ASCENT OF MOUNT COOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20761, 2 January 1931, Page 10

ASCENT OF MOUNT COOK.

FIRST OF SUMMER SEASON. SPEEDY FEAT BY .CLIMBERS. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] THE HERMITAGE, Wednesday. The first ascent of Mount Cook for the summer season was made recently by Mr. John McCaw, of Hakainrair.ea Valley, accompanied by Guide Brustad. The party, using the Linda Route, performed the unusual feat of sleeping in the Hermitage on the same day that they had stood on the top of the mountain.

The climbers left tho Haast Hut at 2.30 a.m. Dawn found them among the Linda crevasses, a superb dawn flushing red tho adamant cliffs of tho mighty mountain. It was an exulting sight for tho lovor of beauty, but to tho mountaineer a portent full of uneasy menace. The crevasses of tho glacier yawned abnormally wide aftor a dry winter, but snow conditions were good.

Tho Summit Rocks wore rendered dangerous by icicles, but the party did not hesitate and, trusting to their crampons, scaled the ice cap abovo and set foot on tho summit at 10.45 a.m.

A novol route was adopted for the descent from Silberhorn Corner, where tho Linda Glacier flows into tho Grand Plateau. Tho climbers made their way down a tonguo of ico and then followed a gully of loose rocks. They reached the Ball Hut at 8.30 p.m., 18 hours from leaving the Haast Hut, and were driven homo to the Hermitago that night.