Four plan Mt Cook traverse

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 17

Four plan Mt Cook traverse

Timaru reporter Four men expect to set out from Mount Cook on February 20 on a grand traverse of the three peaks of Mount Cook. Mr G. T. M. Wills, managing director of Alpine Guides (Mount Cook), Ltd, said the group had hoped to make the climb earlier in the season with the type of gear in use more than 50 years ago. However, at this time of the year there was too much ice not to take crampons and other modern equipment.

Mr Wills will be accompanied by Mr B. Carter, a guide on his staff, Mr R. White, a Nelson dentist, and Mr J. Braithwaite,

managing director of Lime and Marble, Ltd, Nelson. Generally, conditions were good for the mile and a half traverse, said Mr Wills. The rock was good, and the ice hard. The group will go to the Plateau Hut (2350 m), which is above the Hochstetter Icefall (north side) on the west ridge of Glacier Dome in the Grand Plateau.

“We hope to go up the Zurbruggen Ridge or the Linda Glacier to the high peak (3764 m and then traverse the middle peak (3722 m and low peak (3593 m to the west ridge and down to the Plateau and Hooker icefalls,” said Mr Wills. The. venture would take from four days to a week.