ON THE OLIVINE ICE PLATEAU

Evening Star, Issue 22578, 20 February 1937, Page 26

ON THE OLIVINE ICE PLATEAU

GREAT PLAYGROUND OF THE FUTURE (Contributed.) . As a culmination to two mouths’ active exploration of the valleys leading towards the head of Lake Wakatipu Messrs E. Sealy and J. T. Holloway succeeded, towards the end of January, in reaching the great Olivine lee Plateau, which lies hidden away between the ranges at the head of the Forgotten River, the Barrier River, and the Williamson River. Together with various other members of the party they had already attempted to reach t via the Bcniisburn, Rockburn, and Hidden .Falls rivers, but without success. On this occasion the dredge huts in the Dart River were used as a base and a passage was forced across the great ice fields of the Dart Barrier Range. The two men were delayed for several days in the Dart by another heavy snowfall, but here, they had the company of the old veteran, Arawata Bill. This hardy old prospector, between 70 and 80 years of ago, had been turned back on an attempt to cross over into the Jog River. For several weeks he had been engaged in labouriously digging steps with a pick-axe for two thousand feet up a steep, snow-covered mountain side to the summit of O'Leary Pass. Up these suowfields he had relayed his food and mining equipment, but had then found himself unable to descend the other side under the snow conditions then prevailing. Accordingly ho carried everything back down the Dart once more, and was about to set out on a long ride to the West Coast, where he might reach his objective from the other side. As soon as the weather cleared Messrs Sealy and Holloway crossed the Dart and made a high camp four thousand feet up on the western side. From hero Mount Hedin, the only unclimbed peak on the Dart Barrier Range south of Mount Lydia, was climbed. Now commenced the difficult task of carrying eighty-pound packs up the hitherto untraversecl Margaret Glacier. As the crevasscd icc of tho glacier itself had been thickly plastered with new snow a route had to be chosen well up ou tho slopes of Mount Hedin. For some hours they travelled around steen snowfields, while across the glacier tremendous ice avalanches continually swept down onto tho ice. Great blocks of ice, perhaps half an acre in area, and from 150 to 200 ft thick, would slide quietly over the edge of a great two thousand foot cliff. Unbroken they fell onto the glacier below, and, rebounding, would explode with a thundering report into an immense cloud of snow and ice particles..

Then followed a difficult climb down broken rock faces on to the head of the glacier. Once there an awkward situation arose. The icefields ahead on the slopes of. Mount David were avalanching badly, hut a return over Mount Hedin was also cut off by soft snow avalanches which became more numerous as the heat of the sun increased. But one spot reasonably free from danger could be found, and here a camp was established on the glacier ice towards midday. That night was a restless one. The party was not equipped for sleeping on ice or snow, and the cold was felt intensely. Great avalanches also continued without intermission. and many times during the course of the night, the men struggled hastily out of the tent when one would thunder down closer at hand than

Before sunrise they broke camp and climbed up among the crevasses and schrunds of Mount David on to Glacier Col, at the head of the great .Toe River Glacier. Across the neve feeding the Derivation Ice Falls and on to, the summit of Mount Gates fast time was made, but the descent into the Forgotten River, as the hitherto unknown North Olivine River has been named, had still to be made. It was by now afternoon and the snowfields wore again in a dangerous condition. Moving one at a time and securely anchoring with a 60ft rope, it was not until late evening that they reached the safer going of the rock and scree slopes below. By dark the great thou-sand-acre park-liko flats of Forgotten River had been reached for the first time. Heavy rain and snow now fell continuously for three days, but on the weather again breaking a camp was made at the head of Forgotten River, and the same day an attempt was made to climb one of the peaks on the unnamed range lying between the Olivine and the Barrier Rivers. Leaving at 3 a.m. next day the party climbed up on to the Olivine Ice Plateau, where they had the choice of some dozen virgin peaks to climb. The plateau itself is most remarkable. A great unbroken plain of ice, hounded on all sides by 7,000 ft and B,oooft peaks, stretches some five or six miles north and south and three or four miles east and west. Great icefalls and snowfields spill down on to it from the surrounding peaks, and it in turn drains into the magnificent southern ice fall of the Andy Glacier at the head of the Williamson River. Several of the peaks around it have now been climbed —Mounts Climax and Destiny by Messrs Jackson, Holloway, and Lilly in 1935, and Mount Intervention by Messrs Holloway and Sealy on this occasion—but there still remain the unclimbed peaks of Gable, Passcheudaele, Blockade, and Tower. From the plateau the party crossed the neve of the Barrier Glacier, and, climbing up over a shoulder of Mount Ark, reached the snowfields at the head of the two middle branches of the Andy Glacier. Two peaks were climbed from here, the first, Mount Gyrae, and the second the Pic d’Airgent. From these the party could look down into the headwaters of the Gorge and Cascade Rivers and over the tops of the low coastal ranges towards the Tasman Ocean. Here also, there were further nnclimbcd peaks, notably Mount Darkness and The Furies, while beyond the Northern Icefalls of the Andy Glacier were 20 or 30 more, unclimbeij and unnamed. On the return to the camp the first ascent of Mount Intervention was made from the Barrier Glacier. _ It had been decided to return to civilisation via the Pyke, the Hollyford, and the Eglinton. Between the head of Forgotten River and the Pyke were the gorges of the Forgotten River and of the Olivine River, hut the combined length of these totals scarcenine miles. For the remaining distance the way lies over open grassy flats, across which the two rivers wind in a succession of deep, still pools and shallow, sandy ripples. A start was made on the Forgotten River Gorge about midday. The forest was ablaze with scarlet rata blossoms and with the starry flowers of the ribbonwood. Tangles of lawyer and supplejack twined over the ground and hung in festoons from the branches, while great ferns and orchids overloaded every rock and branch. Down through the bush ran a great series of bluff and rocky outcrops, each some 200 ft high, but none wider than tw r o foot. For four hours the two men struggled up narrow vine-covered ledges, but were forced back and back. Towards evening it was decided to return to the open .flats, which were regained in less than 25 minutes. The nerve

