GLACIER LIP FALLS

Evening Star, Issue 19407, 16 November 1926, Page 10

GLACIER LIP FALLS

AH EEfSIE EXPEDIENCE TRAMPING PARTY WITNESS RARE SPECTACLE [Special to the ‘Star.’] CHRISTCHURCH, November 15. High in the mountains, at the head of the White River, near the source of the Waimakariri, on Sunday, five young men of a Y.M.C.A. tramping party had an eerie and wonderful experience. They were near a glacier, when hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tons of ice broke away with the crash of thunder and tumbled 2,000 ft down the mountain side. The air was so still that the flame of a match burned out without a flicker; not a cloud dimmed the brilliantly blue sky; the heat was so intense that at times the members of the party had to cover themselves with snow.

The men had lunch about 30yds away from the glacier, which puts its enormous quantity of ice over the mountain side at the source of the \\hito River thousands of feet above s>-a Suddenly, about 1 o’clock, f he stu’hiess mi' broken by a sharp crack, which sounded like a rifle shot at close (purlers None of the members of the party thought it was the glacier beginning to break. When lunch was finished the party started down the mountain side. Three had tobaggnned for I,oooft down the slope, and a fourth, F. E. Musgrove, had waited at the top of the divide, when suddenly the air was shattered by a terrible crash, which echoed and re-echoed through and hack from the mountain sides. Musgrove saw the glacier in front of him open out and a gigantic piece of ice topple down the mountain side. He stood spellbound for a few seconds, then quickly whipped out his camera in an effort to take a snap of the falling ice. The other members of the party thought an earthquake had occurred. Mr J. J. Hollinger, another of the party, told a ‘ Sun ’ man to-day that the earth shook and the whole mountain sides seemed to tremble. The noise was like that of a big thunderstorm, and long after the ice had settled in the valley below the echoes came hack from the mountains. For a time the climbers thought that the sides of the v.alley were closing in on them; then the waiting Hampers realised what had happened. Thby had witnessed a sight for which many men have waited for years. As the party had climbed up the mountain side earlier in the day, Bollinger had remarked on the huge piece of ice which was hanging from the rest of the glacier, hut he never dreamhd that he was to see it tumble down the slope.