The Explorer.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 7

The Explorer.

THE ASCENT OP MOUNT COOK.

(Timaru Herald.) A great deal of interest has been manifested in the fact that a member 6? the English Alpine Club, accompanied by two of the best Swiss guides, had arrived in New Zealand with the intention of ascending Mount Cook if it was possible for man to reach the top, and this interest increased daily since the party who had come so many thousand miles to undertake a difficult and dangerous task bade farewell to the frontier settlement, and entered upon the wilderness of rock and ice which forms the outer defences of the monarch of the Southern Alps. And, concurrently with this increasing interest, there grew up more and more speculation as to the probable result of the expedition. Those who are acquainted with what has been done of late years in mountaineering feats, and make due allowance for the increased skill and fertility of resource acquired by guides under the impetus afforded by the yearly excursions of members of the Alpine Club, suspended their opinion, or were inclined to anticipate that tne hitherto trackless mountain-top was destined to continue so no longer : others~and particularly those, it may be said, who live in the locality and have some knowledge of the mountain—entertained the decided opinion, and gave that opinion decided expression, that the snowy summit would ever remain untrod by man. These were mistaken. Mount Cook has been "done," and the conquest of the monarch of the Southern Alps has been added to the many mountaineering triumphs of the Alpine Club. The party who have won the honour of being the first to set foot on the top of Mount Cook consist of the Rev. W. S. Green, a clergyman of the Church of England, whose living is in the south of Ireland, an active member of the English Alpine Club ; and two Swiss mountaineers — Mr Ulrich Kauff man, one of the most skilful guides in the Bernese Oberland, and Mr Emil Boss, an enthusiastic mountaineer, noted for his success as a chamoishunter. These two men were specially engaged by Mr Green to assist him in his expedition ; and to their skill, and industry, and intrepidity he in a great degree attributes the successful issue. They threw themselves heart and soul into the work, with a full determination to achieve the object of their voyage if it lay in the power of man to compass it. On two occasions Mr Green was inclined to turn back from the route they were pursuing in order to avoid exposing his men to great dangers, but they cheerfully, even anxiously, faced the risks, and by so doing saved the expedition from failure in its main object. Mr Barclay, a young settler of Taranaki, accompanied Mr Green to the Tasman glacier, and returned after the first day's reconnoitring, as has already been published. , The following account of the ascent is compiled from information kindly furnished to our representative by Mr Green, Ah acpoim v baa

