Chapter I: Preface

Some of the material contained in the following pages appeared in the _London Times_. My thanks are due to the manager for allowing me to republish it. Articles that have appeared in the _Alpine Journal_ and in some of the leading Australian and New Zealand newspapers—notably the _Otago Daily Times_, the _Christchurch Press_, the _Wellington Post_, the _New Zealand Times_, the _New Zealand Herald_, the _Melbourne Age_, and the _Australasian_—have also been used. These articles have all been re-written or revised. I am indebted to Dr. Teichelman for the interesting illustration facing page 296, and to the _Otago Witness_ for the photograph of the Rev. Mr. Green, Boss, and Kaufmann. The other illustrations are from my own photographs. My thanks are also due to Mr. A. L. Mumm, late Secretary of the Alpine Club, and author of _Five Months in the Himalaya_, for the special interest he has taken in the publication of this book. Finally, I must record my great indebtedness to Lord Bryce, the distinguished Author and Ambassador, and a former President of the Alpine Club, for the charming introductory note that he has written.

M. R.

LONDON,
_February 7, 1914_.

PREFATORY NOTE

BY THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT BRYCE

On the west side of the Southern Island of New Zealand there rises from the sea a magnificent mass of snowy mountains, whose highest peak, Aorangi or Mount Cook, reaches an elevation of 12,347 feet. Some of the loftiest summits are visible in the far distance from the railway which runs down the east coast of the island from Christchurch to Dunedin, but to appreciate the full grandeur of the range it must be seen either from out at sea or from points north of it on the west coast. The view from the seaport of Greymouth on that coast, nearly a hundred miles from Aorangi, is not only one of the finest mountain views which the world affords, but is almost unique as a prospect of a long line of snows rising right out of an ocean. One must go to North-Western America, or to the Caucasus where it approaches the Euxine, north of Poti, or possibly to Kamschatka (of which I cannot speak from personal knowledge), to find peaks so high which have the full value of their height, because they spring directly from the sea. The Andes are of course loftier, but they stand farther back from the shore, and they are seldom well seen from it.

In Southern New Zealand the line of perpetual snow is much lower than it is in the Alps of Europe. It varies, of course, in different parts of the range; but generally speaking, a mountain 12,000 feet high in New Zealand carries as much snow and ice as one of 15,000 feet in the Swiss Alps, and New Zealanders point with pride to glaciers comparable to the Aletsch and the Mer de Glace. On the west, some of the great ice-streams descend to within seven hundred feet of sea-level, and below the line of perpetual snow the steep declivities are covered with a thick and tangled forest, extremely difficult to penetrate, where tree ferns grow luxuriantly in the depths of the gorges. The region is one of the wettest and most thickly wooded in the world; and it is a region that might have lain long unexplored, except in those few spots where gold has been found, had it not been for the growth, about seventy years ago, of the passion for mountaineering, which has carried British climbers all over the earth in search of places where their prowess could find a field for its display. The first who forced their way into it were some New Zealand Government surveyors in 1862.

The first mountaineer to attempt Aorangi was my friend the Rev. W. S. Green of Dublin (now one of the most honoured veterans of our own Alpine Club), who had all but reached the summit when nightfall and bad weather forced him to turn back. After him came some bold New Zealand climbers and Mr. E. A. Fitzgerald. One of the former, Mr. T. C. Fyfe, with his companions, George Graham and J. Clark, reached the very top of Aorangi in 1894. Among these native mountaineers Mr. Malcolm Ross has been one of the most daring and most persevering. I had the pleasure, at Wellington, New Zealand, a year and a half ago, of listening to a most interesting description which he gave of his adventures and those of his comrades, and could realize from it the dangers as well as the hardships which the climber has to face in New Zealand. The weather, on the west coast especially, can be awful, for fierce storms sweep up from the Tasman Sea, that most tempestuous part of the Pacific, whose twelve hundred miles furnished the twelve hundred reasons why New Zealand declined to enter the Australian Federation. The base of operations is distant, for no alpine hotels and hardly any shelter huts have yet been built, such as those which the Swiss, German-Austrian, and Italian Alpine clubs have recently provided in their mountain lands. The New Zealand climber, who has been almost always his own guide, has sometimes to be his own porter also. And the slopes and glens, when one approaches the west coast, are covered with so dense a growth of trees and shrubs that progress is always slow and often difficult. No finer work in conquering nature has been done by climbers anywhere than here. But the guerdon was worth the effort. The scenery is magnificent, with a character that is all its own, for New Zealand landscapes are unlike not only those of our northern hemisphere, but those of South America also; and the youth of the Islands have been fired by the ambition to emulate those British mountaineers whose achievements they admire, as well as by a patriotic love for their own beautiful and fascinating land. I hope that the fresh and vivid descriptions Mr. Ross gives of the charms of New Zealand landscape, and of the scope which its peaks and glaciers afford for the energy and skill of those who find that the European Alps have now little that is new to offer, may draw to it more and more visitors from Britain.

