Women in Climbing: Those Women Are At It Again

This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.

In early February, four enthusiastic friends headed south to test their strangth in the Mount Cook National Park. After an hysterical night of wine and homen ade pasta in Christchurch, we were off to a good start. our objective was to climb the Footstool, head up the Hooker and over the Copland, up Scotts Creek to climb Sefton, then out to the West Coast. : aT Eager to begin fulfilling our ambition, we headed up the Footstool early on day 2. Our efforts were thwarted, . however, by the onset of bad weather from the west. After a play amongst the crevasses, we decided we'd better pack it in. Tough! We thought it better not to spend time awaiting a better day and headed back down to the Hooker. Once back down in the valley, the weather cleared to reveal a better day., Darn! Never mind, the Copland was OK, though we chose the hardest route across - we still had to test our strergin after all. I guess it doesn't pay to get too hung up. about peakbashing. It's good to be out in the wilderness being close to Mother Nature. Well.. One of us had a bit of a' fright with' Mother Nature's rocks and got into a bit of head bashing instead. You can't take anything for granted, can you? And black eyes are quite becoming. The Copland accomplished, we headed up S cott's Creek to the top of the ridge from where we pl anned to climb Sefton. A rugged but. spectacular place. Our climb of Sefton turned into an epic day.. We began with a beautiful morning and enjoyed working our way from Welcôme Pass, across the Douglas River and onto the Sierra Range and beautiful views. But, at the base of the final 500m climb, we were again beset with signs of bad weather. Being the thoughtful and sensible peoplé we are, we decided to leav the surmit for another time and turn back. Just as well. We had to negotiate our way across the Tekano Glacier in: whiteout conditions. CoY

Late that night we got back to our camp and spent the night fending off the rain. I can recommend the Welcome Pass hot pools, where we soaked off the grime. A wonderful place! I can also recommend the pools at Fox Glacier, where we also had a "soak" I concluding that despite the fact that we hadn't quite met our objectives, we'd had an excellent 10 days. After all, you need : m ore than just "brute" streng th in the mountains. Here's hoping we can head down there again soon. Those on the trip: Dale Parsons, Kirsty Woods, Sue Lamont, and Angela Hair.

ET