"TRY NOT THE PASS!"

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 127, 2 June 1927, Page 10

"TRY NOT THE PASS!"

MOUNTAIN RISKS

CYCLE OF MISADVENTURE

GLACIER GIVES UP ITS DEAD

Within the last year or so tEere have been_ an unusual number of accidents in mountaineering or in the river-work which is ancillary to mountaineering, but I consider that this plenitude of accidents is due to coincidence rather than to any specific cause.

The utterance fell from the lips of one who is a bush-tramper and mountaineer, and who as such takes more than a passing interest in adventures and misadventures amid snow, ice and flood. The bad cycle, he continued, may bo said to have begun when three members of the Christchurch Tramping Club' tried to come down the "Waimakariri in a raft. This wide-bedded snow-fed river, with its vagaries of channel would seem to be a bad proposition for rafting, but they tried it. They capsized, recovered, re-loaded, went on and capsized again after travelling about ten miles—finish! Two were drowned. The next fatality he remembered was on a mountaineering trip, when a "West Coast lady, with considerable mountaineering experience, died while at- ' tempting to cross the Copeland Pass There was a Btorm at the top, and the lady collapsed in the cold. LOST IN MOUNTAIN MIST. More recently a Marlborough school teacher, formerly of Wellington, where he had tramped in the Orongorongo ana other places, was lost on the Inland Kaikouras while pig-hunting with two mates. They became separated in a mist. Two got out, but the school teacher, who was known to be weak in that somewhat peculiar quality known as the locality sense, was subsequently found dead. It was reported that he was only a quarter of a mile from a hut that would have provided shelter. This one was a fine scholar. He was buried where found. Still more disastrous was the recent trip of four to Mt. Egmont, from which two never recovered. The slide which was fatal to half the party was an indication that Mt. Egmont in certain conditions presented difficulty, and though sometimes easy of access could not be classed as an easy mountain. On tho same day tho ascent might be comfortable on one side, tricky on the other. Freshest of all in memory was tho fatal ford of the Mangaturuturu, where Mr. Horace Holl, aged 45, considered by the Tararua Tramping Club to be the finest mountaineer in, New Zealand, was swept away in flood' waters and drowned. It seemed that Mr. Holl and his companion Mr. Bartrum were making for Mr. Holl's camp, a .journey involving a good many crossings of the stream. FLOOD RISK AT BAD TORDS. The systematic way in which Mr. Holl had attacked the Ruapehu-Tonga-riro group was illustrated by the completeness of his camp, which comprised in skeleton form everything that such a camp could be—frames for sleepingplaces, cook-house, and all conveniences. A mountaineer would hardly expect to face death at a ford en route between railway and camp, but experience many times showed that it is not at the most dangerous spot that mountaineers loso their lives. "Nevertheless, a ford in a fresh is always a danger spot if not oven in flood. Whore the discoloured swirl of water renders invisible the unexpected boulder, with its sharp sido and its slippery side, and the scour beneath its shoulder, tho surest wader is liablo to lose his footing, and once down in a waist high torrent it is hard to get up." The question being asked, whether a man at forty-five is too old to wade mountain torrents or to climb mountains, camo back tho answer: "Consider the case of that eminent mountaineer who in this country, at the age of sixty, still conquers unsealed peaks, puts up skipping records, and is said to have designs on Everest itself!" AFTER MANY YEARS. Conversation passed to an older accident, in which, in 1914, Mr. King and two guides were overwhelmed on tlio Linda Glacier by an avalanche from Mt. Teichelmann. It was estimated at the time that remains of the lost ones would begin to appear at the bottom of tho glacier by 1935. As a matter of fact, for tho last year traces of them had boon appearing, one of the moss recently discovered relics being a boot, in perfect condition and neatly tied. "Do you consider tho recent deaths to bo due to any inoxperienco or lack of .■judgment?" "Taking them as a whole, there was a fair leaven of mountaineering experience present, and I think that tho main cause was misadventure. But among inexperienced persons there is a tendency towards rashness and undorequipmont in some directions, and unless this tendency is checked thero will suroly bo some fatalities with which mountaineering as a skilled pastime cannot fairly bo debited."