CLIMBING MT. LOGAN.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 20 July 1925, Page 8

CLIMBING MT. LOGAN.

Captain MacCarthy’s preliminary expedition started out towards Mount Logan on 17tli February. He was accompanied all the way by Andy Taylor, Scotty Atkinson, Austin Trim, Mill Mayers, and Henry Olsen, all men well qualified to take part in such a difficult undertaking. This preliminary expedition started with 19,000 pounds of cargo and travelled 950 miles under Arctic conditions, and cached 8700 pounds of provisions, feed and equipment where it could easily, be secured by the main expedition, which was to follow some months later. From the outset troubles began. Nature seemed to have reserved all customs of the valley and gave the party the unexpected throughout th© . journey ; open water appeared where it hampered most, there was h° overflow ice where it was most needed, dry boulders seemed to invest every bar that had to be traversed from one course of the river bed to another, and ice jams occurred just when the going should) have been good. It was not until 15th March that the first cache of supplies wa s - made at Chitina Mountain point, and it took until 10th April to move all the advance base camp outfit, consisting of 4700 pounds of cargo, to a point nine miles up the Ogilvie Glacier at the ex. treme south end of its west moraine, where the final cache was to he made. Parcels of meat and other articles, the odour of which might attract bears, wolves, or wolverine, were put in the centre of the piles, and then all was covered with heavy tarpaulins and weighted down with rocks and cases of gasoline. On 14th April the advance party started back home. The main expedition, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel AY. AV. Foster, started out at th© beginning of May and reached the foot of the mountain on 18th May. In a special message to the New York Times on 18th May from Trail Fuel, Lieut.-Colonel Foster stated that the expedition had so far experienced cool weather, which had permitted them to cross the river and make the journey up the Chitina Valley without difficulty. Mountain deer and sheep abounded, he wrote, but beyond Hubrick’s Camp, on the north side of the main Logan Glacier, animal and plant life practically ends. For this reason the party left H. M. Laing, the naturalist with th e expedition, at Hubrick’s, there to pursue hi s nature studies and await the return of the main party. “At a distance of sixty-five miles to the east,’’ wrote Lieut.-Colonel Foster, “we can plainly see the lower slopes of Logan—a mass of glistening ice and snow, but the summit is hidden high up in the clouds. The large cargo of personal equipment, supplies, and instruments we have divided equally, back-packing the fifty miles over the rough and difficult glaciers to the advance base camp. Each man carries 701 b on his back. Beyond the advance base camp there lies the unknown —eighteen miles of stiff climbing, rising 11,000 feet to the summit, never before trodden, by man. “Thus far everything has gon© according to plan, as old friend Hindenberg used to say in the war. Every member of the party is busy with his particular specialist work —even the amateur cooking is regarded as a great success. AVhen we see the ]ast packhorse vanishing westward to-day we shall face the snow, and, provided- the weather is favourable, we are confident of making the summit, as well as securing much valuable information- of a scientific nature. If the weather is unfavourable, at least the expedition will be a fine endurance, contest until the provisions are exhausted. At Hubrick’s we have left tools, for we plan to build a boat there and come out down the Chitina River, unless conditions make this -absolutely impossible.’’