CLIMBING THE ALPS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10417, 22 March 1912, Page 1

CLIMBING THE ALPS.

SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS THIS SEASON.

MOUNT COOK AND MOUNT SEFTON.

Mr S. Turner, an alpine climber, who has just spent a holiday amongst the 'peaks of the Southern Alps, returned to Timaru yesterday, came on to Christchurch by the first express, and left in the evening for Wellington. In recounting his exploits before taking the train for Lyttelton, Mr Turner said that it was six years since he had made his first traverse of Mount Cook, and it was interesting to note that both the route up to the summit and the route down had been abandoned as being too long. An easy rock route had been found from the Hooker Glacier to the summit, representing a climb of about six hours. Last year, he continued, the season had been an extraordinarily good one, but, this roar there had been an extraordinarily bad one. There were mnnv spells of bad weather, with snow on the high altitudes. At one time it was questionable if any climbing at all would bo done this year. Captain Head, Dr Teichelmann and Mossrs Chambers and Wright had been through, and had returned without any results worth mentioning, with the exception of the ascent of Mount Cook by Messrs Chambers and Wright, by Green's route, which was climbed bv Mr Turner on tho previous occasion. This year both the Grahams were busy and he took Guide D. Thompson and Bannister. Ins porter, both of whom had been up the easy route with him. None of them had been up the routes he used recently, and they were therefore on quite fresh ground. His Mount Lcok climb one of two ascents mnde this year, as he also ascended Mount Sertoli, making the third ascent or that peak. The first was made seventeen years ago. Both his recent climbs were very interesting and somen hat dangerous, on account of the loo6e character of the snow and to the changeable weather. A:, a. matter of fact, the weather was so bad that, nobody expected that the party would be successful on Mount Sof ton. On the Sunday when thev were climbing that mountain they dfd not see any of it till twenty minutes before thev reached the summit. All the time a south-west gale was blowing. It was especially boisterous when the party was on a knife-like ridge at the head of the glacier, connecting a high plateau of rocks with the actual pass leading to the summit, ine ridge .was between a foot and tu'o feet wide, and was precipitous on both sides. There were really two ridges, and they were about "three hundred yards long. The members of the party walked along them by digging their ice-axes into the snow as much as possible and by stooping down towards the wind, in order to prevent it from blowing them off the ridges. At that place a halt was called, and a discussion took place in regard to the serious risks that were being run. They decided to press on ana to see if tho weather would beconje worse or improve. Fortunately, the last slopes were reached soon after the discussion had been brought to an end. They went up a fairly large bergschrund. and came to tho final bergschrund, which practically cut the summit off from the main body of the mountain. Just after climbing •up a 6teep place, a kind of ice-ladder, using pieces of ice for hand grips, they had the satisfaction of seeing the clear summit. To reach the summit, they had to surmount a steep ice wall forty or fifty feet high. The wind was very Btrong at the time, and they were careful to climb well away from the precipitous sides.

In the circumstances, it was imposreible to stay on the summit for a long tiino. They remained there about twenty minutes, taking photographs, and then descended and rested in a snowdrift hole, between the summh, about 12ft deep. After that they went down the mountain the, best way they could. They went from the summit ridge down to the lower ridge,, walking over tho snow-fields, in three hours. In Drder to reach the bivouac camp, they had to do 4000 ft of precipitous climbing oyer scrub, snowgrass, bush and tussock, all covered with thick snow. They also had to climb up the steep bed of a stream. They had a very thrilling experience going down by Scott's Creek. It seemed from the bivouac to be all right, and was so for about three-quarters of the way down. After that they had 1500 ft of tho most Eensational boulder climbing it was possible to imagine. One obstacle was a boulder that made a junction between two huge watevlalls. Precipitous rocks on eaoh side of the waterfalls made it almost impossible to get down that way. The party could see welcome flats close to themand tried to get down before dark, Tiisv lowered one another by the rope off the boulders, sometimes into the stream, out of which they had to scramble.

.Hie summit of Mount Cook seemed to be quit© difforent from what it was six years ago. It must be at least 200 ft higher now, and it had a very welcome snow groovy on tho Tasman side, about four feet deep. They stayed an hour and a half on that summit, and he had half an hour's sleep there, to make up for a poor sleep the previous night. Coming down there were dangerous conditions of snow owing to a hot day causing a very sfcrious thfuv. There were many exciting incidents in the ascent and descent of both Mount Cook and Mount Sefton. Ho had been very fortunate this year in having clear summits and beautiful views from six of tho- monarchs of the New Zealand Alps. Ho had taken photographs of Mount Cook and -Mount Sefton from the points of a triangle—Mounts Sealey, Nunsveil and Elle Do Beaumont. Those were the finest viewpoints in the Southern Alps. Hie party made a record one week, by starting from tho Hermitage at 2.30 on a Wednesday, going to the Ball Hut that night and Molte liruu the next day, _ climbing Mount Elle De Beaumont in the early hours of Friday morning, climbing Mounts Green and Wnlker on Saturday and descending to Ball Hut next day and the Mount Cook high camp in the afternoon, climbing Mount Cook itself on the Monday, thence returning to the Hermitage. In-that way four peaks were climbed, and a return w;is made to the Hermitage, in one week and two hours. That would probably be the record for a long time, as the party had ascended about 29,,000 ft from the Hermitage without considering descents, the mountains being wide apart._ The climb of Mount Sefton took six days and a half, and the way they went was probably the most difficult climb in New Zealand. They had photographs taken on all the mountains he had climbed, and the pictures would speak for themselves. In the Mount Elle do Beaumont a.nd Mount Sea ley climb, he gave Mr W. G. Greaves, of Oamaru; that gentleman's first high climbs. As to clmbing with a guide, he would like to say that Guide Thompson had proved that he had no superior in New Zealand. That guide had never had a chance before of showing what he could do on high climbs, and the Mime might be said of Bannister. He felt i 11at his holiday had been spent, very beneficially this year, as S'eiv

Zealand climbers now knew that two more men had been proved to be capable of climbing any peaks in the dominion. As a rule climbers would riot give a would-be. guide of high climbs a chance to prove himself. The most, notable feature of the whole season was the spells of bad weather and the bad and dangerous condition of the mountains. He bad spent _ more than half • his holiday watching the beautiful refreshing rain descend on the low levels and tho snow descend on the high levels, making climbing in the soft snow much more difficult than it would have bee" under better circumstances.