Mountain Journeys in the Southern Alps Dedicated to John Rundle, John Nankervis, and All Who Draw Inspiration from Journeys in the Mountains

THE GREAT UNKNOWN Mountain journeys in the Southern Alps Dedicated to John Rundle, John Nankervis, and all who draw inspiration from journeys in the mountains. THE GREAT The name ‘The Great Unknown’ was given by A.P. Thomson, UNKNOWN John Pascoe, Gavin Malcolmson and Duncan Hall to a peak at the western end of the Garden of Eden ice plateau in December 1934. To them, the peak was a metaphor for Mountain journeys in the Southern Alps all the remote unexplored country in the vicinity; and their attempt to climb it from Adverse Creek had failed. The mountain was also written about by Paul Powell, after the first ascent of it in 1939: ‘The Great Unknown was the mystery that we felt on this cornerpost of wild and rugged country.’ The Great Unknown can also be a metaphor for our own journeys to remote mountains and our personal discovery of these places. For me the unknown has always been a spark that has driven trips. It carries with it the excitement of simply being alive, that every day can bring new experiences, new learnings, new understandings of who and what we are. Few places deliver that experience of discovery as meaning- fully as the mountains. GEOFF SPEARPOINT CONTENTS We must closely guard the welfare of our National Parks and 7 INTRODUCTION 85 THE GARDEN OF EDEN 167 FROM THE OKURU TO THE WILKIN Reserves. These should not be regarded as the property of our ICE PLATEAU 168 Selborne Range traverse 86 minister or the government. They belong to the people of today 15 KAHURANGI Storm on Adams Col 172 The dark side of the Divide 16 The Dragons Teeth 90 The North Ridge of Mt Kensington 176 Moirs mission and tomorrow. We must fight for their protection if necessary. 19 Garibaldi Ridge 94 Big day out 178 Winter wilderness 21 Mt Kendall 96 To The Great Unknown Fred Vosseler 24 Mt Owen to the Matiri Range 183 THE HAAST RANGE, VOLTA GLACIER & The Haystack 101 RANGITATA, THE MOUNTAINS & MT ASPIRING OF EREWHON 184 Haast Range traverse 29 SPENSER MOUNTAINS 102 The Warrior 188 Not rock solid: an Eros encounter 30 To see the Faerie Queene 106 Amazon Peak 194 Viva la Volta 34 Thompson Pass & Mt Una 108 Mt Arrowsmith 36 There and back 111 Mt D’Archiac 199 THE OLIVINES & RED MOUNTAIN 38 Kehu Peak 200 Olivine–Volta traverse 115 ELIE DE BEAUMONT TO 204 Desperation Pass, the Olivine Ice Plateau 41 KAIKOURA RANGES AORAKI MT COOK & Red Mountain First published in 2019 by Potton & Burton 42 Seaward: the frost report on 116 The West Peak of Elie De Beaumont 210 A land of beyond Mt Manakau 120 Wilczek Peak, the Callery and Price Range 214 In Barrington country 46 Inland: Tapuae-o-Uenuku classic 123 Aoraki Mt Cook grand traverse Potton & Burton 126 Murchison–Tasman glaciers traverse 221 FIORDLAND & THE DARRANS 319 Hardy Street, PO Box 221, Nelson, New Zealand 51 THE WAIMAKARIRI TO 222 Harrison–Tutoko pottonandburton.co.nz THE HOKITIKA 131 THE BALFOUR, NAVIGATOR 226 The Light and the Dark 52 Christmas at Sir Robert Hut & SIERRA RANGES 230 Transit–Sinbad © Geoff Spearpoint 56 Along the Main Divide 132 Across the Balfour Range 234 Windward River tops–Coronation Peak– 58 Mathias to the Waimakariri 137 The Navigator Precipice Cove Maps by Roger Smith, Geographx 62 Clarkes Pass: What could possibly 140 Mt Sefton go wrong? 144 The Sierra Range & Douglas Neve 239 AFTERWORD: BACK OF BEYOND ISBN 978 1 98 855002 2 64 Main Divide traverse above the 241 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Whitcombe Valley 149 THE HOOKER WILDERNESS 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY, NOTES, Printed in China by Midas Printing International Ltd 150 Scissor slabs to the Makawhio Valley REFERENCES & GUIDEBOOKS 69 THE BRACKEN SNOWFIELD 154 Karangarua–Fettes Peak–Mahitahi This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for 70 The County face of Mt Evans 158 Otoko–Marks Flat–Moeraki the purposes of private study, research, criticism or 75 Stormed out 162 The Solution to Mt Hooker review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part 76 Bracken to the Gardens may be reproduced by any process without the permis- Published with the generous support of the 79 Off to Ivory Lake sion of the publishers. Federated Mountain Clubs Mountain and Forest Trust 82 Winter snows on the Bracken INTRODUCTION So strange it is we wish to go, Or so they say who may not know, Not know the breath of mountain air, Nor feel the feeling of no care; Not know what nomads ever knew Or do the things that they would do, Or watch the cloudmist fade and go Lester Masters, ‘Some There Are’ THE EXPERIENCE The mountains speak. They draw us in, take us on missions into unseen afternoon glissades in sugar-snow back