been already published of the upward jouifley \ until the party camped at the foot of the Tasman gla P cierf a point reached by driving and partly by packing thence to tho oamping-place. The camp arranged, and tho stores secured from the weather, a day or two were sent in reconnoitring, and it became aPPf 6™6 ™ that the camp was so far away from Mount Cook proper, and the intervening ground was do terribly rtwg'h, that this camp could not be successfully used as a base of operations. It was thereupon decided to move the camp, as far as possible up the glacier', and the carrying into effect of this decision involved some of the hardest work of the whole trip. The route lay along the lateral moraine of the Tasman glacier, alternately through scrub on tho side of the spur, so dense that a person unencumbered with a load could scarcely make headway through it, and over boulders and angular fragments of rock varying in size from that ot a sheep to that of a cottage. The immense labour of carrying heavy packs under such cirdumstanoeß can scarcely be imagined by one who has not seen the wild confusion of a recent moraine, nor the almost solid density ot the sub-alpine vegetation. The risk of broken limbs in scrambling over the huge boulders is very great, and the traveller needs to be as surefooted as a chamois, and to have we grip of a vyce, to save himself from slips and fails. The distance through which the camp was shifted up the glacier was but short, reckoned in miles, but owing to the roughness of the ground four days were consumed m doing jt. The plan adopted was to shift the whole of the material taken as far as possible in one day, and then camp for the night. The guides practically made two trips each day between the camping-places. The stores and camp equipage were made up in five packs, of which Mr Green took one and the guides two each. The latter carried one of their pair of packs some distance, and then set it down and went back for the other— and so on throughout the day, in this way obtaining frequent intervals of comparative rest (only comparative rest, for to journey empty-handed over such ground is a work hard enough). Three wet days were experienced while making this transfer, during which, of course, nothing could be done, and thus a week was spent m shifting the camp. This was finally pitched in the angle formed by the junction of a large glacier from the left with the Tasman glacier, and from this point the party sallied on their several attempts to scale the peak. On the 25th February an attempt was made to ascend by the southern ridge, the one which faces the traveller approaching the mountain by the Tasman Valley, but inaccessible precipices were met with, and the attempt by this spur had to be given up. Observations made from various points indicating that better fortune might attend an attempt to ascend by the eastern spur, preparations were made to spend two or three days on the spur. On the 27th the party, heavily laden, as on tho previous day, with necessaries for a bivouac, made their way to a height of 8000 feet, and then met with obstacles that could neither be surmounted nor turned, and after doing a hard day's climbing they returned to camp, which they reached by moonlight, after an absence of 17 hours. A rest was required after this day's toil, and the next day was spent in preparing for an attempt to reach the northern ridge. The distance of this ridge being plainly too great to permit of the ascent being naade from the camp in one day, it was determined to approach, as near as a safe bivouac could be made on the glacier, and start next morning for the peak, with the advantage of bo much ground traversed. Accordingly, on the Ist March they moved up the glacier, taking four days' provisions, a waterproof sheet, blankets, Sec, and bivouacked that night at the foot of Mount Tasman, at an altitude of 7000 feet above the sea. At 6 o'clock on the morning of the 2nd, in beautiful weather, a start was made for the northern ridge, some provisions for the day and the camera being carried with them. The journey was slow, even over the easiest first portion, the glacier being thickly crevassed, and as the peak was approached, to the danger from crevasses was added that of continual avalanches. Hanging glaciers presented themselves in nearly every hollow in the peak at greater or less elevations, from one or other of which masses of ice were almost continually falling and rushing down the steep moun-tain-side, the smaller pieces with a whiz like a bullet, the larger ones with a noise like thunder. To avoid these avalanche lines was the great difficulty of the ascent, and at one point this danger seemed so great that the party were almost compelled to relinquish the undertaking, but they were fortunate enough to get safely past it, and continued the ascent. About 4 in the afternoon they were still a considerable distance from the summit, and it was plain that if they went any farther up the mountain they would be unable to regain their bivouac that night. The question was debated whether they should proceed, with the certain prospect of having to spend the night on the mountain, without shelter and without food (for the provisions they carried at starting had been left lower down, the climbing being difficult), or whether they should return, without having accomplished the object of their journey. It was decided to proceed. Men, the guides pointed out, had been benighted in alpine regions before, and survived, and they would do the same. Upwards they slowly made their way, Kaufman cutting steps in the ice until his hands were black with blisters. To add to the difficulties of the latter part of the ascent, the weather, which in the morning had been bright and clear, became dull and moist, and a thaw set in. The ice above them, disintegrating on the surface with the warmth, began to roll down the steep slopes in pellets like hail, which struck full in their faces, and battered the hands of the party, as they made their slow way up the peak. Though slow, their progress was steady and sure, and at 6.20 p.m. they stood upon the summit of the main peak, only a small, easily-accessible hump a short distance away standing higher than the spot they occupied. The air was now full of clouds, and as nothing could be seen the descent was at once commenced, not more than 10 minutes being spent on the top. About 150 yards from the top, as soon as stones could be got with which to build a cairn, a small memorial of the visit was left, Mr Green's pockethandkerchief and a tin matchbox being buried under a small heap of stones,-— to be brought down by whoever shall choose to attempt the task and succeed in accomplishing it. After descending about 2000 feet the darkness of night was coming on, and 1 it was deemed prudent to accept the first shelter that offered itself. A rock projecting through the ice-cap wa3 near, and so steps were cut from their upward track to this. The snow collected at the foot of the rock was scraped away, and here on a ledge only a few inches wide— too narrow to sit down upon— with the ice-sheet stretching thousands of feet sheer beneath thorn, the party passed the night, stamping their feet and beating their hands to keep them warm, each watching that hin fellows did not go to sleep (for all were tied together, and to sleep or slip meant dcufcruction to the wholo party, they having nothing to obtain a good grip of). The night was a dreary one. The moon was at the full, but heavy clouds obscured i\,, Rain fell almost

