MITRE PEAK IS CLIMBED

Southland Times, Issue 24332, 13 January 1941, Page 4

MITRE PEAK IS CLIMBED

First Ascent Since 1914 TWO WELLINGTON MEN SUCCESSFUL (Special to The Times) WELLINGTON, January 11. A successful ascent of Mitre Peak was made on January 5 by Messrs J. H. Christie and G. P. Hayward, operating from Milford Hotel. This information was contained in a radio message received by the general manager of the Tourist and Publicity Department. The last recorded ascent was made in 1914 by Mr Edgar Williams and Guide Murrell. Mitre Peak was climbed in March 1911, by Mr J. R. Denniston. Both the latest successful mountaineers are Wellington men, and this is understood to be their first important climb together. Mr Christie is assistant designing engineer in the Public Works Department. He has done a great deal of climbing in the Otago Alps. Last year, accompanied by Mr Shannon, he made the first complete crossing to the West Coast by Hector Pass. Hector crossed the pass in the early sixties, but did not reach the coast. Mr Christie has climbed among other peaks, Mount Christina, near the Homer Tunnel, and Mount Aspiring. Mr Hayward is in business in Wellington. He has climbed Mount Cook and many peaks round the Rees Valley at the head of Lake Wakatipu. A DIFFICULT CLIMB Though not ranking among the great giants of the Southern Alps, Mitre Peak, because of its precipitous nature, provides special difficulties for climbers, states the Tourist Department. On one face it rises to its full height of 5560 feet practically sheer from the deep waters of the sound. Messrs Christie and Hayward approached the peak from Sinbad Gully, following the route taken by the previous party, and on reaching the original camp at the bush line, the climbers found the records left in 1914. Mitre Peak earns its name from the great similarity its summit bears to a bishop’s mitre, and it is this feature, with its bare and weatherworn rock, that provides a formidable obstacle on the last lap of the climb. The peak is well know to the passengers of cruise ships which pass close beside its enormous bulk when voyaging to the head of the sound.