LOSS OF BALL HUT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19148, 14 October 1925, Page 12

LOSS OF BALL HUT.

DESTROYED BY AVALANCHE. POSITION AND HISTORY. AUCKLAND F ARTY'S VISIT. The destruction of Ball Hut, Mount Cook, by an avalanche, as reported yesterday, will be a serious disadvantage to the mountaineering tourists of the coming season unless the Government is unusually expeditious iri providing now accommodation. Ball Hut was an adjunct of the Tourist Department's establishment, the Hermitage, the chief resort of visitors to the heights and glaciers of the Mount Cook district, and was under the same management. It was situated 14 miles by horsetrack from the Hermitage, and stood on the floor of a valley formed between Mount Cook range on one side and the moraine of Tasman Glacier on the other, the Hochstctter iccfall being also close at hand. The hut consisted of three large rooms, capable of accommodating 18 or 20 persons—one room for ladies and two for men, with kitchen space taken out of one of the men's apartments. Immediately behind the building was an exceedingly steep ridge, so small in area that it did not seem likely to be able to accumulate any dangerous quantity of snow. How the destruction came to be wrought can as yet be only a matter for speculation. but one suggestion made by experienced mountaineers familiar with the locality is that a large accumulation of snow at the back of the ridge may, by its weight, have broken through the rocky edge of the formation, and caused a mass of mingled snow and earth to overwhelm the structure.

The mishap was of special, interest for Aucklandcrs, in that t.l e last party known to have occupied the hut was that organised by Professor Algie and Mrs. Algie, who visited Mount Cook last August. At the time of their tour it was noted that there had been exceptionally heavy falls ox snow in the high country, the conjecture was hazarded that in all probability. the coming of spring would bring more than the usual number of avalanches, although the idea of danger to the principal haunt of mountain climbers was not foreseen. Ball Hut was one of the most frequented centres of the mountain tourist district, and probably one of the most useful to alpinists. It was built by the Government in 1391 on a site which was until then known as " Green's fifth camp," from the fact that the Eev. S. Green, the English clergyman who, in 1882-83, made the first ascent of Mount Cook, occupied five days in getting to it from the Hermitage, owing to the difficulties he encountered in transporting the provisions and equipment required for his pioneering expedition. In contrast with the slowness of travel in those early days, it has in late years been possible to cover the same route on horseback in about four hours. Professor and Mrs. Algie have traversed it in 3% hours.