FEATHER-BED MOUNTAINEERS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 96, 18 January 1924, Page 13

FEATHER-BED MOUNTAINEERS

Sir, —Hal Now we’re getting it I Ridicule is an ancient weapon, and “An Old Pioneer”—how old I wonder! —wields it to show up the decadence of the race, and, incidentally, the “much advertised” tramping club, the members of which use the charabanc, the motor launch, the luxurious hut, and partake of morning and afternoon teas. “Shades of the early mountaineers! Come back and redeem us from sloth in these degenerate days”—when a club dares to take a beaten track, and complaint is made when launch and cornmissar’at fail. But even the pioneers were dependent on the commissariat. We weie not shouldering our food and blankets on this occasion, but paying a fullyorganised Tourist Bureau to have them there for us. Wn were paying to be tourists—we did have “cold feet,” and wo did “dress for dinner.” “Enough! The Lord save us from a race of feather-bed mountaineers!” But the complaint is not yet answered—is the management efficient? —I am, etc., W. H. PENTON. January 15, 1924. Sir, —T should be grateful if you would allow me space in your columns to reply to a letter appearing in yesterday’s issue, which referred to “Feather-Bed Trampers,” and which was written by a gentleman who signed himself as “An Old Pioneer.” This gentleman has gathered a very wrong impression from Mr W, H. Field’s remarks concerning the Tararua Tramping Club trip to Milford Sound. He seems to think that our complaint was made because of some tr ;fl ing physical discomfort that we suffered, but this was not so. Mr. Field entered his complaint on the score of mismanagement, which very nearly had serious results. Tho Lake Ada boatman had never been told to meet us, and we had to spend the night on the Track, in an old boatshed, but not before wo had tried to ford the Arthur River, and found it impossible, even with tho aid of a horse. Early next morning we forded the rivet, which was swollen with the recent rain, and the force behind its waters was tremendous. Mr. Pioneer not have called us “ FeatherBed Trampers,” if he could have seen us cross that riven The water was un to our armpits, and we had _to make use of a coil of very thin wire, and station n man everv few feet to help the others keep a grip of it. Mr. "Pioneer, also, probably does not know that wo were doing two staves of tho Track in one dav. viz.. 25 miles, including crossing the MacKinnon Pass, and we wore doing this in order to have one full day on Milf* V Sound in the launch. The fact ot the boatman not being at Lake Ada to meet us delayed our arrival at Snndflv Huts, at the head of Miltord Sound, until 10.30 on the following day, and as wo had to change our wet clothing and have some food, if was about noon before wo got away in tho launch. We did not set out on the M-lford Track as pioneers, the prospectus mentioned the fact that an old lady of 70 or a child of six could comfortablv walk ths Track, so w« did not , anticinate any hitch in our programme, and it was a severe disappointment to our party to find that we were not provided for in the matter of a boat on Lake Ada, and thus miss half of our onlv day on Milford Sound - Tf wo had not attempted to cross that swollen Arthur River we should , have had exactly It hours on Milford Sound in the launch,-and we had travelled over 1300 miles to see it.—l ‘ am, etc., TRAMPER.”