Advance Party Of N.Z. Climbers For Andes Arrives In Lima

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29802, 19 April 1962, Page 19

Advance Party Of N.Z. Climbers For Andes Arrives In Lima

(Specially Written for N.ZJ..A by

GRAHAM WEAR]

Nineteen crates of supplies for the New Zealand mounumeering expedition which is about to leave for the South American Andes have s.-rived in Lima, the capital of Peru.

Travelling with this baggage are two members of the expedition, the deputy leader. Victor Walsh, a 26-

’ ar-old photo engraver, and Peter Farrell, aged 24, an < Linesman. The two men sailed direct to L:ma from Wellington in the Dutch liner. Willem Ruys. Word has been received in Christchurch that all the supplies have been cleared by the Peruvian customs without any duties being imposed When the other four members of the expedition join Walsh and Farrell in Lima next month, the baggage will be taken by road to Cuzco, in the foothills of the Andes —a four-day journey—then by narrow gauge train over the mountains to Haudquina. in the Urubamba Valley at •he headwaters of the Amazon. Finally, the supplies w ll be packed in by donkeys to the Pumasillo Basin, five days’ march away. Party's Aims

The party’s main asms are to climb two difficult virgin ice peaks, Mitre < 19.000 ft) and Sacsarayoc (20.000 ft rising above the Pumasillo Bas.n. and also to map a neighbouring area of the Amazon watershed that has nev-r oefo’-e been exmored

Besides Walsh and Farrell, the expedition comprises Brian Hearfield, the leader, a 34-year-old engineer; Lynn Crawford, aged 24, a carpenter; Hans Furndorfier, aged 3’. a school teacher: and Bruce Naylor, aged 28, a compositor. Ah live in Christchurch, although Walsh came to New Zealand from Britain five years ago. and Furndorfier is an Austrian who has been in New Zealand for six years. The expedition has been generously helped with its basic supplies by many firms, not only in New Zealand, but also in America, Britain. Germany, Austria. Switzerland and Japan. Some have made outright gifts while others have supplied goods at considerably reduced prices. One Japanese firm gave the expedition more than £2OO worth of radio equipment; another gave a liberal discount on expensive cameras

which will be ased to vide a pictorial record of the expedition's achievements. Most of the food the climoers will eat during the four months they are in South America has been sup- > Chicago firm and it is flash-frozen’’ by a process similar to ttat now in experimental operation at an Invercargill factory. The main meals include a vegetable and beef dinner, chicken and rice with chicken. All are packed m aluminium foil envelopes ami the contents are soaked in cold water for five minutes before cooking for a further five minutes. Hearfield said the expedition had tasted samples of this food and he pronounced it “the most delicious stuff you ever ate.”

It's quite as good as and. I would say, indistinguishable from, the fresh product.” he added.

An Aberdeen firm has supplied dried meat bars of the same type as used on many Antarctic expeditions. These will be used as a basis for soups and stews. Foodstuffs from New Zealand include biscuits, chocolate, cake, puddings, nuts, breakfast cereals, tinned fruit, milk powder and egg powder. Most erf the remaining supplies, such as sugar, sait, coffee and fuel tor the portable stoves, will be bought in Lima. Pool of Equipment

The New Zealand Alpine Club, to which all the members of the expedition belong, has built up a pool of equipment used by various New Zealand expeditions to the Himalayas. From this pool the Andes expedition has borrowed £5OO worth of tents, sleeping bags, down clothing and other items.

Three two-man tents and one large base-camp tent will be used. All have been designed for the severity of the Himalayan weather, with sewn-in floors and sleeve-type entrances which can be closed up. They are pitched with light-weight aluminium poles. The expedition will also have a number of lightweight nylon “envelopes” which will provide makeshift shelter for climbers sleeping out at night away from the main basin.

Each will provide most of his own personal climbing gear such as ropes and crampons. However, much of the clothing they will wear

—footwear, shirts—socks and jerseys—has been provided by New Zealand firms. As experienced mountaineers, all the members of the party have an elementary knowledge of first-aid and Furddorfler has had special training as a former member of the Austrian Mountain Rescue Service. A wide range of drugs and surgical instruments worth about £3oo— of it given without charge to the expedition—has been packed with the supplies now in Lima. Medical Advice The Deputy Medical Officer of Health in Christchurch (Dr. F. A. de Hamel) is advising the expedition on the use of drugs to combat most of their likely problems. As the party will be at least six days’ march from the nearest doctor for most of the time, this knowledge could be of vital importance even in the case of what are ordinarily quite trifling sicknesses or accidents.

Preparing for an expedition on the scale of this one is like planning a small military operation. A tremendous amount of work goes into deciding upon and buying suplies, arranging for shipping and t ran-port, planning itineraries and getting visas. Hundreds of orders, advice notes and “thank you” letters have to be written before the first mountain is scaled. Inevitably much of this task has fallen on the shoulders of Hearfield —a jovial, balding man with the strong shoulders of the mountaineer, the tact of a diplomat and a tremendous capacity for work —but the others, too, have done their share.

Already the master file of inward correspondence is more than six inches deep and more than 500 sheets of notepaper bearing the expedition’s printed letterhead have been used.

Advice on the terrain, together with maps and photographs, has been given by other previous expeditions to Peru from Germany, Switzerland, Britain, Austria and the United States, and also by the 1960 New Zealand expedition led by Lloyd Warburton, of Invercargill, which climbed Cayesh. about 700 miles north of Mitre and Sacsarayoc. The main party of Hearfield’s expedition will leave Wellington for Panama in the Willem Ruys on April 21. From Panama, it will travel

by air south to Lima. The expedition expects to return to New Zealand at the end of September.