strain of . the preceding four hours, however, completely prevented any sleep that night. Next day the river was crossed in the gorge by means of a natural bridge. The mountainside across the river was carved up by great faults running in half circles from the river and then back to it again. The' forest was much more open, and on the ridge between two of the faults a wide deer track along which, with but little labour. _n horse could be led, was found. This track led the party out on to the open flats of the Olivine River. A half-hearted attempt was then made to force a passage down the Olivine Gorge, but oh being _ unable to ford the river the party climbed high up on the unnamed range, and, crossing a series of great shingle slides, reached bush level in the Pyke Valley. This was in the late evening, and it was decided to camp at the first water. None was , found, however, until after dark scarcely 500 ft up from the floor of the Pyke Valley. The party was now once again in known country. Midday next day saw them on the sandy track which winds along beside the still, deep pools of the Pyke River down to Lake Alabaster, and two more days brought them to the head of the new Milford road. It had been found that no route for the average tramper exists between the Dart Valley and the Forgotten River country, but, on the other hand, to gain the head of Forgotten River from the existing Pyke, and Lower Hollyford tracks now is known to depend solely on the finding of a route through the Olivine Gorge, and the party, having inspected it from both sides, is confident that a fairly easy way exists. When this is found and blazed the Forgotten River flats might be reached in a day and a-half from the Lower Hollyford—that is, in the not-far-distant future, from the motor road. Once on the flats an average tramping party could safely climb on to the Olivine lee Plateau, while for the climber a base is accessible from which some two score fine peaks on six or seven ranges might be climbed. A word‘must also be said about the possibilities of the plateau as a skiing field. Perhaps nowhere else in the world, certainly not in New Zealand, could a comparable langlauf course be laid out, in six or seven mile laps, around the plateau, with the slopes or Climax, Destiny, Intervention, and Blockade forming perfect observation points. Two and three thousand foot clown-hill courses abound, practice slopes in perfection, and the opportunity for cross-country running from the Joe River in the south to, perhaps, Mount Temple in the north is offered. In addition, it must be remembered that while Messrs Sealy and Holloway were there—that is, at the beginning of February—ski conditions were perfect. Clean, powder snow, and smooth, uncrevassed surfaces. In other words, the plateau appears available for all-the-year-round winter sports. Excellent fishing is to be bad in the Pyke, and in the Olivine and in the valleys deer are present in thousands. On the Forgotten River flats are hard-beaten tracks 2ft wide, and yet men and cattle have never been there. Good heads are plentiful, although they are more notable for spread and symmetry than for the number of points. Several heads from 12 to 16 points were, however, seen. These valleys -and ranges, till now unknown, are surely destined to become a great summer playground, not only for Otago, but also for the rest of New Zealand, and, when the port of Milford is established, for Australia. Two and a-half days from Sydney and Melbourne, by fast passenger service, to summer ski-ing and mountaineering, an attraction worthy of being added to the attractions of Otago and Southland’s lakes and fiords I