’5, and since then few peaks, even above the remotest valleys in the alps, have

escaped the attention of at least a few parties of climbers. Of the 127 recorded ascents of Mount Cook, by parties of mountaineers since it was first scaled by Clarke, Fyfe and Graham in 1894, 37 were made in the next 36 years to 1930. Since then the tempo of climbing increased markedly and in the next 15 years there were a further 34 ascents. Up till 1955 29 more parties gained the top of the 12,349 peak. Even this amazing resurgence of the sport, however, is overshadowed by the activities of climbers over the last three years. To The Top

From January. 1956, until December 31 last, 27 parties reached the top; so that well over a quarter of the ascents of Mount Cook have been made in recent years.

The culmination was the outstanding achievement this season of Gordon Hasell, who became the first climber to ascend all of New Zealand’s 27 peaks over 10,000 ft.