MOUNTAINEERING in NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Graphic, 20 December 1894, Page 15

MOUNTAINEERING in NEW ZEALAND

AN ASSAULT ON AORANGI (MOUNT COOK). By F.R. IN the South Island of New Zealand there is a great region of mountains nearly four hundred miles in length and from forty to fifty miles in width, widening in some places to nearly a hundred miles if one takes, say, the Quartz Ranges, the Spencer Mountains, the Kaikouras into conjunction. There are mountain peaks by the thousand, many of them unclimbed, many of them unnamed, some rising abruptly from level plains, others hedged in and guarded by serried ranks of peaks. A veritable wonderland is this region of mountains where the earth lifts itself to aerial heights and wages perpetual war with the elements. Icy peaks, monuments

glamour and excitement in mountain climbing. Scores of young Englishmen go forth every year to scale mountains. Some to the mother of mountains, Himalaya; some to the Andes, where Cotopaxi and Chimborazo look down on the dust of fallen cities as they looked when the Spanish adventurers set forth to conquer the Incas and find palaces ofgold. Thegarnered knowledge and varied experiences of a century make mountain climbing, a royal game, and here in New Zealand there is a royal kingdom in which to play this game. Is it any wonder then that we have an Alpine Club, and that its members should be glad at having a new world of mountains to conquer. A noticeable feature about our New Zealand Alpine Club is its desire to conquer the biggest thing first—racial instinct again. It wants to utterly and completely master Aorangi—the cloud piercer—the culminating point in the vast Southern Alps. Our illustrations show various phases in the assault on this mountain—parts of the royal game where danger and endurance count as fun. The illustrations are from photographs by one of our most skilful and daring mountaineers, Mr G. E. Mannering, one of the most prominent members of our Alpine Club. They show views which only one or two people in this world have lieheld, and if it were only to give to the public such views a climb up Aorangi would not be in vain.