The Tasman in Winter

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THE TASMAN IN WINTER One being prevented from joining the miles down the glacier, we convinced party by an ankle broken in a June him it was worth a try. By circuiting mountain accident, another unable to get over the snow and listening to the echo leave, there was only two of us to reach he guessed it would be safe enough. the Hermitage on the afternoon of Sat- The skis hit and ploughed through the urday, 19th August. snow in deep furrows while the pilot by coarse use of throttle and rudder With snow next morning to below the prevented the plane burying its nose in bush line, we left with heavy packs for the snow. We unloaded and skied across a few days' skiing on the Sealy Range. to Tasman Hut, dumped our gear, and A perfect day with a cloudless sky and lost no time in sampling the no powder wind, we were soon wallowing snow in long runs from under Mt. through the deep dry powder. From Aylmer. the ice cliffs of Mt. Sefton just across the Mueller Glacier, we could view the With two others in the hut we left Main Divide, the stark ridge of Cook, at the luxurious hour of eight o'clock and farther to the east the Malte Brun next morning for Eli de Beaumont. We Range. The last 800 ft. up to the hut skied under Lendenfield Saddle and on was climbed on skis. The remainder of to the lower Anna Glacier. A large the day was spent climbing Mt. Ollivier schrund here stopped progress on skis. and skiing in delightful fresh powder We turned the schrund by staying close snow. under Mt. Walter, and some large ice pinnacles above us, one of which had Monday continued fine and we left crashed down the glacier the on skis for the Annette Plateau. We day and weired cracking noises, previous caused quitted skis to climb Mt. Kitchener and some exciting moments till we had make the short traverse to the next crossed the avalanche debris. The rebump. By the time we regained our mainder of the climb was straight forskis the snow was deep slush on which ward, with alternating soft snow, hard the skis wouldn't run, so we "swam" ice, and some open slots that had to be back to the hut to sit in the warmth of jumped, and we reached the summit at the sun. twelve o'clock. Although the weather The following was deteriorating, we had clear views for the morning we left again of the Franz Josef and Fox Neve, but the plateau, but the sun softened only the high peaks were snow again and made skiing difficult, D'Archiac to the east and visible, Mt. and after striking ice on a steep tra- to the south, the most prominent. Malte Brun verse, we left our skis and plodded on to the top of Mt. Annette. The peaks We descended to our skis in a whiteof the Tasman area are magnificently out, following steps and crampon holes. presented from here, and if only we had Bombing down the Anna was both excitbrought our skis, perfect dry powder ing and unpredictable, as Tony found snow invited skiing. In the afternoon. when in a wild "splar" he succeeded in the clouds poured over the Divide and bending one touring binding into a we arrived back at the hut in a white- peculiar shape, making it unusable. out. very His progress was now very slow, on one On ski. dragging the other behind. The hut Wednesday the heavy weather per- was reached in a white-out at sisted and worse was expected so we The afternoon was spent 2.30 p.m. returned to the Hermitage, to spend the the binding with a hammer. straightening next day drying and preparing gear. Friday 25th Fine weather the next morning saw proved to be fine and us to within 60 feet of the of Mt. calm, in spite of a bad forecast. We Aylmer on skis. From here top we walked crammed into a plane at the Hermitage the short but narrow to the airstrip, and in half an hour had covered Again clouds in the valleys ridge top. terrain which would have required a view but of the high A spoiled any full day's hard walking. The pilot was down to under Hochstetter peaks. Dome long and run doubtful if he could land us on Tasman the steeper southern as the up Saddle as 3ft. of fresh powder covered deteriorated. The last slope, 200 ft. was weather walked the area, but not wanting to be dropped in a snowstorm.

During the night the hut shook in We stopped to watch an enormous avathe rising westerly wind and heavy dark lanche thunder down the Kaufman clouds poured over the Divide as swirl- Glacier, sending clouds of snow high ing surface drift invaded the hut into the air and finally crashing into through the smallest cracks. The others the Tasman. The lower glacier was blue in the hut left the next morning to dis- ice with patches of drifted snow, and appear into the murkiness, dragging their by sliding uncontrolled over the ice and over-loaded sledge. The two of us sat turning on the snow we skied to oppoout the next five days of continual bliz- site the Haast Glacier. Then the long zard, thankful for the battered paper- slog over moraine to the Ball Hut to backs and the tool cupboard left open. arrive at the same time as the rain. The Carving candle holders, building card kind offer of a ride down the road to castles and spinning home-made tops the Hermitage and a night in the C.M.C. passed the time, while once a day we Hut. would dig our way out the door and The next day was easy walking in the read the Met. Office thermometers and Hooker Valley for photographs. Past collect ice to melt for water. the swing bridges and up the river Saturday, 2nd September dawned fine, brought us to a scree under Mt. Wakeand we were keen to be moving again. field. From here up a gut to the ridge We left early without breakfast, but where we were presented with a mageven then the sky was darkening in the nificent view of the Hooker Valley and west. About 3 ft. of new snow made surrounding peaks. Back for a few for wonderful skiing in spite of our hours' sun by the river, a beautiful sunheavy packs, but further down the set and then our last night in the area. glacier it was crusty, ruined by the wind. Dennis Gazley, Tony Gazley * F