Peter Graham, Mountain Guide

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30769, 5 June 1965, Page 4

Peter Graham, Mountain Guide

’Reviewed by N.D.H.] i; Teter Graham. Mountain j Guide. An autobiography, - edited by 11. B. Hewitt. : Reed and Allen and > Unwin. For some years before the J death of Peter Graham in ‘, 1961, the climbing world was ( told that the most famous , New Zealand guide had written parts of his life’s story. < At last this story had been ; edited and completed as far , as possible, to emerge as one ; of the most important books || in our mountaineering his- ; tory. In addition, the book is , a substantial contribution to ; the recorded history of an important part of South Westland. John Pascoe’s foreword ' gives a condensed summary 1 of the development of New Zealand mountaineering andji locates the time and impor- ' tance of Peter Graham’s con- < tribution to it. The first 70 pages tell of 1 the early life of the Graham 1 family in a hard land after 1 most of the gold-miners had 1 moved north. For those who remained, education, transport, and earning a living had phenomenal difficulties and many young people moved . towards Hokitika or even i Canterbury in search of a life ; not so burdened. Peter ; Graham never complained of hardships: they were just j taken for granted as the lot of those who chose to live in South Westland at the end of the nineteenth century. Gradually, Graham and his younger brother Alex, moved away from the strenuous life I of tree-felling and searching for gold round the river flats and beaches. They began moving up to the formidable gorges, initially for gold, but later to show visitors magnificent scenery. Peter was ■ employed by Doctor Teichel- ■ mann from Hokitika, to assist him in a visit to the Callary ; River. Soon other visitors I were being advised by I friends and by the Tourist ■ Department to ask Peter to' show them the Franz Josefl glacier. To his amazement some were willing to pay, ! and before long he began to ■ augment small earnings as a miner with donations from grateful tourists. Alex, too, soon began to share in this work. From Ross came a man who made an immense change to the lives of Peter and Alex Graham The newcomer was H. E. Newton, the I vicar for the district. He was ; an accomplished mountaineer with major Swiss experience. He brought with him the standard axes, ropes and other equipment of the time. Soon Canon Newton joined forces with Dr. Teichelmann and Newton introduced he and Peter to safe glacier travel and then to high climbing. Next Alex replaced Peter in this illustrious combina-, tion and they went on year after year to make new ' ascents from the west of' nearly every mountain in the ( watersheds of the La Perouse. Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. Alex and his brothers —apart from Peter —founded the ! highly-successful Franz Josef I Hotel. Peter left this enterprise ing group to take up an I appointment as Assistant Guide at the Hermitage—under Jack Clarke—in 1903. Until 1922. Peter remained at; the Hermitage, except for seasonal transfers to Westland or Wellington. During most of these years he was Chief Guide, greatly admired by tourists, mountaineers and back-country runholders. He set standards of safe yet enterprising climbing which set the pattern for all subsequent Hermitage guides. He took tourists to the Barron Saddle and the Hochstetter Dom. and hundreds loved these trips. It is doubtful whether even 1 per cent of the present Hermitage visitors would dream of walking half the distance. All this is told with a clarity

and sincerity’ which make! easy and compelling reading. Many of the glacier trippers and the top-ranking climbers are very real people in these pages. The closeness that a good guide feels for his client comes out in the book. Many j incidents and new facets of character emerge for the first time. During most of Peter Graham’s Hermitage years the New Zealand Alpine Club was in recess. Thus, no writ-! ten records of climbs reached the journals which are now published annually, though an occasional climb reached: newspaper notice. Miss du' Faur, Malcolm Ross, Samuel Turner and A. P. Harper were the only ones who published full climbing records, and Turner's especially were frequently far from accurate, w'hich makes Peter Graham’s account all the more valuable.' ft is unfortunate that at the time of Peter Graham’s death.; the writing had been brought only as far as 1910. John Pascoe wrote 40 pages of Epilogue in an attempt to fill in the

■ gaps. This section is good so far as it goes but it fails to end back on the Coast to tell of the last 20 years of Peter’s life when he joined his brothers in the hotel. Peter handled his . business I there in his normal calm manner and his ability in talking, to the guests was appreciated by thousands who visited the Franz in those years. Per-• , haps it is better that not i much is written about the i hotel because most of the real | , credit for its success should go to Alex and Jack. The i material about Alex Graham I should be as interesting as r; that about Peter. It is hoped that the story about Alex is • rapidly approaching a public-! I ation date. The writing by Peter Graham, the editor, Mrs Hewitt, and John Pascoe is all : of a very high order, appro-! priate to the importance of | ■ the subject matter. Unfortu- . ; nately some of the photographs, one map and the index give the impression of I • an unchecked rushed race to i a completion date In these

sections we find Isabel spelled ;; “Isable,” Col spelled “Coll.” > Whymper with the “h” omitted and in the text the Spence! , and Spencer glaciers are both visited and both spelled with : the final ”r” included. One photograph captioned “Graham's Saddle from the Minarets” shows the Minarets from the air. with the Saddle just ! in view on the extreme right.! The earlier historical photographs should have had more [ detailed captions. Several photographs strike ’ the reviewer as particularly! inappropriate. There are magnificent views of faces on Elie de Beaumont, the southeast side of Sefton and the j Caroline face of Cook. Not one of these is relevant to Graham's climbing: not one has yet been completely climbed. It would have been J more appropriate to have included two classic views of Mount Cook, one illustrating the Zurbriggen and Linda ! routes, and the other, taken from the west, would have iimarked on it the Low Peak ’’route. Earle’s route and Fyfe’s couloir; Graham's exploits on these particular : routes fill some 40 pages of the text but not one of these! can be seen on a photograph. The book is published in London and New Zealand. Would there be six Britons apart from exiled New Zealand mountaineers who would (know where these routes are: and what constitutes their; 1 respective merits? The map does little Io assist. Copland Pass. Elie de Beaumont and !the Callery are major fea-, :tores of the story, yet they! and many other important! : names are not shown on the | | main map. I This lack of final attention; to detail is perhaps not of; great importance when the! ! writing is as accurate andl attractive as in “Peter: Graham. Mountain Guide.” Many modern travel books have similar deficiencies in maps and photographic captions. The groups of personalities, especially the early ones are revealed vividly to the reader. Peter Graham clearly emerges as a modest and strong climber, an administrator with a sense of humour and a man with affection and loyalty to his family and friends. He has faithfully recorded some of the great days of mountain guiding, which will never be seen again.