Return to Hopkins

Machine-read text (unproofread)

Read from the scans by software, so it contains mistakes. Typing it up properly would help blind readers: use Suggest an edit.

RETURI TO HOPKINS. About seventeen months ago it was a lovely day and Hopkins, Mc Kerrow, Jackson and Ward smiled goodbye to us. They had won the unequal battle but their taunts mads our decision to return. It was December, somewhat over four months ag0 and we stood once again our heads bowed, the rain in gentle deluge, the Hopkins its usual dainty brown, the Elcho a mad devil dancer. Behind was the broad flat of allusive distance back to Rabbiters and the Huxley. Ahead was more back-breaking slog up to the Thompson We had 2 most uneventful trip to the Huxley Gorge. We sailed south on the Hiner 2 in calm weather. Lyttelton presented its usua. murky morning appe rance and Christchurch had its usual aspiring approsch via the & swcrks and cther necessary but evil city utilities. The city was gathering up its skirts, ironing its gowns, pressing its ties and tails, pieparatory to flinging itself into the abandonment of its centenial. Innocent lamposts were boxed in offensive yellow and Hallenstuan's was topped by a massive model of pioneers on open tussock country. Opposite was a model giraffe of similar size but I suppose that was just christmas. The train journey south was hot and uninspiring though we had a double seat each. W3 dotr ined at Oamaru, ate a leisurely Lunch, assured the station master tro we did not want to catch the train which then left and after the uoual panic managed to buy most of Bill's personal gear in the local shops and catch the bus. I might say we were only carrying travelling gear and perishable food with us in climbing packs. Our othergeir had gone before by freigh: By leaving the pack with the butter in it on the footpath we proved beyond a doubt that butter is very peristable. And so to Kurcw which is entirely unchanged. Dave Neave picked us up in a flash Ford forty-nine and we made a merry time to Cmarama - even merrier - and so to Huxley Gorge finally that night and sleep. And so the rains came. Bill and I very peunningly went on oreakfast duty next morning and it was not long before Titch at least was ready to be off. I was not so enthusiastic. It was wet. My pack was a weighty proplem. And its a long way to Elcho. But so we left. The weary miles fell away behind us with maddening slowness. Hatagouri, Mary's Falls, endless hours of shingie and rocks, showers, and pack. At the Cairn we collapsed on the bank before dozens of 0.T.C. and ate. Then up again and on again to the Huxley, wide, dirty and in a hurry. And so to Elcho. At least we did not quite make Elcho. We camped by the bank of a clear woodland stream about two feet wide and a few inches deep. Its gentle trickle faded during the night and like the fairies in the morning it had gone!

