Page:Mannering - With axe and rope in the New Zealand Alps.djvu/65

Rh bottle with the record of our ascent, turned our backs on the grim giant Aorangi, and began to go down.

We struck a better route down by going into some couloirs north of the arête of the spur, and reached the Ball Glacier camp again, going down the following day to the Hermitage, after crossing the Hooker by the kind assistance of a shepherd from Birch Hill. The Hooker River had risen to such an extent during the rain storm as to carry away the wire on which we had slung our swags across. The camera was warped with the wet at the lower camp, whilst the plates were anything but 'dry' after the storm, so photography was altogether a failure in this excursion.

In the winter time we amused ourselves with another ascent of Mount Torlesse.