A Grand Traverse of Cook

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A Grand Traverse of Cook Ken- McNatty and myself arrived at down the West ridge and stopped to Plateau hut just in time to enjoy the relax and eat some lunch. tail-end of a fine weather spell over the The excitement of the traverse now Christmas-New Year period. We spent lover, and the hot sunny day, combined an enjoyable, day traversing the Anzacs to make the descent a little of an antiand on anothers narrowly missed the climax. We reached the Empress shelf summit of Tasman via Syme's ridge. by glissading down a steep narrow Several parties had reached the High couloir. Then the trudge across to Peak of Cook in 8 to 10 hours from Empress hut in the soft snow and in Plateau hut, so all we needed.was à the late afternoon sun saw that we were fine day and a good frost for an at- well and truly burnt. The hut was tempt ourselves. reached at 5.00 p.m. We left Plateau hut at1.001 am.AonUD The following day we went out down January 2nd and made our way across the Hooker and that evening celebrated the Grand Plateau and up the Linda à with an' excellent meal at the Glencoe Conditions were perfect and the weather, Motor Inn. BOB C. so far, looked good. My torch went out * * at Teichelmanf Cotner so that-crevasses loomed up rather more suddenly than From the Hills usual. This combined with the shadowy Rumours are that General Gilbert's peaks, inherent) avalanche danger andricearng men have been active in the the usual empty feeling of pre-dawn Tararuas recently. (The writer of this seemed to give an eerie effect. However, column has a list of their names. concentration was needed on. routofindrin * ing and the slog up the Linda which Lloyd Gilbert, who is at present in was surprisingly steep-rather sudden New Guinea, went tramping at Easter first thing in the morning. -along with four porters. :Dawn. accompanied by a very strong southerly wind, found us at the top With the skiing season approaching a of the Linda Shelf, where we had a the "winter faces" might be turnshort stop. We were making good ing up at club again. MROMEYOE gress but the next hour would decide a * the weather for the day/Fortumatulyom Meatshooters apparently have been we were not long on the summit rocks looking around the Tararuas throughout before the wind had died away and last scason-Ilprefer toi see animals the ever lightening sky revealed afnea! "destroy" the hills rather than ignorance. day was on its way. * * It was from,now on, that our carly AReflections on Wahine Day. No irate morning effort became really" worthnu taxpayers wrote letters to the papers while. The rocks proved quite straight- complaining about the waste of money forward and the pleasure of climbing for search and rescue operations. fast to meet a welcome sunrise leaves * a delightful memory. "Where have all the trampers gone? Ice screw belays were required nearly Gone to young girls everyone"- -maybe all the way up the ice cap, but long it's just à phase the club goes through lead outs enabled us to reach High Peak occasionally. at 8.15 a.m. The éarly hour with per- * * fect snow and weather made it an easy decision to traverse. After photos and Caving Corner a bite to eat we were on our way Caving is an increasingly popular shortly after 8.30 a.m. sport, and we can now boast a total The descent off High Peak was steep, of fourteen financial members of the and for a few rope lengths, excitingly Wellington section of the Hamilton exposed. However, we were fortunate Tomo Group, of which nine are Tongue to strike hard packed snow on ice and Meats. Waitomo has been the centre perfect for cramponing. The remainder * of attraction with an average of 1-2 of the ridge to Middle Peak, although trips a month, and on one particular corniced, was traversed while moving occasion there were representatives from together. An ice wall below Middle Wellington on five consecutive week- Peak forced us to belay again. ends. A mixed snow and rock ridge led us But the North Island is not the only to Low Peak which we reached at 11.00 place where active caving is to be found. a.m. We were quite pleased with our- Over Christmas Gordon and Rosemary selves-the summit ridge had taken 21 Fox joined a party of cavers from Hamhours. We descended some 500 feet ilton, who, together with three Aussies,