Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/56

32

CHAPTER IV

SECOND ATTEMPT TO CLIMB AORANGI

A Flooded Camp in the Tasman Valley—Hard Struggles with Bad Fortune—We reach Green's Bivouac

the winter following my first essay at Alpine climbing I was not idle, but made several pig-hunting excursions amongst the foot-hills in North Canterbury, in addition to which, with a companion in the shape of an old friend and schoolfellow, Mr. M.J. Dixon, I made the ascent of Mounts Torlesse (6,434 feet) and Puketeraki (5,780 feet) at a time when these mountains were snow-covered to within 2,000 feet of their respective bases.

The former ascent was accomplished in the face of a nor'-west gale, and well I remember how we had sometimes to lie down on the snow and hold on to our sticks to avoid being blown clean away. We have twice since climbed this peak under similar conditions, and I never remember the wind blowing with such force as it does on Mount Torlesse.

It was on February 1, 1887, that Messrs. M.J. Dixon, C.H. Inglis, and myself left Christchurch for a second try at Aorangi.