Ball Hut Home Of Permanent Mountaineering School

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 11

Ball Hut Home Of Permanent Mountaineering School

A PERMANENT mountain■*v eering school is to be established in the Mount Cook National Park by three Christchurch climbers. It will be based at the Ball Hut which is at the juncture of the Bali and Tasman glaciers.

The dimbers, Messrs L. S. Crawford, P. Farrell and D. A. Mackay, intend to run a series of courses for climbers at all levels of experience. They will be held mainly during the summer months when guiding also will be undertaken as time permits. Ski-ing instruction will be given during the winter. Recession of the Ball glacier has cut access to the slopes used for ski-ing in the past. Until a new track can be made ski-ing will be confined to the Tasman Glacier and the slopes in front of the Ball Hut Week-end and school holiday parties from Christchurch will be taught by a Continental instructor. The principals of the school consider the area Ideal for a mountaineering school. Facilities for instruction in rock climbing are available immediately behind the Ball Hut in ice and snowcraft on the Ball and Caroline glaciers 40 minutes* walk away, and for river crossing in the Murchison river an hour away on the other side of the Tasman Valley. Before the advent of the ski-plane. Ball Hut was the jumping-off point for most climbers heading for the big peaks. It is nearly 4000 ft

above sea-level and 11 miles by road from the Hermitage. At times the Ball Hut road has been described as “rough”—and worse. Today, however, it is maintained by the Ministry of Works and has never been in a better condition. It is constantly travelled by large and small cars, but is still a long way from State Highway standard. The first Ball Hut was built by the Government in 1891 and during the days of the first climbs of most of the bigger peaks it was, in times of storm, the nearest haven of stability greater than that of a tent. The hut was then situated in the trough between the moraine and the side of the valley, and about a quarter of a mile below the present site. The hut was a corrugated iron shed divided into rooms sleeping accommodation for men and women divided by a canvas curtain. The floor was paved with slabs of rock gathered from the moraine, and cooking was done outside. In those days and for many years after, transport from the Hermitage was by foot or horseback. Fitzgerald, an Englishman active in the early assaults on Mount Cook, recorded that he thought the hut would be better sited further up

the valley and higher on the moraine. After World War I the hut was rebuilt on the site preferred by Fitzgerald. From about 1920 to 1940 it was operated by Mr Wigley’s Mount Cook Company. The next owner was the Tourist Hotel Corporation, which has controlled the hut until the present day. At its peak of occupancy Ball Hut had bunk space for 90 people, though in recent years 70 has been the maximum number accommodated. Facilities at the hut have been adequate for skiers and climbers. A diesel generator supplied power for lighting. A large oil burner heated water for the bathrooms and hand basins in the bunk rooms, as well as providing a drying room for wet clothes. A large triple burner oil stove was used for cooking, and two oil space heaters and a large open fire warmed the guests. Then the Ball Hut fell on bad days. The recession of the Ball Glacier made skiing there out of the question. While the ski-ing in front of the hut and on the Tasman Glacier is adequate for novice skiers, the experienced skiers sought their snow elsewhere. The advent of the ski plane made the hut an even less

frequent stop for climbers.

The Tourist Hotel Corporation decided that it had no further use for the hut as such and planned another structure to serve its purposes. The corporation offered the hut to the Mount Cook National Park Board and to mountain clubs throughout the country. No one was Interested. Ball Hut was doomed. Demolition of one wing was begun.

About this time the present proprietors began to take an interest in the possibilities of the hut as they had had a school of mountaineering in mind for some time. They had already held two week-long instruction courses for Australian climbers in the summer of 1965-66, and decided that the hut would make an Ideal site for their venture. Ball Hut was reprieved and work has begun on repairs and renovations. Facilities will not be of the “Hermitage” class,, but the hut will be brought up to the standard of a good mountain hut. The mountain instruction side of the operation will be concentrated in the summer months, although minor courses will be run throughout the year.

The three instructors are well qualified to run such

an enterprise, and they are accredited by the New Zealand Alpine Club, the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand, and the Mount Cook National Park Board. Their collective climbing experience is considerable.

Since 1959 they have taken part in seven overseas climbing expeditions to Peru, Bolivia, New Guinea, and Nepal. On two of these expeditions all three were members. Between them they have climbed more than 30 peaks between 16,000 ft and 23,000 ft Lynn Crawford and Peter Farrell were members of the four-man party which made the first ascent of the east face of Mount Cook. Farrell, who was born and bred in Manchester, is ranked by many mountaineers as the most technically competent climber in New Zealand today. Crawford rates very high among New Zea-land-born climbers, as does Don Mackay. In spite of their long list of overseas successes the three instructors have nothing but respect for New Zealand mountains.

“High precipitation and widely variable weather conditions make our mountains even the lesser ones on occasions, formidable in the extreme,” Don Mackay said recently. “If, through our school, we can enable more people to climb, travel safely in the mountains, and reap as much enjoyment from them as we have, we shall count the venture a success.

“The idea is far from new. Many of our predecessors have thought of setting up a school such as this. We count ourselves fortunate in having the opportunity to do so,” he said.