WILCZEK AND ELIE DE BEAUMONT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 4

WILCZEK AND ELIE DE BEAUMONT

(Special to the "Evening Post.") WAIHO GORGE, This Day. A successful first traverse of Mount Wilczek and Mount Elie de Beaumont from the west was made on December 27 by a party consisting of Messrs. D. A. Carty (New Zealand Alpine Club) and Franz Josef Guides J. Coxi and G. Somerville. On the first day of the trip the party descended the Spencer ice fall and traversed the Spencer glacier and camped at the junction of the Spencer and Callery Rivers, after a heavy day hampered by mist and rain. The next day's programme was to climb to a site for a high bivouac on the ridge between the Spencer and Burton glaciers, within striking distance of the peak of Wilczek. This bivouac was established in mist when' the party could proceed no further. Later that evening the mist cleared and a tentative route for the next day was selected. On the next day the climb was begun at 4.45 a.m. along the ridge. Several gendarmes of very rotten rock took about three hours to negotiate before the party reached the snow field on the western slope of Wilczek that pours over into the Burton glacier. A traverse of this snow field was straightforward, and the real ascent of the peak was begun about 10.30. A very steep snow slope on the north-western face led up to slabs of rock, heavily plastered with ice. The rock was found to be very difficult, and had it not been for an ice-filled couloir the ascent could not have been made.

Finally the summit reach was attained, and a traverse of a steep razorback with several small peaks, all slightly corniced, was accomplished. The crossing to Elie dfe Baumont was without incident, and the summit of the mountain was reached about 2.30 p.m. The descent, of Elie de Beaumont into the Tasman glacier was made without difficulty until the lowest big schrund was reached. This looked impassable and an attempt was made to turn the slope of Walter. The usual barrage of rocks and ice made this impossible, and the party retreated to the schrund. After exploration a possible route was found and negotiated safely. A big day finished at the Malte Brun Hut at 9.15 p.m., after a heavy trudge down the Tasman glacier. The earlier days of the climb were full of interest, as the Spencer glacier had been almost untouched, and the Callery and Burton glaciers had not previously been explored by mountaineers and had been entered only by prospectors in the late nineties.