MOUNT TUTOKO.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 March 1924, Page 4

MOUNT TUTOKO.

PERILOUS CLIMBING. DIFFICULT TASK IN FINAL STAGES. WELLINGTON, March 21. Mr S G. Turner has supplied the following account of his final, successful effort to climb Mount Tutoko. ,“I started from Wellington on Feb. 21st. on my sixth expedition during the last five years to reach the summit of this hitherto unconquered mountain. The six expeditions have cost me over twelve months, besides further considerable time spent in organising. Mount Tutoko remained a mystery mountain until three years ago, when m.v expedition forced a waythrough to Holly-ford Valley at the side of tho mountain. But the summit remained linc-onquered uuiil Pot:-' Graham and I stood upon if on March 4th., 1924. Even then we had rushed it to boat threatening weather which turned into heavy rain soon after we left tho summit.

“During the ascent, when wc were nearing what we thought to he the top, I ran lip the last hundred foot of its snow-can, only to come face to lace with a wall of rock, looming up like tho wall of a house for about fiOO feet. Wo tackled this precipice, in some places climbing overhanging rocks, and reached the highest point at 4.20 p.m. Owing to the dense mist photographs were impossible, though I carried a full-plate camera for the purpose. Me hustled down, being overtaken byheavy’ wind and a rain storm, and we were unable to light a candle in the lantern until nearly down to our little bivouac, situated at an altitude of J 5900 feet, which we readied at 8.45 p.m. AVe had rain nil night and most of the following day, hut the day after that. March Gth.. was a beautiful morning, of which wc took full advantage.

“We put on ota- wet clothes and left for the second ascent at 7.30 a.in. Our clothes soon dried on ns in the warm sun, and we made good time towards the summit. When wc came up to the foot of the final rock wall we realised that it was the steepest piece of rock we had over attempted, do get on to it one had to get one’s fingertips into a small crack and do a finger traverse over a formidable drop. There were no footholds and we could use only our knees, up against the smooth rock, for a propelling force for from fifteen to twenty feet, until a one inch bythree inch ledge for tho right foot was reached, and relieved the strain. 1 will describe this great rock climb in detail elsewhere. “AVe reached the summit about nu.on, a-tid we were both delighted that we had made the second ascent, because there was a ridge of hard snow extending for about three-quarters of a mile, and one of the six summits looked about as high as the one we were standing on.

“It took us about one hour to negotiate a trnverso of the whole of them, and three-quarters of an hour to return. including the taking of photographs of the most, thrilling scenery. The point wo reached first was fifty feet higher than the southern summit.

“If there are people on Mars, or any other planet, probably the most conspicuous sight oil this earth, will he those deep gorges, from 300,1 to 000'i feet deep. As seen from tho crest of Mount Tutoko. there are a large number of them.

“Space boro does not allow of further description. 4he sight and the conquest were worth the road-mending and road-making through the hush for the pack horse, also the thousands of feet of bush track blazed ami the route-finding, together‘with all the pioneer work around tliis highest part of fiordlantl. Nobody had over learnt where the summit was or how to get up the first thousand feet of its slopes, although attempts on tliis peak were started in 1895. .'lost of the expeditious were on the Milford Sound side and some of them were very feeble efforts compared with the Mount Everest expedition necessary for success. “It was the last but biggest uneonquered monarch ol the Alps, although only just over lM)t)9 feet above sea level. Our base camp was 9!>90 Icet below i.--; summit. The summit ridge was overlooking a drop of between 8000 and 9099 feet on the one side and of GOOD feet on the other, and one could almost throw a piece of rock down to tho bottom, in Tutoku Abtlley. I am informed that my summit photos have conic out all right, and they should reveal one of the world's supreme beauty spots.

“Before this peak could be climbed valleys, rivers, steep bush and the geological structure of the country had to be mastered, and, in r, land of procipces and deep gorges, these obstacles have an entirely different meaning to mountaineering obstacles in any other country: 1 would rather tackle .Mount Everest, twice over than go through the Mount Tutokn tussle again. 1 wish to thank the fifty odd men who, during the six expeditions I have employed to help me to conquer this incomparable mountain. The.country was bard and trying, requiring more moral forte than straightforward climbing. “If the English Alpine Club and Geological Society succeeds in scaling Mount Everest I shall be glad to congratulate thorn, but if they fail .1 ho]>e they will leave the door tr Tibet open for other expeditions. and if they give other people a chance to go into Tibet, who knows but what we might be proud of Xew Zealand and demonstrate, too, that the age of men is no bar lip to sixty, if their lives have been used to following tip one particular line of effort.”