_February 2, 1914._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

DESCRIPTIVE AND HISTORICAL

PAGE

_Terra Incognita_—An Experiment in Acclimatization—The Volcanic
Mountains—The Thermal Region—Volcano of Ngauruhoe—The
Southern Alps described—Physical and Economic Aspects—Influence
upon Character—The Early Explorers—Green’s
Historic Climb—First Ascents—Immunity from Accident 1

CHAPTER II

IN THE OLDEN DAYS

Across the Mackenzie Plains—The Alpine Lakes—The Cuisine _en
route_—A Jehu in a Rage—The Old Hermitage—A Passing
Storm—Provisioning a Camp—A Huge Moraine—Sub-Alpine
Vegetation—Adding to the Larder—Crossing an Alpine River—We
bivouac in the Valley—Feathered Visitors—In Tent in the
Wilds 24

CHAPTER III

IN THE OLDEN DAYS—_concluded_

First Sight of the Hochstetter Ice Fall—An Alpine Panorama—Bad
Weather—The Musings of a Lady Mountaineer—A Storm
in Camp—An Acrobatic Feat—Return to the Hermitage—A
Scramble on Sealy—First Meeting with Fyfe—An
Avalanche from Sefton—On the Mountain-Side 39

CHAPTER IV

THE CONQUERING OF AORANGI

We arrange an Expedition—The Difficulties of Transport—Quicksands
in the Tasman River—The Manufacture of Ski—Flight
of our Porter—The Climb to the Bivouac Rock—Difficulties
with the Cooker—Preliminary Step-Cutting—Plans for a
Higher Bivouac 52

CHAPTER V

THE CONQUERING OF AORANGI—_continued_

The Joys of High Bivouacking—Caught in a Storm—Thunder
and Lightning—We lower the Tent—A Cold Repast—Retreat—We
lose our Swags—New Fashions at the Old Hut—Other
Arrivals—A Cook in Trouble—Another Storm—I return
Home 65

CHAPTER VI

THE CONQUERING OF AORANGI—_continued_

Another Attack—Digging out the Frozen Tent—Camp on the
Plateau—Finding a New Route—Blocked by a Wall of Rock—Some
Acrobatic Performances—Defeat once more—Finding
the Lost Swags—Return to the Hut—A Fourth Attempt—Back
to the Plateau—Climbing by Lantern-Light—Loss of an
Ice-Axe—The Final Ice-Cap gained—Retreat once more—A
Terrible Storm 77

CHAPTER VII

THE CONQUERING OF AORANGI—_concluded_

Green’s Route abandoned—Fyfe and Graham explore the Hooker
Side—Camp on the Ice—Serious Work at a Schrund—A
Long Couloir—Green’s Saddle gained—Difficult Rock-Work—Success
at Last—The Descent—Falling Stones 105

CHAPTER VIII

ABOVE THE PLAINS

The Tararua Range—A Mountain Railway—Our Unknown Host—The
Charm of High Places—Through the Beech Forest—Insects
and Birds—Mr. and Mrs. Kohoperoa—A Botanist’s
Paradise—The Old and the New—A Reverie on a Hill-Top 116

CHAPTER IX

DOWN IN THE VALLEYS

The Valley of the Mueller—A Trying Moraine—Our _al fresco_ Camp—A
Bivouac Dream—Retreat in the Rain—In the Valley of
the Tasman—Reflections on being one’s own Porter—The
Curious Kea—Dentistry at a Mountain Hut—An Evening
under a Rock 128

