ASCENT OF AORANGI, 1962—II Hooker River Was Early Climbers' First Obstacle

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29910, 25 August 1962, Page 9

ASCENT OF AORANGI, 1962—II Hooker River Was Early Climbers' First Obstacle

“rpHE main.object of the -*■ expedition was to ascend Mount Cook and if possible to recover the Rev. W. S. Green’s handkerchief and Kauffman's match box left near the summit on March 2, 1882. Great preparations for the trip had been made and ice axes of excellent design and finish had been turned out by a Rangiora smith.”—(“A Holiday on the Great Tasman Glacier, 1886,'’ by G. E. Mannering.)

The main object of our expedition of January, 1962, was to follow the route of the pioneers. My father had made a series of determined attempts on the mountain, 1886-1890, and on the last occasion had been on the ice cap within a few hundred feet of the summit with his companion, Marmaduke Dixon. They had used horse transport from Fairlie Creek to the Hermitage and been obliged to walk beyond that point to the mountain. They carried no crampons, for at that time crampons were considered unsporting. They had no hut accommodation on or even below the mountain. They carried heavy swags of bulky fresh foods and were invariably in an exhausted state by the time they were ready to attack the mountain.

Their excursions over little known country were made in the face of ridicule by most of their friends and forecasts of doom by members of the public. They were self-trained in their art and performed alone in what was recognised throughout the world as terrain for professionallyguided parties. Neither Mannering nor Dixon ever stood on the final summit of Mount Cook, but they undoubtedly fostered the sport of mountaineering in New Zealand. For me this trip was a pilgrimage to the summit that my father never quite reached.

“I have read your most interesting work on your New Zealand mountains over and over again

and last season was on your marks down the Tasman Glacier. There have been unusually heavy falls this winter and Aorangi should be in good order next season when we are off again expecting to start a strong party (all new chums at it more or less). If we survive the expedition I will send you some account of it. You will probably be amused by the unalpineness of our operations. I am sending to England by this mail for ice axe and rope."— (Letter to W. S. Green,

This is the second in a series of articles by GUY MANNERING, in which he writes of an ascent of Mount Cook this year, and recalls the early attempts to climb New Zealand’s highest peak.

from G. E. Mannering, October 6. 1886.) “I fear my mouth waters a little at the thought of you being able to go at it (Mount Cook) again this season. There is nothing I can imagine which would be so delightful as to be camped once more on the Tasman Glacier with a good party of mountaineers and plenty of tucker. We found little difficulty on the Tasman Spur and it is in the direct route. There are some spots where one must be careful so when half way up we put on the rope. When you reach the top of the ridge and before crossing the Great Plateau be sure that you take a good look at the crevasses in the summit and where they can be turned, for it is the last view you will get at them."—(Letter to G. E. Mannering from W. S. Green, November 16, 1888.)

We left the Dodge at the Hermitage on a fine cloudless day in January, 1962, after a two-hour run across the Mackenzie Plain from our jet boat camp on the Waitaki. Each day we had watched the mountain on the horizon donning and shedding its garments of weather and of the sunrise and sunset, of the afterglow and of the moon. The will to climb was always there. At last I had my opportunity. It was time for the 9 a.m. Ball Hut bus to leave with the morning party of daily summer tourists to the ice.

Broily old Hooker river rattled its way under the bridge as we lumbered up to the singing lower-gear grind over the mountain road. This river was the first obstacle to the pioneer climbers and it often offered them adventure of the first order in its fording. Our light packs in the rear of the bus contained dehydrated foods and sweet rations for a four-day trip. We had light-weight nylon rope and light storm parkas in the loads. The crampons lay strapped toothily to the outside of the packs. A mere 151 b of gear with which to assail a mountain. Sleeping and cooking gear are part of the facilities of Haast Hut which we would use nearly 8000 feet up on the ridge.

In the moraine trough as the bus rattled along by Blue Stream I caught glimpses of the once-used track across the screes and rivulets from the Mount Cook range. Even this walking track to the Ball Hut had come into use and gone again long since those early attempts to climb. The earliest route lay "through and around and over the incredible Wiid Irishman bushes" on the moraine flats. Soon we passed the rusting dump of tins on the old Ball Hut site when little more than 30 minutes from the Hermitage. This was the site of Green's fifth camp, reached by him only after 13 hours of travelling from the Hermitage 80 years ago.

“I think you can have but a faint idea of the great difficulties in traversing our moraines which appear much greater than any others I have seen or read about. The Ball Glacier camp is 3750 feet and a long day's grind from the highest point a horse or any fourlegged beast carrying a swag can be taken to, and Green took 60 hours to do Aorangi's 12,349 feet from the Ball Glacier camp."—(Letter to Hugh Fox. England, from G. E. Mannering. July 26, 1887.) The grinding bus bumped up the last bouldery slope to the junction of Ball and Tasman moraines and stopped by a 45-gallon umbrella stand spilling with sticks for the tourist parties bound for the ice of Hoch-

stetter. The tourists were being marstalled behind us by the pipe-puffing Mick Bowie and drilled for their great adventure in their big borrowed boots. It was a matter of minutes before we—l was with the noted climber, Neil Hamilton — were on the ice beyond the moraine blocks and striding up the crunchy white in the nearly silent rubber-soled boots.

“I have faith in you and I together but that means it is imperative to have one or two men to swag up to the top of the spur for us. We have no right to waste our strength carrying extra heavy swags up there ... it is a real tug of war.”

“I came on an old book including Mont Blanc camping out equipment, just the thing to camp down at the foot of Mount Cook with. His spirit lamp would boil a two-pint kettle eight times of one pint of spirits, so there must have been something wrong with our one."

"By the by. if I go with you I shall take the first water colours ever taken from the top of Mount Cook.”

“It is a big mistake for a man with a wife to risk life amongst crevaases.” —i Letters to G. E. Mannering from M. J. Dixon. 1886.)