to camp. On others, they can lead into corners, cast spells and sometimes let us on their summits. They throw us a morass of wind, rain, hail and snow, where effort becomes impotent and the into gorges, stun us with their peaks, drag us into heroic struggles, forge fan- world crashes into the space of a cage, lashing us to the hillside. That is the tastic friendships, and change our lives forever. To those with their eyes open, thing about the mountains. They offer everything but promise nothing. The mountains can lead to a new reality. experiences we have in them depend on what we choose to pursue. They steer us to the back of beyond then chase us home again, drunk on This book is about the experience of being there, of living in the land adventure, scratched, torn and grinning, back to lectures and work, where few and hearing it breathe, feeling it roar, listening to its pulse. Feeling the shock know or understand where we’ve been. How can the excitement of outrageous when an icefall cracks away overhead, seeing puffs of rock dust as a boulder days in the mountains be explained? pulverises down a gully nearby. Not just watching the rivers rise and fall but But there is an exhilaration in living with nature on nature’s terms, being part of and controlled by them. Every good trip has a level of uncertain sleeping out under a universe of stars, finding ways into hidden valleys and outcome. It keeps the mind focused. camping on remote ice plateaus where the mountains rise sharp as frosted It is also about focusing on what is around you. Seeing seiches in alpine greywacke. Being in the mountains is about the joy of being alive, and that’s lakes from strong winds, or cooking dinner on a rock outcrop where the steam what the journeys in this book are about. sifts while the sun sets, and the mountains bare their teeth until darkness Sometimes the tops offer wonderful days in the sun, swanning around in swallows them. It is listening to a bush robin defending its territory in sharp unexpected tarns, lazing in warm, stony hollows on the crest of peaks, and strident notes that are reminiscent of a stone skipping over flat water. 7 It is lying tucked under a bivvy rock in some isolated valley with a fire and his companions returned year after year to explore northern Fiordland scented by Olearia and Phyllocladus heating the billy for a brew, while drizzle in the 1890s. And over the years there have been many other people similarly and rain alternate with the mist rolling in and out among the scrubby bluffs. inspired. In an Otago University Tramping Club magazine, ANTICS 2003, Kelvin Lloyd Roland Rodda, George Moir, Tom Fyfe, Jack Ede, Howard Boddy, S.A. wrote, ‘It’s a timeless experience to sit out the weather under a dry rock over- Wiren, Gordon Speden, Jim Dennistoun, Dora de Beer, John Pascoe, Marie hang in the middle of the wilderness. Try it some time.’ Byles, Stan Conway, Ray Chapman, Merle Sweney, Alan Willis, Scott Gilkison, Paul Powell, J.T. Holloway, Ian Whitehead, Arnold Heine, Bill Beaven, Norm THE JOURNEYS Hardie, the Brough brothers, Peter Bain, John Nankervis, Kelvin Lloyd, and Strictly speaking, the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana (from here on, many more have been involved in such trips. The journeys in this book cele- written as Southern Alps) begin at The Divide on the Milford road and finish brate our transalpine exploring tradition. at Nelson Lakes. In this book Kahurangi, the Kaikoura ranges, and Fiordland Sometimes their explorations were re-explorations, as earlier waves of are included as well. people explored these mountains first, beginning with Māori and continuing Throughout the Southern Alps, many remote ice plateaus and wild moun- through to gold prospectors, surveyors, geologists and others. tain ranges have gained a reputation amongst backcountry trampers and A.P. Harper, Charlie Douglas and A. Woodham experienced the challenge climbers for their beauty, isolation and challenge. This book celebrates those of their surroundings back in 1894, when camped near Lemmer Peak and the places. A few well-known peaks are also here, including Aoraki Mt Cook, but Franz Josef Glacier. mostly it is about those lesser known, less-frequented wilderness mountains. In each chapter I have singled out three or four trips and written about Towards midnight the gale increased, and the wind howled around us in them briefly, based on my diaries. These mountain trips are part of a personal furious gusts, trying to dislodge the fly which was flapping about in an alarm- journey of 50 years of tramping and climbing in the more remote mountains ing manner. Douglas had just said, ‘It is deuced lucky that we tied her down so of the Southern Alps.

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