MINARET PEAKS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 645, 2 March 1923, Page 5

MINARET PEAKS.

CLIMBED IN SOUTHERN ALPS. FIRST SUCCESSFUL ASCENT FROM WESTLAND. (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 28. The first climb of the Minaret Peaks in the Southern Alps, from Westland side, Ims been made by C. Buchanan and C. J. Thornton, of Christchurch, in company with Peter Graham, the well-known guide. The party traversed the immense glacier snowfield in their climb, and in the final stages had to fight their way through a. blizzard. The guide suffered from snowblindness for a day after the trip, and Buchanan and Thornton experienced minor frostbite. Buchanan is an ardent alpine clwiber, and is of opinion that the possibilities of climbing the peaks in the glacial region from the west are not very well known, most of the climbs being made from the Canterbury side. He hopes new climbs will bo indulged in from die other side, on which climbers have the glaciers running up from a few hundred feet above sea level to about eight thousand feet at the snowfield which feeds them.. Thus, on the west side only a few hundred or thousand feet of rock climbing has to be done to scale the peaks, while on the Canterbury side the approach is very steep in places.