MOUNTAINEERING IN SOUTH

Taranaki Daily News, 9 May 1930, Page 6

MOUNTAINEERING IN SOUTH

LECTURE GIVEN BY MR. R. SYME.

Mountaineering in the Southern Alps was the subject of an interesting and instructive lantern lecture by Mr. Rod. Syme, Hawera, in the New Plymouth Boys’ High School last evening. There was a very good attendance of Taranaki Alpine Club members, and some of the general public. The first slides dealt mainly with the approach to the Alps, the speaker remarking that no sooner had a climber reached them than he saw an avalanche every few minutes. The roughness of the rocks and country was demonstrated by the experience of one mountaineer. The man in question broke his leg, due to the state of the mountainside, .and was compelled to work his way down by using one knee and one foot. He lived in a rock hut for six days. This, perhaps, was the most thrilling example of endurance yet known in southern mountaineering. Slides showing fine views of the Tasman Glacier were followed by those illustrating the Franz Josef Glacier. In relating some of his own experience Mr. Syme showed the audience that mountaineering was not as easy a pleasure as many people imagined,'and that it was sometimes more pleasant without a guide. .

At the close of the lecture Mr. Syme was accorded thafiks for his lecture,