MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING THRILLS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 94, 15 January 1936, Page 11

MOUNTAIN-CLIMBING THRILLS

Not For Air-Travellers

TRAMPER STATES HIS’ VIEWPOINT

"The pleasures of mountain climbing can never be understood or shared by passengers in aeroplanes Hying over tlie ranges,” said a M’ellington .mountaineer after reading in yesterday's ‘•Dominion” that mountain climbing in comfort had been demonstrated to travellers crossing the Kaikouras by airliners on (he Blenheim-Christchurch route.

"It is quite wrong to think that the view is even one of the main objects of an ascent,” he stated. "That is a theory by which the uninitiated try to explain away the hill-man’s enthusiasm for something they themselves do not consider fun. Actually, the view is no more than an incidental reward of the climber’s endeavours. It is certainly fine, after a long and strenuous climb on gaunt and arid slopes above the bush-level, to see the tremendous panorama of the Southern Alps unfolding as one approaches the summit. But, once one has grown familiar with the changed proportions of things seen from a groat height, one will almost always concede that the most impressive aspect of a mountain is from below. Swiss Commercialisation. “The Swiss mountains have to-day been commercialised to an amazing degree—more than, any others in the world. Many, such as Pilatus, Rigi, Engelberg and others, may bo wholly or partly ascended by funicular railway, and some have actually hotels on their summits. Thousands of tourists take advantage of this easy mode of climbing. Their impressions of the mountains are much more closely akin to those of the mountaineer than are the views obtained by airmen passing over the place, yet few such tourists seem to become devotees of the sport. From Chamonix, in France, aeroplane joy rides over Mont Blanc are sometimes given in the summer, -but the flight is disappointing—one gains a very striking conception of the colossal geographic formation of the ranges, but the mountain itsel£ is seen at its worst, “To tlie mountaineer the ascent of a virgin peak is like the assault on a citadel. One must study the possible routes and approaches, discern the strategic weaknesses of the defences, lay one’s plans, and carry them into execution. And there is a great deal of highly technical skill to be exercised in negotiating the varying difficulties of ice and rock slopes, using ice-axe and rope, nnd knowing iiow to overcome obstacles in the speediest and safest manner. Mountaineering is, moreover, a strenuous and exacting sport, and only those who have experienced its attractions are in a position to appreciate them. Lure of Camp Life. “Life in camp, which is only part of the pleasure of hill-climbing, is in itself attractive, and doubly so in the wild and remote country of the Southern Alps. It is most enjoyable simply to spend a week or so breathing the rare mountain air of which the airtraveller obtains merely a half-hour’s whiff, probably mingled with the reek of petrol and oil. “In the South Island air transport lias in a good many cases proved a boon to mountaineers, as heavy packs and provisions can be flown in to otherwise inaccessible base camps, and dropped there, thus easing the long tramp Into the hills. And on some occasions the climbers themselves have been landed in the mountains, saving them a great deal of time and unprofitable walking.”