CONQUERING TUTOKO

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18973, 26 March 1924, Page 7

CONQUERING TUTOKO

MR. TURNER’S FEAT. MANY DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 21. Mr, S. G. Turner has supplied the following account of his final successful effort to climb Mount Tutoko: ‘‘l started from Wellington on February 21 on my sixth expedition during the last five years to reach the summit of this hitherto unconquered mountain. The six expeditions cost me over 12 months’ besides further considerable time in organising. Mount Tutoko remained a mystery mountain until three years ago, when my expedition forced a way through to the Holly ford Valley side of the mountain, but the summit remained unconquered until Mr. Peter Graham and I stood upon it on March 4, 1924. Even then we had to rush it to beat the threatening weather which turned into heavy rain soon after we left the summit.

“During the ascent we were nearing what we thought to be the top, and I ran up the last hundred feet of its snow-cap only to come face to face with a wall of rock looming up like a wall of a house for about 600 feet. We tackled this precipice, in some places climbing overhanging rocks, and reached the highest point at 4.20 p.m. in a dense mist. Photographs were impossible, though I carried a full-plate camera for the purpose. We hustled down, being overtaken by a heavy wind and rain storm and were unable to light the candle in our lantern until we were nearly down to our bivouac an altitude of 5900 feet which we reached at

.ie p.m. W.e had rain all night ami most of the following day, but the morning alter that (March 6) tin. weather was beautiful, and of this we took full advantage, “We put on our wet clothes and left for the second ascent at 7.3'0 a.m. Our clothes soon dried on us in the warm sun, and we made good time towards the summit. When we came up to the foot the final rock wall we realised it was ths steepest piece of rock we had ever attempted to climb. One had to get his fingertips into small cracks an traverse over a formidable drop where there were no footholds, but only smooth rock, along which we worked for 15 to 20 feet until we reached a oneinch by three-inch ledge for the right foot, which relieved the strain. “I will describe this great rock climb in detail elsewhere. We reached the summit about noon. We were delighted that we made the second ascent, because there was a ridge of hard snow extending about r three-quarters of a mile, and one of six summits looked about as high as the one we were standing on. It took us about an hour to negotiate and traverse the whole of them, and three-quarters of an hour to return, / including taking photographs of the most thrilling scenery.

“The point we reached first wag 50 feet higher than the southern summit. If there are people on Mars or any other planet probably the most conspicuous sight on th’s earth will be the deep gorges, 3000 ft. to 6000 ft. deep, as seen from the crest of Mount Tutoko. There are a large number of them, but space here does not al low further description. “The sight aud conquest were worth all the road-making and making a track through the bush for a pack horse, and also the thousands of feet of bush track blazing and route finding together with all pioneer work around this highest part of the Fiord-land. Nobody had ever learnt where the summit was or how to get up the first thousand feet of its slopes, although attempts on this peak were started in 1895. Most of the expeditions were on the Milford Sound side, and some of them were very feeble efforts to scale this last but biggest unconquered monarch of the Alps. Our base camp was 9000 ft. below its summit. The ridge was overlooking a drop of between 8000 ft. and 9000 ft. on one side, and 600'0ft. on the other, and one could almost throw a piece of rock down to th > bottom into Tutoko Valley.

“I am informed my summit photos have come out all right. They should reveal one of the world’s supreme beauty spots. Before this peak could be climbed the valley, rivers, steep bush, and the geological structure, of the country had to be mastered, and in a land of precipices and deep gorges these obstacles have an entirely different meaning to the mountaineering obstacles in other country. I would rather tackle Mount Everest twice over than go over the Mount Tutoko tussle again. “I wish to thank the 50 odd men whom I have employed during the six expeditions to help me to conquer this incomparable mountain. “The country was hard and trying, requiring more moral force than a straight-forward climb of Mount Everest. If the English Alpine Club and the Geological Society succeed in scaling Mount Everest I shall be glad to congratulate them, but if they fail I hope they will leave the door to Tibet open for other expedition, and if they give other people a chance to go into Tibet, who knows but that we in New Zea’and might demonstrate that the age of men is no bar up to 60 if their lives have been used to following up one particular line of effort?”