Page:Du Faur - The Conquest of Mount Cook.djvu/26

20 In 1894 several important ascents were made from the Tasman Glacier, the chief of these being Mr. T. C. Fyfe's ascent of Mount Malte Brun (10,421 feet). Mr. Green had remarked on this fine rock peak, comparing it to the "Matterhorn minus its highest tower." It is undoubtedly the finest rock climb in the Mount Cook district.

In the same year Dr. Franz Kronecker, with T. C. Fyfe and Jack Clark, made the first ascent of Mount Darwin (9,715 feet), and later T. C. Fyfe and G. Graham climbed the Footstool, a fine peak next to Mount Sefton and within easy access of the Hermitage.

The years 1894 and 1895 proved record ones in the Mount Cook district. In December of the former, T. C. Fyfe, George Graham, and Jack Clark, fired by the news that Mr. Edward Fitzgerald and his Swiss guide, M. Zurbriggen, were on their way out to climb Mount Cook, decided if possible to forestall them. After attacking the mountain on its east or Tasman side, as all their predecessors had done, they made the final attempt from the west or Hooker side. Fyfe and Graham first tried climbing to the saddle between the lowest and middle peak, and from there reached the summit of the latter. Finding the distance between it and the highest peak much greater than they had expected, and the ridge between the peaks badly corniced, they decided to descend and make a direct attack on the highest peak, from a bivouac near the head of the Hooker Glacier. In this expedition they were joined by Jack Clark, and on Christmas Day, 1894, they succeeded in making the first complete ascent of the highest peak. The performance was a fine one, and great was the joy of the New Zealanders at their success; for they had no desire to surrender the first ascent of their highest mountain to an Englishman, even though he was better equipped and trained than the colonials had a chance of being.

Disappointed in being second in the field, Mr. Fitzgerald made no attempt to climb Mount Cook. Zurbriggen,