constantly throughout the night, but from this they were sheltered by the rock, except when the wind, m it frequently did, swirled round their insufficient shelter. The hours passed slowly. The party were wet, and weary, ana hungry, but they patiently counted the hours till midnight, and then congratulated themselves that half the term of their imprisonment was over. Wet and weary they must remain until they reached a drier ■ climate and a space large enough to rest upon : and their hunger they appeased, or fancied they did so, by sucking each three of Brand's meat lozenges, which are about the size of afourpenny piece, and a quarter of an inch thick. The descent was resumed at sunrise, and in three hours the bivouac on Mount lasman was safely reached. The peculiar danger of ascending Mount Cook— namely, the frequent occurrence of avalanches, apparently over all portions of its steep sides— was fully illustrated by the way in whsch the track made by the party in ascending was found next morning to have been obliterated by avalanches that fell during the night. In one place on the glacier traversed by them on the 2nd there lay next morning the wreck of what would have made a respectable iceberg, winch had fallen down in the night. The descent to the bivouac accomplished, the party proceeded at once down the glacier to their camp, which they Cached at 7 p.m. They had thus been 87houft on their feet-from 6 a.m. on the 2nd to 7 p.m. on the 3rd, most of the time wet through, two days for the horses, which it had been had just forded the rott^ m . d /ffS Hooker by tying together and . usl^Xr °es axes as supports, when they saw trie ,f°J 3 going up the opposite side, having dro«,./ * \£l a lower point. The mountaineers and v. horses must have been in the water at tho same time. The attention of the man in i charge of the horses being obtained by lighting a fire, arrangements were soon made for packing the camp equipage to Burnett's Station, and thence the party drove to Lake Tekapo on Friday, reaching Timaru on Saturday evening. ... , In ascending, the party were tied by a rope, about 12 feet apart, and on each new step being cut, one man at a time took a step, the others holding on by their axes, to guard against a slip on the part of the person moving, occasional slips being unavoidable, and the same, and even much greater precautions, are necessary in descending an ice-slope. It is evident that the mountaineer's boots must be made with special regard to the work to be done in them. Mr Green wears stout boots of ordinary make, but nailed in a peculiar waystout square-headed nails being driven into the soles in spts of three, the sets being at considerable distances apart. Mr Green started on the trip with a pair of boots specially made of the stoutest leather procurable, and by the time they reached camp, after the ascent, these were completely cut to pieces, a fact which may give some idea of the arduous tramps the party had to perform. The scenery about the upper part of the Tasman glacier and its branches is supremely grand, and both Mr Green and his guides concur in the opinion that it equals, and even excels, the most famous scenery in the European Alps. The peaks rise higher above the level of the snowfields, and these, are more extensive, and under the brighter and clearer atmosphere of jNew Zealand present a more dazzling beauty to the observer. Nothing but a visit to these scenes could give anyone a truthful idea of the majestic stateliness of the giant peaks, or of the grand expanses of frozen snow which lie spread around their feet. The avalanches have already been referred to in another connection, but they must be mentioned as features in the scenery, and at some points they are so frequent and so tremendous that they form very grand and important features of it. Mr Green, we must note, took with him a small photographic apparatus, and took \ several photos, from different points of his journey up to the mountain. Mr Green is a clever sketcher also, and has taken a series of sketches, a number of which, finished in water- | colours in camp, he kindly showed us. These are very instructive, and will certainly be of immense interest to his friends, the members of the Alpine Club. The photographs he has not yet developed. The spurs of Mount Cook below the snowline are covered t with the peculiarly dense alpine vegetation which has been well described by Dr Yon Haast. Mr Green brought down several specimens, which he will show to our distinguished scientist. Both Mr Green and the guides were much interested to find a number of plants which they recognised as old aequainances among the alpine vegetation of Switzerland, and the guides were particularly pleased to find the beautiful delicate-flowered edelweiss, of apparently the same species as the curious, much-prized flower of their native mountains. The plant was in full bloom, and the guides plucked several sprays to take home to their friends.

Mr Green and his guides leave for Christchurch by thefirst train this morning.. We regret that Mr Green's time was so limited as to preclude him from making a longer stay among our Southern Alps. This circumstance is chiefly due to his being unfortunately detained for several weeks in quarantine in Australia while en route for New Zealand, and by so much shortened the time at his disposal here. We understand that Mr Green, on nis arrival Home, will write an account of his ascent of Mount Cook for the Alpine Club's journal, and his complete narrative of the expedition and description of the mountain and its glacier systems will be eagerly sought for and read by every New Zealander.

