THE RUTHERFORD PASS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13828, 13 February 1909, Page 7

THE RUTHERFORD PASS.

NEW ROUTE TO THE TASMAN

The current number of the " Weekly Press" contains a couple of. 'halfpage photographs illustrative of scenes on the route followed by Messrs G. E. Mannering and T. C. Fyfe, of Timaru, when during the Christmas holidays they discovered an easy pass from the Cass river (which flows into Lake Tekapo) from above Mr J. S. Rutherford's Mistake Station, to the Murchison glacier, whence the Tasman glacier and the Ball hut are easily reached. On seeing these pictures, a representative of the "Herald" called on Mr Mannering and obtained some particulars of the trip, and these, with liberty to examine other photographs, were willingly given. From the description given by Mr Mannering of the trip, and the photographs he took, it appears that the explorers made, from the alpine holiday maker's point of view, a really valuable discovery. From Tekapo they went to Mr J. C. Rutherford's Mistate Station, on the Cass, and obtained horses and camp requisites from- Mr Rutherford. Proceeding 16 miles up the Valley of the Cass —a wide tussock-clad shingle flat offering easy road making they reached one of the musterers' huts. Three miles further on they came to the fork of the Cass, still over the same shingle flat, so that a road can easily be made for 19 miles beyond Mistake station, and with a little more difficulty it could he continued further. The Cass Valley itself is very tame, but ahead and on either side are handsome peaks and ridges. The foot work began where the branch of the Cass leaves the valley of the 'Faraday glacier, the huge lateral moraine built up when the glacier was immensely larger, forming a long sloping ridge down the valley. The route., chosen by a climb for reconnoitring lay up what might be called a blind gully in the Alps, well shown in the pictures in the " Press," the walking being on clean shingle slopes and on patches of snow. The ascent of the ridge between the Cass and the Murchison was either on such slopes or on snow", and the total height of the climb, taking Haast's altitude of the summit of the Faraday glacier as the basis, is about 3.100 ft. or somewhat, less than the popular climb over the Sealey range from the Hermitage. And the ascent is quite easy. Magnificent views were obtained from the sumit of the Pass (which by the way Mr Mannering named the Rutherford pass) although it was not a good day, the atmosphere, being thick with snow falls, and snow fell about them frequently. The descent into the Murchison, after a few hundred feet ■of rock at the top, is for a good part of the way down easy shingle slopes. The last 1000 ft .is very steep, and is covered with alpine scrub and" Spaniards that make the descent very difficult; but with an easily made track like that on the Sealey a lady or an indifferent walker, would descend without any trouble to the snout of the Murchison. Were such a track made, it would be only a six hours' walk over the pass from the Farraday to the Murchison. Five miles down the Murchison brings one to the Tasman glacier, a little above the Ball hut, and with some time lost in explorations, Messrs Mannering and Fyfe reached the Ball hat from the Mistake hut in 13 hours. Mr Mannering strongly recommends the Tourist Depantment to open up this rate by making the road from Mistake station to the Farraday, a quite easy matter, and erecting a couple of huts, one near the Farraday moraine, the other at the Murchison side of the pass. The latter would be somewhat expensive as all the material would have to be carried on men's back across the Tasman glacier from the Ball hut and then five mile's im the Murchison valley. Pending a road being made from Mistake station to the Farraday glacier (19 miles) this part of the route would be travelled by horses or on foot, as is done now from the Hermitage to the Ball hut. When a road is constructed there should be no difficulty in. making the Farraday glacier in six hours motoring from Timaru, or four hours from Fairlie. A great advantage about the new route would be the saving of distance from Tekapo to the central portion of the galcier scenery. Taking the Ball hut as sii'-h centre, the distance thence is 44 miles, via Rutherford pass and the Murchison valley, whereas by the route now used, via Pukaki, Hermitage, and Tasman vallev, the distance is 84 miles, a large portion of which leads through the dreary Mackenzie Plains. Another leading feature of the new route would be the opening out of the scenery of the Cass and Murchison valleys, with their magnificent peaks and glaciers. Under present conditions these are entirely missed by even the most energetic tourists. Mr Mannermg's photographs show that his descriptions are no exaggeration of the facts.