CONQUERING THE ALPS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18157, 31 January 1921, Page 6

CONQUERING THE ALPS

INTREPID PARTY’S EXPERIENCES.

(From Odb Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, January 28. An interesting Alpine excursion into the practically unexplored region of the Godley Glacier, in the Lake Tekapo district, was made during the recent holidays by a party led by Mr Fletcher, of Wellington (editor of the School Journal and New Zealand Alpine Journal, which latter is being resuscitated after about 16 years), accompanied by a guide. Speaking to a Press representative, Mr Fletcher said that the trip was the third he had made into the district, and on each visit new peaks were discovered and conquered. One now boars Mr Fletcher’s name. The recent trip marked the first occasion on .which any of the peaks on the divide had been climbed. The Godley Glacier district, Mr Fletcher stated, was a very fine one, and the scenery was splendid, but it was very difficult of access, the means of communication being extremely bad. The nearest station was 26 miles away, and provisions and outfit generally had to be taken many miles up the lake, and then packed for several miles more. On this occasion it took the party about five days to establish its base. The party established a base camp at the foot of the glacier, a bivouac being placed about six miles further up. For 10 or 12 days exceedingly fine weather was experienced, and the climbers succeeded in ascending five peaks, three of them having been previously unconquered. The first was a fine one, just under 8000 ft in height. They named it Mount Denniston, after the late Mr J. R. Denniston, of Peel Forest,, who had been over the district once or twice. A smaller peak beside Mount Denniston was next scaled and named Malthus Peak, after the owner of Lilly Bank Station, who had given the party considerable assistance. Oumine Peak, to the left of Sealey Pass, was next climbed; and then the party got a new one, which they named M'Kinnon Peak, after the head shephhrd on the station referred to. Cumine was wholly snow-clad, and later on in the season its ascent would be impossible. The last peak scaled by the party was Wolseley, which Mr .Fletcher described as a “proper snag,” being wholly composed of rock. It was the finest rock peak in the whole of the Alps, though that distinction was supposed to belong to Malte Peak, in the Tasman district. The mountaineers discovered; contrary to the official map, which places it on the divide, that it is not on a- divide at all, but about half a mile from it on a spur running down from the divide. None of the water from it ran down to the Wett Coast side. After the ascent of Wolseley the weather broke, and the party could do no more. They made an attempt on Petermann. one of the most beautiful peaks in the Alps, but the weather drove them back.