THE GREAT TASMAN GLAOIEB,

Professor Yon Haast, in his "Historical Notes on the Geological Survey of Canterbury," gives a splendid description of the scenery of the glaciers of Mount Cook. We quote the following : — Having crossed this torrent-like river we proceeded for about a mile along the eastern base of that range, and camped in the evening not far from tne terminal face of the great glacier, situated 2456 feet above the sea level, and to which I gave the name of the Tasman glacier, in honour of the discoverer of New Zealand. . . . The altitude of tho summit above the va'ley is about 200 feet ; when once on the surface of the glacier itself the truly figantic proportions of the_ huge ice stream ecome only then quite manifest. The whole was covered for several miles upwards from side to side with an enormous mass of debris, which, with few exceptions, concealed the ice everywhere. In many spots a number of alpine flowering plants, grasses, and cryptogams were growing luxuriantly amongst the morainic accumulations, proving the comparatively slow progress of the ice, whilst several channels, of which one in the cnitro was the most conspicuous, were running along it in the direction of it.s advance. . . . After two Miles' travelling m the central

portion we followed a northeast directioA towards a large open valley, m which .also a, fino glacier, which I named the a. few miles abovo the valley of the Tasmaa glacier, reaohes with its terminal face fcomsKW. to side. We had to oross a number of crevasses^ which became now wider and deeper, a « a ,B a X 6 ' i us considerable trouble before we reached tms: lateral valley about amile broad. The Tasuoan glaoier expands hero considerably, advancing 1 » ,few hundred yards into this valley, kelo\v which it narrows again to its former breadth, being washed by the large outlet of the Murchison glacier, which now flows along rta eastern side to its termination, producing tm same effects as I observed along the terminal face of the Godley glacier. Some five miles higher up the glacier became now on a large-, portion of its surface clear of morainic accumulations, which broke up into a number ot lateral and central ridges. Tho travelling oa the ico appeared to us now quite easy, and wasreal enjoyment after the heavy work of climbing continually over huge blocks or jumping; from boulder to boulder, which very often were lying in an unsteady position. Irom an erratic block of immense size lying here above all others, we obtained a magnificent panoramic view all round. It is impossible for me to describe in adequate words the majestic scenery by which we were surrounded, -Che weird mountain chains with their crowning peaks in stately forms ; the numerous tnbu* tary glaciers on their flanks, often broken into innumerable seracs, of which the glorious ioe cascade of the Hochstetter glacier was tha most conspicuous ; and the wide ice stream itself, carrying slowly its enormous load ot debris to its interminal face, crevassed ana with deep ponds all around it — all this im* pressed our minds with deep admiration. But the magnificent pyramid of Mount Cook, or Ao-rangi, stood nigh above all, towering into the sky. As far as the eye could reach, everywhere snow and ice and rock appeared around us, and in such gigantic proportions that I sometimes thought I was dreaming, and, instead of being in New Zealand, I found my* self in the Arctic or Antarctic mountain « rt -ons. In returning to our camp, keeping to I?** hern side of the glacier, we discovered, u,Li* «r*e the western lateral moraine Ebelow^us three ver y P retfc y togoons-their deep below -us, . , v j unruffled by wild and desolate scenery aro» ma USI

For a few days afterwards We ha< L b . a £ weather, first from the north-west, wn . 1( r turned on the afternoon of the same da\ ?° south-east, with sleet and snow,, by which W a few hours the mountain-sides beoaxtw covered uniformly with a white garment and it became so cold, although still at the end of March, that the water near our tent was frozen over. However, snow and ica disappeared soon in the lower regions, after tha first bright sky. On the 4th of April, tha weather nad improved so much that we conlct • continue our explorations. Eavlyin the morn* ing of that day we crossed the Hooker River ' near the rooks forming here its northern banks* sloping into the river from the southern spur of the Mount Cook range, and proceeded thence-, to the Mueller glacier, by which the lateral, valley was cloßed a few miles higher up. Before* we had the remarkable Moorhouse Range, crowned by the bold summit of the Sefton ■ Peak, which, with its large snowfields and numerous tributary glaciers descending into the valley, forms, without doubt, one pf the' most striking vistas in the Southern Aipß, f We reached the glacier, which is advanoihg m an easterly direction to the south-eastern foot of the" Mount Cook Range, after an hour's ride. It has here two lateral moraines, of which the outer one, standing more than a hundred feet above the glacier itself, is densely covered with sub* alpine vegetation. Ascending the latter, one of the most glorious views which I ever be« held opened out before us. Across the wide Mueller glacier at' our feet which trended to the west, appeared a broad valley to the north, which, half a mile higher up, was closed by the terminal face of a large glacier. This glacier ' for more than 10 miles filled the deep valley between tho snow-covered ranges on both, sides. At its termination the magnificent pyramid of Mount Cook rose in all its stem grandeur, forming, with Mount Stokes on the, south-western side of the low snow saddle separating it from the former, a large basin, filled by the ice-streams descending from three, sides. My whole party stood riveted to thajf remarkable spot.