SOUTH WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 17 February 1930, Page 2

SOUTH WESTLAND

THE WORLD’S FINEST SKI-ING GROUNDS.

(Contributed to Christchurch Press.)

Many New Zealanders, as well as visitors from abroad, are familiar' with the beauties of 1 the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, as seen from Waiho arid Weheka, and many have spent a day on the ice, and have ex’ perierieed for themselves the joys and thrills of this adventure. Few people, however, are enterprising enough to do more than this. They are not aware, perhaps, that a scramble that is within the capacity of most able-bodied men> and women will bring them out at the. head of these glaciers, into a world ’of snow and ice and mountain-top, whose beauty and grandeur can l>e felt," but cannot be described.

The Aimer Hut, at the he’d of the main ice-fall of the Franz Josef glacier, can, under ordinary conditions, be reached in six hours from the hotel at Waiho. It is about the same height above sea level as the Malte Brun hut, on the other side of the Divide, and the view from its door is equally magnificent. Upwards and to the south-east lies the great chain of peaks that form the backbone of the Southern Alps that divide Canterbury frrim Westland. Below the rocky promontory on which the hut is situated the great ice-fall of the Franz Josef -sweeps downwards l>etf\ye<jn its high walls, ,of .snow-clad peaks, while to-'the 1 Vest ‘and-north can be seen, the forest ;eo intiy of W-estland, broken here and there by river and lake; in the distance is the sea, Recently a party, consisting of Hr Be van-Brown.- Dr Murdoch, and Mr W. D. Frazer, led by Guide Frank Alack, spent four days at the Aimer Hut, and during that time accomplished some of the many climbs thatthe hut gives access to. Ihe fiist day, in thick weather. St. Mildred Peak was climbed, and an ice-cave formed by a sehrund was explored and photographed. The next day, in fine weather, Mt. Drummond was reached. From its summit one looks directly across to the great precipices on the western aspect of Mt. Elie de Beaumont. Peaks without x.umbei stretch away to the far distance in the north arid south, and nearer at hand, and towering' to the sky, are the Minarets, Douglas Peak, Glacier Peak, Tasman and Cook. Below stretches the vast extent of the upper snow-fields of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, and their tributaries, broken here and there by chains of rocky peaks. These snow-fields are among the finest ski-ing grounds in the world.

.Next morning, at 2.45, by lantern light, the party set’out for Grahatn’s Saddle, four miles away across these snowfields. The night was clear and starry, and as the dawn crept up the cold, steep slopes of Tasman could dimly be discerned. When the Saddle Wus reached, the early rays of the gun were lighting up the high peak of Cook in criinsOn glow, The party turned to the left, skirting Mt. de la Beche, and reached the snow basin of the Minarets by 7.30 a.m. . Both peaks of the Minarets were climbed, also de la Beche, and Graham’s Saddle was regained by mid-dav. Conditions were good, and no serious difficulties were met with. Though the day was hot, the return journey to the hut, through the snow, was not as heavy as had been expected. The party reluctantly returned to Waiho next day. Such glorious weather is hard to leave, and one regrets that many more people do not make the trip and share in that deep satisfaction the mountain-top alone affords.