KARANGARUA TO OHAU Over the Alps by three snow passes

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 12

KARANGARUA TO OHAU Over the Alps by three snow passes

EDGAR R. WILLIAMS, of Cashmere, looks back at a notable trip in the Alps.

In South Westland the trail starts, leaving the main road at the far end of the big suspension bridge spanning the Karangarua River. A few hours travelling up the west bank of this river, mainly in bush amongst magnificent fems, brings us to Cassells F>at. Great mountains are all around. On the far side of the rner is seen a tributary, the Twain, entering from a gigantic gorge, a great gap in the mountains which has proved to be impassable. The trail lies up the Regina, a small, rather short stream, the next tributary, a brief distance only below the junction of the Twain. In 1941. when we made the first crossing to Lake Ohau. we forded here the Karangarua and the Twain, the latter requiring every care. On a subsequent visit. I found, about opposite the junction of the Regina, a cableway over the combined rivers, a mighty torrent. Up the Regina is undoubtedly the toughest section of the whole trail. Geologically known as a hanging valley, the lower portion of the Regina is a series of cataracts among

a jumble of huge rocks. This drove us far up the slope m the bush on the south side, though through one of the finest natural ferneries I have ever seen. At that period no destructive animals had entered the valley. We found this climb exceptionally hard work, particularly with the great 'oads we were forced to carry, for it was before the advent of light equipment and de-hi foods. Above this comes considerable clambering over great boulders, struggling through thick bush, crossing and recrossing the stream seeking the line of least resistance ever upward. In the upper portion of the valley the scenery is delightful. Mount Glorious framed in everchanging settings of bush and cataract. It took us three days to reach the head of the valley which we found to be a marvellous natural alpine flower garden with c e I m e s i a s (mountain daisy) up to 14 centimetres in diameter. One of our party ventured to count the petals round a bloom finding one for every day in the year! A stiff climb leads to the first of the three snow passes. This is a superb alpine panorama. Mount Glorious. the Sierra Range, and the ice-

fall of the Horace Walker Glacier. Nearly level going in a southerly direction, parallel with the trunk of the glacier far below, leads to a steep descent and eventually to the crossing of the stream issuing from the lake below the glacier. Still surrounded by high mountains, more flowers and excellent scenery, here we are in the Upper Twain, above the impassable gorge. We pass lakes formed as a result of the retreat of the glaciers a few years earlier, The water is muddy. Up the Douglas Glacier is exceptionally rdugh going —steep, among great chunks of rough rock with particularly sharp edges and corners; and so much of it that no ice at all is showing. An hour or two of this and we head off the glacier, to our right, more steesteeply up to the next step in the valley — the nearly level flat lying before the Fitzgerald Glacier. As we struggle up, we have the stream from this glacier cascading down alongside us to vanish under the Douglas Glacier far below. It is here we view the wonderful Douglas Glacier with the break in it. Of this unique glacier, the valley portion, flow-

ing westward, is flanked along the whole of its northern side by a high mural precipice. Over the full length of the brink of this great cliff, the broad-fronted neve above, sliding southward, pours ice avalanches at frequent intervals. Countless slim waterfalls festoon the gaunt wall. At the head of the flat we look up, in a southerly direction, select a route and climb to the summit of the Hooker Range — the Douglas Pass, the second of the three snow passes and the highest point of the long trail. All round us are snowcapped mountains; in the nor’-east Mount Sefton dominates the whole scene, appearing from this angle as a sharp peak. As well as a bird’s eye view of the country we have come over, there lies before us the whole length of the McKerrow Glacier, the lower part of which the trail follows. Areas of ice-scratched rock indicate that, in earlier times, the glacier completely filled the valley and flowed right across the range.

The surface of the McKerrow Glacier should provide good walking but the end is likely to be a sharp descent and rough

moraine. The head of the Landsborough Valley comprises snow-grass slopes. The going is easy except that there are some dozen tributaries; and though only three are at all troublesome to cross each has its own little gorge, some of which provide quite a bit of a scramble. Below the bush line there are, finally, river flats, small at first. Then, as the descent of the valley becomes less steep, the flats become larger and further on there are more of them. The third snow pass, east of the Landsborough, takes us over the Main Divide. Broderick Pass it is, reached by a welldefined deer track leading up from Fraser Creek through the beech forest and then through the snow-grass. It is hard to believe it is not manmade. The ascent is delightful on a fine day; the shade of the trees is very welcome. Late in the summer there may not be snow on the pass for the Divide carries less snow than the Hooker Range. A long run down steep grass slopes brings us to the Huxley River, down which is easy going to the Hopkins Valley and the road to Lake Ohau.