Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/189

Rh his wife. Bad weather frustrated his attempts at mountaineering, with the exception of an ascent of a peak of about 7,000 feet on the Mount Cook Range, and a partial ascent of Mount Sealy. He traversed the Tasman Glacier to a point some miles beyond the junction of the Hochstetter Glacier.

In December 1890 Messrs. A.P. Harper, R. Blakiston, and Beadel made an excursion to the Tasman Glacier, but bad weather kept them prisoners at camp nearly all the time of their stay. Messrs. Harper and Blakiston, after retreating from the Tasman, succeeded in reaching for the first time the saddle at the head of the Hooker Glacier (8,580 feet), after a trying expedition. This had been attempted several times before, but owing to numberless crevasses was found to be unattainable. Being early in the season and after a considerable snow-fall, however, the party in question found the crevasses mostly covered, and they were aided, moreover, by Mr. Harper's skill and knowledge of Alpine work.

Again, in January 1891, Messrs. Harper and Johnson visited the Tasman Glacier, and besides attaining a high saddle (about 7,500 feet) in the Malte Brun Range and making a nearly complete ascent of Mount Sealy, secured a fine collection of photographs.

Such, in brief, is a history of what Alpine work has been accomplished amongst the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Other glacier excursions, it is true, there have been, but they are few, and with the exception of the expeditions of Mr. Sealy and the Government Survey to the Godley and Classen Glaciers farther north, and of a few attempts to climb Mount Earnslaw in the Southern Lake district, are not worthy of much note as Alpine expeditions, undertaken in the orthodox manner with axe and rope.

As these lines are being penned the New Zealand Alpine Club is in process of formation, and the writer hears with pleasure of the probabilities of success which are likely to attend the efforts of the promoters of the club.

Letters of advice and encouragement from prominent members of the English Alpine Club have at various times come to