ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 53

ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

MEMBERS MOUNTAINEERING. (Fkox Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, December

•Some members of Shackktcn's South Polar expedition are at present in the Mount Cook district gaining some prelii minary experience of glaciers and snow slope*. A telegram received here to-day fiom the Hermitage announces that Dr M&dcay, a member of the expedition, in company with Guides Grabain and Collet, made the ascent of the Nun's Veil, a peak on the Liebig range opposite Mount Cook. The. Nun's Veil is so called because- of a small glacier, which seems to hang like a veil from near irs 6ummit. New Zealand climbers have often noticed it in their descriptions of the Southern Alps, but 33 it was not one of the fiist-class peaks (its height is only 8975 ft, no serious attempt had previously been made to climb it. On Christmas Day two years ago Messrs Malcolm Ross. T. C. Fyfe, and S. Turner made a camp at the foot of the Liebig ran go with a view of ascending the peak as a practice climb preparatory to the traverse of' Mount Cook from the Great Tasman ' Glacier. A long ridge intersected with snow slopes, appears to lead right to the summit of. tho Nun's Veil, but the pioneer climbers on the Liebig range,* on reaching Mount Beret, the highest point of the ridge, fo-jrul "that, tKough only 194ffc below the summit of the Nun's Veil, they were completely out off from the latter by a great gap in the range. Tho Nun's. Veil > occupies a commanding position in the heart of the Southern Alps, . from which is obtainable one of the most magnificent views of Mount Cook and the adjacent peaks, and .glaciers of the main range. / Indeed, -the view must be> one of the finest in the Southern Alps.