CHAPTER X

AN ASCENT OF HAIDINGER

A Glacier Tramp—The Penguin Rocks—A Fairyland Grotto—Second
Breakfast and some Reflections—Rock Avalanches—Beautiful
Schrunds—A Sharp Arête—Scaling a Precipice—Zurbriggen’s
Axe—A Difficult Ice Slope—A Problem solved
by Rubber—On the Summit Ridge—A Splendid Panorama—The
Descent—The Bivouac again 144

CHAPTER XI

AN INTERLUDE

Thunderstorm at the Hut—The Sun-bonnet Brigade—Our Habitation—The
Housing Problem—Cooking _al fresco_—Cards and a
Late Dinner—Memories of Boiled Mutton 158

CHAPTER XII

DE LA BÊCHE AND THE MINARETS

Mount De la Bêche—Early Attempts—An Historic Bivouac—Heroic
Pluck and Endurance—View down the Valley—Reflections
under a Rock—Caught in the Mist—Provisions
run low—Moraines by Candle-light—Breakfast on a Summit—A
Scene in Cloudland—Crossing a Bergschrund—First
Ascent of the Minarets—A Quick Descent—Return to the Hut 165

CHAPTER XIII

ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ALPS

We decide to make a New Pass—Bivouac at Malte Brun—A Start
by Moonlight—Early Morning on the Glacier—Dawn on the
Pass—Rotten Rock and Broken Ice—Some Difficult Climbing—An
Ice Fall and an Avalanche Shoot—We reach the
Whymper Glacier—A Cannonade from the Dome—We
explore New Country—West Coast Vegetation 178

CHAPTER XIV

ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ALPS—_continued_

An Uncomfortable Bivouac and a Frugal Meal—We start down
the Valley—Through the Virgin Forest—Grandeur of the
Scenery—An Interesting Discovery—Blocked by Gorges—A
Veritable Fairyland—We bivouac on the River Bank—A
Sleepless Night 193

CHAPTER XV

ACROSS THE SOUTHERN ALPS—_concluded_

An Adventure in the River—Dripping Mountaineers—The Sand-Flies
have an Innings—On Short Commons—Wild Cattle in
the Forest—Footprints on the Sands—Down the Broad Valley—A
Habitation at last—Fyfe goes into Hospital—An Exciting
Ride—Gillespie’s Beach—In a Miner’s Hat—Bivouac under
a Rock—I recross the Alps alone—Back at the Hermitage 202

CHAPTER XVI

IN KIWI LAND

Early Expeditions—A Lost Explorer—The Aborigines—The Great
Lakes—Primitive Navigation—The Grandeur of Te Anau—Over
MacKinnon’s Pass—Views from the Summit—Mount
Balloon in Dangerous Mood—A Bivouac in the Forest—Camp
Cookery—Down the Arthur River—In Milford Sound 215

CHAPTER XVII

IN KIWI LAND—_concluded_

Some Unexplored Country—Discovery of New Glaciers—Camp on
an Old Moraine—The Birds of Kiwi Land—A Spotless Glacier—Strange
Bergschrunds—Difficult Step-Cutting—Ice-Glazed
Rocks—An Exciting Glissade—Benighted—A Cold Bivouac—The
Southern Stars—The Cross and the Bear—A Dreary
Vigil—Camp again—Return Journey in the Rain—Countless
Waterfalls—A Concert in Camp—The Lost Explorers 236

CHAPTER XVIII

THE FIRST CROSSING OF MOUNT COOK

Incidents _en route_—Digging out a Hut—On the Liebig Range—Dawn
on Mount Cook—A Minor Peak—Elie de Beaumont—Defeated
by the Weather—A Splendid Sunset—Keas again 264

CHAPTER XIX

THE FIRST CROSSING OF MOUNT COOK—_continued_

Testing a Leg—A Moonlight Ride—We start for the Traverse—Avalanches—The
Rolling Mists—The Commissariat—The
Plateau by Moonlight—Schrunds in the Dusk—A 3000-Feet
Slope—On the Main Arête—Snow Ridges and Rocks—Magnificent
Views—The Final Slopes—The Summit gained 283