Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/36

14 CHAPTER III

FIRST ATTEMPT TO CLIMB AORANGI

First impressions—Swagging—The Hochstetter Glacier—Defeat—The perils of river crossing

'To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first.'

was on March 24, 1886, that I left Christchurch, in company with my cousin, Mr. C. D. Fox, on my first visit to the great Tasman Glacier and Mount Cook, or Aorangi.

I often look back now with feelings of amusement at the audacity with which we determined to make our first attempt to scale the great monarch of the Southern