Winter climb of Cook ridge

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 6

Winter climb of Cook ridge

The first winter ascent of the east ridge of Mount Cook has been accomplished.

i “It was a creditable win-1 Iter climb demanding strong climbing skills at high al-’ pine levels,” the duty ranger at Mount Cook National Park headquarters (Mr M. .J Heine) said. Four climbers, Richard Schmidt, Colin Montea.h, Steve Anderson, and Greg Mortimer returned to Mount Cook Village last evening. Mr Heine said that the four Christchurch climbers left Mount Cook Village on Saturday. They went up Tasman Valley to the Ball shelter and stayed the night at Cinerama Col, which is at the base of the east ridge of

Mount Cook, between Anzag peak and the east ridge. On Sunday they climbed the, east ridge and along ths summit ridge from the middle peak (3722 metres) t<j the high peak (3764 metres). The east ridge comes ou( on the middle peak. Mr Heine said that Messrs Mortimer and Anderson went down the Linda Glacier to Plateau Hut. Messrs Monteath and Schmidt spent Sunday night on the high peak on the summit. They descended to Plateau Hut yesterday and met up with their companions re. turning to the village via Ci. nerama Col. “They encountered snow to the 10,000 ft level, after which they experienced good crampon conditions. There were strong westerly winds along the summit ridge,” Mr Heine said.