So many others intent on climbing in the Elcho had persuadad us to go to the Thompson and so after breakfast it was up packs and on again. No scenery is exciting with a dead weight on your shoulders, a back strap eating into your spine and your eyes glued to the ground; your back bowed to keep you upright. No doubt Jackson looked at us through weepi ing cloud as we passed and the Neumann Range sneered from its rotten castle. We crossed the Elcho just above where we were washed off before. How refreshingydifferent to be able to see the bottom of the stream? And then began the crawl to Thomp - son. We sighted 3 doer in the bush and while Hori and Titch went after it I it turned out to be four - Bill and I collapsed in a cold 4 southerly before the curious gaze of a large herd of cattle. Becoming frozen WO moved II around the corner" I quite some distance - and ther up to the point where the river narrows. Here Titch and Euri joined us and we sidled in the water round the base of the woodad foce and SO to Thompson across horrible fans and flats. Here we camped at Athol's old bivvy site and next morning with lightened packs went on up the Thompson. Christmas day and the sun shining and the chance of a climb in the near future. We took to the bush at the entrance of the Gorge and climbed some distance till we came to a lovely alp set amid beech and serub. We then s iled around at this level, crossing a steep rock face just b: ne reaching the open part of the valley. Tent poles were cut ard so onwards and upwards. We soon met trouble in the form of a boulder slide and Titch and Hori beat off to the bed of the river. Bill and I stayed aloft for some time but soon had to retreat before a scree slide and a nasty gash in the hill. We lunched at a large stream about opposite Ward finalypitrhing camp on the Hopkins side of it. Then Pill, Hori and Titch went off on reconnaisance while I settled down to the serious business of christmas dinner and writing the diary. In view of the tent was a row of peaks with the Foster Glacier clinging precariously to the worn rocks. There was almost no snow on the glacier - huge circles of glistening ice spanning almost all that could be seen. Ward's f summit rocks were almost clear. Boxing Day saw us away at 3-15 a.m. = a beautiful starry sky above. A wisp of cloud clung to Browning and Unnamed. The Foster had lost its vicious appearance in a clear white opaqueness. The rocks were blue black and serene. I thought of very little as we went up the valley except to keep awake and not fall over rocks. Hori woke me up when we had almost reached the moraine at the head of the valley and made me put my torch out. It was quite light- a dull red behind Glen Mary on the Neumann. When we reached the basin with the Foster frowning in what appeared to be tottering seracs they pointed out our route. 0n one sida there seemed to be a tasteful docoration of said seracs all ready to dissolve in a mad rush upon us. The rock itself looked practically unscaleable and was also tistefully decorated with ice cliffs above it. A pleasent picture so I suggested we climb Williams but no one took me seriously. We scaled the avalanche debris fan at the bottom and SO onto the rock. It was very pleasent climbing with the dawn breaking and the sky beginning to redden. We traversed a ledge to about the contre of the face and then belayed briefly over a stoep bit. The face goes up in a series of steps. Each step itself is relatively exposed and some belaying is necessary. In general however it is not exacting and we moved together mostly. In- botween the steps are fairly easy slopes of broken slate and greywacke. We traversed these crossing a few waie: Pall streams. The seracs at the side were in no way a menace : there is a ridge between them and the stream. The ones above were still not very inviting. We finally came out at the foot of the snow slope which climbed onto the glacier itself. There was about two inches of wet snow on the glacier ice. Reluctantly we set off for camp. 11 Ward looked grand today. Hori took a photo to impress Stan." And so to sleep with Williams our goal next day. a1 I put my head round the corner of the tent to have a look at weather conditions. The moon shone weakly through a thin high layer of cirro-cumulus. The S 1 to the south was filled with stare. The Foster was crowli ike an angry dog but it was shorn of its viciousness by the sickly moon and the still warmth of the night. It looked cool and peaceful against the summits' rocks its crevasses and dirty avalanche piles stowed away in kindly secrecy. There was a werm breeze as we went up to the ridge behind camp. When we came to the slide leading onto the ridge the camp looked tiny and ferlorn below us, tucked avay Leside the side of the stream. The Thompson was shouting noisly down the valley and the myriad waterfalls from the Foster were dancing in maniac glee in the early dawn. The Foster was snarling away unsociably. The high cloud trailed across the sky in wide wind fans. To the east all was red gold barred with pink and orange. We reluctantly turned from the view to the slide. It lookec a perfectly ordinary one stretching from the snow grass at our feet to the top of the ridge almost = there, there is a band of slab looking as if it formed a cliff face. How mistaken we were. The slide was nasty - hard where it should have ceen soft, unstable where it should have been firm and composed of and laid over a bed of treacherous shattered greywacke and slate. It had a shelf halr way up which had not been apparent from below. And finally we climbed the band of slab, rotten slate spread with quicksilver slivers of rock, I enjoyed no part of it.

