THRILLING CLIMBS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3806, 22 February 1927, Page 25

THRILLING CLIMBS.

TWO GREAT TRAVERSES. WELLINGTON, February 18. Towards the end of last year there arrived in Wellington Mr L. E. H. Porter, a member of the English Alpine Club, and M. Herz, a well-known Swiss climber. Mr Porter has been here before, but M. Kurz is making his first visit to New Zealand. He is a civil engineer, and a famous mountaineer in his own country. These two, who had climbed together in Switzerland, went straight to Mount Cook with a view to climbing some of the hign peaks in that region. Unfortunately they experienced one of the worst climbing seasons there has been for several years. Nevertheless they have accomplished great things. In a brief and modest account of their doings Mr Porter writes to a friend, under date February 2, from the Hermitage: “We were'here from December 8 to 24, hoping chiefly to. climb Tasman and Elie de Beaumont, but storm after storm interfered with our doings. As soon as we got to the Malte Brun hut the nasty old cloud appeared on the Lendenfeld Saddle, and there was no Elie de Beaumont! Again it appeared on the evening of a marvellously fine day the next week within two hours of our arrival at the Haast hut. We made a desperate bid for Tasman the next day, but having get to over ten thousand feet on the Silberhorn were forced to retreat by violent gusts and whirl winds of powdery snow. The ridge, to- my surprise, was in bad order, and despite the use of crampons we had a lot of cutting to do. All we achieved in those 16 days was an ascent of Sealy and one of the Footstool. Returning on January 4 we changed our tactics, and resolved to dig in in the I huts, one after another, .and wait till a I fine day appeared. We got to the Haast I hut on the 6th, and the 7th turned out to be one of those priceless days that occur only twice or thrice in a season. We were away at 1.50 a.m., and got to the top of the Silberhorn without much difficulty or labour at 6.35 a.m., the condition of the ridge having improved out ■of all recognition since December, and the schrund not having opened out much vet. The sight of the south ridge of Tasman from the Silberhorn'• is* beyond .question the .most impressive thing I have seen in twenty years of alpine climbing. I should think at least twice before attempting to tackle it without ’’ crampons. I got a photograph of it with Kurz in the foreground on the Silberhorn. The schrund half way up it was overhanging on the ridge, and we had to go out for a long way on the east face before we got over it. Returning to the ridge we found its edge too steen even for our spikes, and utilised a strip of icy snow below the slight cornice on the east flank till the angle eased off as we approached . the summit. We got to that wholly delectable haven at 8.50 a.m., exactly seven hours after our start. We then proceeded down the north ridge, previously untrodden- by foot of man, though Newton made three attempts’ on' it from the Fox ■lliyouac. If is a milder and much less steep replica of the south ridge, and affords marvellous views all along, some of which I photographed. At 11.30 we got to the col leading to Mount Lenden- : feld. which we had hoped to gain as well ; ■ hut Christmas festivities had not improved our training, and we decided we should have'done enough for one day by the time" we regained the hut. We had to use a doubled rope to get over the schrund just below the col, and the steep snow on the three thousand-feet descent to the plateau was none too good. The vast crevasses at the foot o* the slope all but imprisoned us—there was but one way through. We were back at the hut at 3.20 p.m.—l3 hours for the whole | • traverse. Three days later, with Clive and Doris Barker, and without crampons, we repeated Fitzgerald’s ascent of the south peak of Haidinger, 10,059 ft, along the ridge -from Pioneer Pass—a very fine climb indeed. Miss Barker is the first lady to do this climb. On the top we found the wine bottle left there by the first party, with a note inside, on which the only' legible words were the date, February 8, 1895. After that, still with the Barkers, we got the Aiguilles Rouges and Malte Brun by the west* ridge on January 20 and 21 respectively. Then for our last week at the Hermitage, Kurz and I elected to bivouac on the Pudding Rock —not without misgiving, for till then the. season had never produced more than two consecutive fine days. By a stroke of luck we ran into a fine spell with no rain for six days, arid two really good climbing days sandwiched in between them. On Wednesday, January 26, we achieved St. David’s Dome (third ascent), a fine mountain and a .great viewpoint, and on Friday, the 28th, wo set out at 2.30 a.m. for the traverse of Mount Cook by the great ridge. The rocks of the low peak were too ice-draped to look at, .for the tap' 500 ft, so we kept all the way to the ice, and reached the ridge, at 9.5 a.m., about 250yds to the north of the peak! From the last schrund

to the ridge it was all very hard ice, which cost up much labour "in step-cut-ting. The ridge itself—a unique causeway—was also ice throughout, except for the cornice, but ice of a kind that crampons could deal with effectively. We got to the centre peak at 9.30 a.m., and the highest peak at 10.30 a.m., eight hours’ climbing so far. At 11 we commenced the descent, and an hour later reached the first rocks on the downward journey without step-cutting. In another hour we had climbed down to the bottom of those rocks, and having plenty of time in hand we sauntered down the Linda Glacier with numerous halts at safe places, finally getting to the Haast hut at 5.30 p.m.—fifteen hours for the whole traverse from the lower Hooker Bivouac. Neither Kurz nor myself know anything in the Swiss Alps comparable to these two magnificent traverses. Tasman is the more difficult technically, and more aweinspiring.. but Cook is longer and more completely satisfying, to every instinct of the mountaineer I look on January 28 as one of the very greatest days of my climbing career. We are now due to join Hugh Chambers in a bivouac on the Fox Glacier, from which some tempting peaks may be attacked if the weather is" kind.” Tti a postscript. Mr Porter adds a note that will please all New Zealand climbers: “I marvel more and more at the skill and toughness of Peter Graham and others who achieved those routes without crampons.” It . need only be added, bv way of returning the compliment, that Messrs Porter and Kurz made all'these cliiribs without the assistance of guides.