The Story Of Mount Cook

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 4

The Story Of Mount Cook

Aorangi. The Story of Moun Cook. By Jim Wilson Whitcombe and Tombs 230 pp. Appendices. In dex. Mr Wilson’s book is i unique and important contri button to the mountaineerini literature of New Zealand—the story of this country’: highest mountain, from it: misty beginnings in Maor mythology to its place toda; as a superb tourist attractior and mountaineering challenge the story of its geology an< weather, its first sighting bj man, of the long and des perate struggles of the met who sought to stand on it: virgin summit, the develop ment of the area's band 01 rugged alpine guides, bu above ail the mountaineer philosopher Jim Wilson show: us a little of the glamour, th< mystique, that surrounds th< gaining of the summit of th< incomparable monarch, o: New Zealand’s Southerr Alps. Describing his own ascen of the East Ridge of Moun Copk with Barry Smith ir 1961, Mr Wilson says, “W< were poised on the mile-lont summit ridge of Mount Cook a thin twist of corniced snow The sun had almost set be neath the Tasman Sea and it: rays had departed from al the land save this highes mile. Below the valleys wer< already grooves of darknes: and even the peaks rount about were cold and harsh ir this breathless space betweer day and night. But the las light still glanced our crest transforming it into a curv< of colour slung high abovi nothingness. We stood trans fixed.” There is of necessity litth other such emotive prose poetry in the book- where thi delivery for the most par must be an objective presen tation of the doings of others with their more colourfu attributes and actions quoter in their own words: thi author must take a back seat Few readers however wil finish this book withou hoping to see further worl from Jim Wilson, in a mon personal vein. The task o research and correlation ha: been a formidable one, witl accounts of early exploratiot and climbing being based oi a wide variety of publication:

t —Samuel Butler’s “A First . Year in a Canterbury Settle- . ment,” the Rev. W. S. Green’s - “The High Alps of New Zealand,” Freda du Faur's “Conquest of Mount Cook,” and 1 Peter Graham’s “Mountain Guide,” to name but a few, ’ yet nowhere is there any break in the firm direct prose. 5 Each reference is carefully ? annotated and a full list of 1 references given at the back fof the book. Few other 1 authors have written a • study in depth of a New Zea--1 land mountain. Only two ' come to mind—GHkison with ■ his “Aspiring" and Graham 1 (no relation to the Grahams 5 of Waiho) with his "Rua- ■ pehu.” f In the chapter "Down 1 Below" dealing with those ■ who live and work within 5 sight of the Mount Cook Range but rarely tread its s slopes (the sheep-farmers, ’ hoteliers, bus-drivers, pilots ‘ and visiting tourists), Mr Wil--1 sons says, “Mount Cook has never belonged solely to I those foolish enough to want t to climb it. It has belonged • also, and still belongs to - those whose appreciation is I less flamboyant but equally , sincere: those who look on • it with joy from below and ■ who wander in the valleys at J its feet." A selfless sentiment 1 for a mountaineer. • Nevertheless, it is the ’ climbers who provide the J drama in the book, and to 1 their trials and triumphs the 1 bulk of the book is devoted. ’ In the autumn of 1882 when ‘ the Reverend William Green ■ from Ireland, his companion ' Emil Boss and their guide : Ulrich Kaufmann made their ' valiant attempt to reach the summit, they were the first B men to approach Aorangi ■■ with serious intent and the b beginning of a long line of t aspiring climbers. Four years • later G. E. Mannering and ■ M. J. Dixon, of Christchurch, 1 began a dedicated eight-year 1 siege on the mountain, fated B like Green’s attempt to end ■ a hundred or so feet from the top. 3oth these parties had Mused the Grand Plateau above £ [the Tasman Valley as their point, and ascended i i s

via the pnda Glacier. On Christmas' Day, 1894, the three immortals, Tom Fyfe, a plumber from Timaru, and George Graham and Jack Clarke, who were both working at the first Hermitage, left a bivvy in the upper Hooker Valley at 3.15 a.m., and at 1.30 p.m, stepped on to the “highest pinnacle of the monarch of the Southern Alps." Since that day there have been 230 parties on the summit of Cook, and four solo ascents. The first woman to stand on the summit snows of Aorangi was the redoubtable Australian Miss Freda du Faur, who in 1910 climbed Earle's Route with the famous guiding brothers from the West Coast, Peter and Alex Graham. The first New Zealand woman to the top was Mrs Peter Graham, with her husband. The big remaining challenge on the mountain today is the Caroline Face, the appalling 7000-foot south-eastern flank, already attempted by several climbers in the last few years. Mr Jim Wilson, M.A., 8.D., is currently lecturing in Philosophy and Comparative Religion at the University of Canterbury. He has climbed in the Himalayas and Antarctica and has studied at Benares Hindu University. He is married to the artist, Ann Wilson who did the pen drawings at the end of some chapters. Many historic photographs illustrate the text—one of the book’s chief joys—there are adequate line maps, and several colour plates. Any review or summary of this book must necessarily do it scant justice. This is the book-that-had-to-be-written and no-one could have done it better. The publishers, W. H. Allen may get a new class of reader for one of their books, just annuonced, entilted “How to Hold Up a Bank.” They’ll, be disappointed, though. The sub-title explains all. The i technique it describes, is nothing racier than “A new I way to control shore erosion."