on top we put on spare clothing and ate sweets to calm our shattered nerves! It was well light by now. The sun had scarcely said hello before it said goodbye and the wind was keen. The weather was damp and dark on the Landsborough side. We took several photos of Ward to impress Stan and then onwards. We got to the last peak on the ridge before Williams and then turned back. The ridge is wholly composed of shattered slate, huge slabs stretching up from the Thompson and leaning over towards the upper Hopkins. Faced with an impassable slab on ohe side and a dangerous traverse on the other we decided to return. It was not much over 6000 feet but the view apart from that in our immediate vicinity worth the trip. From Jackson to Cook was a grand panorec - seen against the black clouds of an approaching storm. Hopkina dominated the end of the valley with Black Tower sitting in or the sinister conversation. Right below us was the river bed with the swin-ing curve of the Richardson Glacierat the head. Il It was here that we decidad that mountaineering was dangercus and decided to become tourists ! And so back to camp from where we retr ated before the weather to the bivvy at the junction of the Thompson and the Hopkins. We went down river as far as the Gorge and climbed very briefly onto the spur and quickly to the bivvy site. This gorge is most spectacular. The river is onclosed in sheer walls of rock and between these it boils and roars leaping in spray like Sieam from a gigantic kettle over waterfalls. Quite imponsible - wir that! The Thompson valley is not pretty. It is rotten and decaying and the Foster ugly. But it has its fascination. Most of the time we had spare up there we sat just looking at it. It was heavily quiet down on the river bed and I found myself waiting for the crackle and thunder of an avalanche. We had two days in camp one wet and cold. It snowed that night so next day was beautifully fine. We aired and dried ourselves and on New Year's Day did a trip round the head of the Hopkins. This had not been our intention. This year we had to go right to the head of the river to cross Just after the river emerges ice cold from the moraine because it high and dirty from freshly meltec snow. and there were no bridges because of the poor snow scason. We had just sat us down at the side of the stream and begun to eat when lo ! a follower of the willow came forth from the hills and enquired the cricket score. To say we were takenaback is putting it mildly. Very soon we were the centre of a curious crowe of 0.T.C. but we dragged ourselves away to the camp site. We had barely got our food out, the tent pitched and cur weary limbs already setting out in thought with Morpheus when a runner came in announcing an accident on the North col of Elcho. Afier some ciscussion we moved off down, river again and camped that night opposite the Thompson, Next day we left early for Elcho Hut where Bill, Titch and Hori were rapidly dispatched for carrying duty while I remained at base as assistant cook and tent pitcher. It was raining again and the weather cold. Ruth Mcss was a tower of strength and organisation and by night fall despite lack of convenient sized billies we were able to feed the cold wet party from up river. The accident had not been as serious as first reported but he went out by G.M.C. nevertheless next day. On the second we also left the Elcho for the Cairn where we spent a comfortable night in the 0.T.C. marquee. On the third we went to the Huxley Gorge Station from where we travelled to Omarama by mail bus the next day. Omarama is an oasis in a brown desert of tussock country at the place where routes from Pukaki, Kurow and Queenstowr meet. It has a hotel where we were, and a couple of stores one of which also houses the Post Office. Otherwise it is witl out distinction. The meals are tasty, the beer cool and refreshing. Arounc about the country looks parchec and pock-marked by the scuttering rabbit. 11 Bill still looks highly cisreputable as the patch and rear of his pants have parted company. We are somewhat of a sideshow to passing motorists although we fit in well with the local colour. The local gentry dress in tartan shirts, own racehorses, probably make a small fortune a year but still look like shepnerds. Such is life in them thar hills I with wool at 200 pence a pound." My next diary entry is Mite Brun Hut, 8th. January after .our climb of Aiguille Rouge witi odney. That is not to say we did nothing in between. Titch nauling a trout out of the gutter at Omarama, Lake Pukaki smooth and polished to a creamy nougat, the Hermitage with Andy Anderson at the Piano, snooker, siting in the sun on the lawn a few minutes before the ous was due to leave our packs unpacked and then catcning it, the bus's maniac course to Ball Hut, first close glimpses of the "big peaks" from Cook to Malte Brun, the vastness of the Tasman and its crystal pure blue ice pools, and the last pull up to Malte Brun Hut are things we are not likely to forget. But the 8th. January was our big day because we got our one and only peak. 9,31 blinking feet of it - at least we only had to climb four thousand odd feet from the hut. Ceoff Milne, now guiding there, gave us a few hints on the climb. He told us to climb up the gut behind the hut and sidle gradually right aiming at a col with a peak on one side of it - the upper; to climb not more than five minutes up and So via a steep snow slope off onto the glacier. We left at 3 a.m. , the morning fine with the promise of a fine day. We find the col without any difficulty and looked over onto a very steep snow slope. We climbed the peak, had a look Geoff and his party on the Malte Glacier. Titch found the route well below us. We finally picked it up and put on crampons. The "now slope was steep - very. We traversed this, down some rock of a very rotten variety and so onto t the steep slope overlooking the ice fall of the glacier. A, schrund not very securely bridged was crossed and from then till we reached the summit slopes the route lay over easy territory crevassed but not to cause difficulty. And then came the final push. We climbed on fairly hard snow at first - some of it ice - till we came to the schrund which stretches right across the face. Just before we got there a large rock came off the ridge to the right of us bringing down a surface avalanch@lechisecd dalightfully close to us. We turned our attention back to the schrund. The bridge was in an avalanche chute and the slope over it very much steeper and our pace slower. The snow was soft and steep and it musi nave been hard work for R odney plugging steps. Hori and I in the rear and roped together were not pleasently impressed by the baby "schisses" that came past us disturbed by Rodneys plugging. We crossed onto a rock rib not far from the summit and after this the slopes pecled off very quickly. The chute we had come up was now a hissing mass. And so onto the summit which was a narrow arch of snow, The route up was obviously out of the question now so we sat for some time erjoying most of the scenery. The peaks on the Divice were perfectly outiined. And elsewhere wherever we looked was row upor row of peaks till finally they disappeared in the dim haze of the distance. Ii was eleven and a long time to wait for the snow to harden so we picked a dorinantiy rcck route involving the traverse of the top of the ridge from tie summit. The snow was rotten and steeply arched - quite a test CI talance. The rock route wa3 easy. At the foot of this we tipped off a large rock, avalanched the slope below and then got Bill to test it. Nothing nappened except he sank deeply into the soft snow so we all followed. We had to jump the schrund but as it was not wide and the lower lip qlmost below the top we had no difficulty. Bridges were somewhat treacherous across the glacier and all the steps had to be recut but otherwise the trip was uneventful. Fourteen and a half hours - it has been done very much faster but who wants to race anyway ?. After this the weather began to pack up So we did too returning to Ball Hut where the bus finally found us. And so to the Hermitage again and home. And next Christmas ? Well, it won't be the Hopkins anyway. Marie Marshall - for Bill Rice (leader) Titch Graham, Graeme Hall plus Pod Milne for the Hermitage area.