NEW YEAR ON RUAPEHU.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 325, 4 January 1911, Page 5

NEW YEAR ON RUAPEHU.

A STRANGE EXPERIENCE

(By H.W.A.)

"0, the mountaineer to the summit clear. And the wheelman to his wheel," writes a poet of the open air, ami the thought struck the writer the other day that it would bo an excellent thing to put the former portion of the rhyme into praetis.-. So aceompanieci by a friend, who, foi th ■■ pur poaea of this plain an I simple ii.irra--tive shall hj.« called lo.n. a sima. was made from '!V Kuili ':i .vwurny afternoon last for Oliakuuo, ibo cranio leaving by I.lk afternoon's express. Wo had read somewhere tin! a new bush track had been en!, fraai ( malame to the foot of the mounts in, and

though Rangatauu ol!Yr.: similar labilities, we determined to visit. Kuapehu from the former town. Ohakune was reached by ! !l p.m. and an immediate adjournment was made to the Hotel Windsor (1 can resommencl the hous'i. where we spent the night. Sunday morning and New Year's Day broke line and bright, and gave every promise of a good time coming for us. Guide Reid of Ohakune, took us in charge, so to speak, and armed with smoked glaases, a pair of held glasses, a travelling rug, a towel, soap, apples, rasins, chocolate and provisions, we set out for the "Pressman's camp" as it is called, nine miles away and half-way up the mountain. The guide had gathered in another couple of sightseers, in the shape of two cyclists from Auckland. and we all made a very happy family

together. A horse bore the provisions and the heavier things, and as Walt Whitman puts it "afoot and lighthearted" we wont merrily on our way. It needs all the animal spirits the average man has to walk over that nine-mile bush track. I know what settlers have to put up with when carving their homes out of the wilderness, and am deeply sympathetic with their difficulties. But this track! The Ohakune-Kuapehu Alpine Club has the coolness to call it a bridle track, and a circular in my hand pays the journey can be done "in case and comfort." If that circular is issued by the authority of the KuapehuAlpine Club, whoever they may be, then the sooner it is revised, the better for the worship of absolute truth. The track runs through the heavy rimu and matai hush for over eight miles, and has been made in most primitive fashion It winds up hill and down dale in the way all paths have a habit of doing, and is mainly represented by the "blazing of the trail." No attempt has been made to clear the path of fallen logs or sapling stumps, and I found my energies were fully taken up in "lifting my feet," as my grandmother irsed to instruct me in childhood's days. It was certainly eNcellent exercise for the unused muscles, though very exhausting to one not accustomed to that form of gymnastics. 1 should say there would be anything up to five hundred fallen logs to surmount. In one part of the roue the grade is one in five for about a mile, and the walker ri3es 500 feet in a very short space, presumably as a preliminary canter for the great event. Wellall things have an end, and that bridle track ended at last. We covered the nine miles in the fairly good time of 5* hours, allowing 1J hours for a rest and lunch on the way. A tent was on the spot and the guide put up another one, assisted by the irrepressible Bob, whom any amount of exercise did not seem to tire. Then, while the billy boiled, others of us cut junks of bread and opened tins of preserved meats, and we made a hearty meal as the shadows fell. We were 4500 feet above 3ea level and were enjoying our experience in that cool, bracing air. So the bed, as old Pepya says, by dusk, to rise at 3 a m. for "the 'final trip. From Hie camp to the top of Ruapehu is stated in the circular as three miles, and I have no doubt it is three miles by aeroplane or life-line. But to walk -well give me 20 or LHI miles of good high road, and I know which 1 should prefer. It was a beautiful morning, with a rather stilt' northerly breeze blowing, which, coming oil the mountain, re-

sembled nothing of the tropin it is said to hail from, W» had an early breakfast, and loaded with just the lightest of stable:', seted'a' !. hwa.m. for the summit. I'p, up we went, first through bush, t'-iu-n through strange sub - arctic veg"tatem am. finally over vohmdc ruck am! arctic ice and snow. The linal "mum for the pole" was a terror. Indeed, ag one member of the party put. it. we could have done with less ••terra" and more "firma." The route lay oyer a huge spur nearly hare of sme.v, iy inbetween the Mangaehuchu end iMangateitci glacier:-*, and il. looked as though, with the cutting oi a tew Btep?, our efl'otts would he erowi:a, with success. lenfortunab !y the two Auckland members of ilm it"; party had not come fully prepared i"r tne somewhat risky last. dew. and our guide considered it preferable to run a line of Steps in the me :ua-.s the great face of the glacier lym '. to our left. It looked easy, 1 hare said, but it took a (ample of leans uy, "ay. while our guide was uudnublc.u ly i.eepjng himself warm with ihc excellent. exercise he wa i gelling, she w, at ,u u : were crouching against a lock, trying to protect ourselves from the terniilbiting wind. It, ocuetratwi our li-Si. clothing and chilled ua to t.e.o bone. For the Sake of exercise 1 Walked Up the .Steps where the guide w.w wooing, now within VD l</et. oi U:e Silmmit, and cwr fiam feet .mows sea level, and took a hand at. Uw wolU. But it was all no use When tne steps had b.eu cut. to lb- .ai.nmi!. foe guide found a formidable Dana et ice antleinoW through which he would nave had to cut l|is way ae.d the question then arose: had we time to :tay. Clouds of vapour weie cumim, ,j>. ..■, the shoulder of Kuanc.hu iioiu tm. new active volcano, and wh.tis of sulphur from time to time raactu.i the noses of the party, it was now nearly ppon, and aa it wad necessary to

'return to Obakune that night, we i reluctantly gave up the hopes of ■ reaching tin* summit, even though it was on the point oi being reached. A further \^':ii*" of a f<-W l' v;ol,Ki : have gorged Sir bViiest Shackleton, and we defended, i shall mwer for-jet tint drop down, the mountain

side. That penetrating wind was evervvvhere and nearly Mew us over the Mi'.'eiou'es at limes. To save time we took to the snow-covered glaciers, and slided down them. With t!u revering of sa.ev they now have this is much sater than it sounds. It is. indeed, at present ;dmost imnossihb- to slid- very far. that ; s at about half way tin the mountain where t: u . i.ieline is not so acute as at the d-tal stag./, -and it proved a pleasant change from I'm interminable voieanie roe!:, which was the only alternative read <:t transit. The camp was reached in two hours and a-ha!f, and after a hurried meal and packing up we started on the return journey to Ohakune, reaching there are 7 p.m. It had been a strange, experience. While a naturalist, or a lover of flowers would be charmed with the many varieties of sub-arctic flowers to be found at the 5000 feet Ifcvcl, and would similarly enjoy trie fine bush, with it wealth of ferns, trees and fcarlet mistletoe growing as a parasite on the birch trees, the mountain is itself bare of any flowers, and appeal to the geologist and the mountaineer from its geological and

! scenic possibilities. Given fine and ■ still weather, the ascent could be I made under much more comfortable I conditions than our party climbed I tinder, but I should not advise any ; doing the trip from Ohakune. Rangataua, only three miles further on, has, I am credibly informed, a better track, an experienced guide and I facilities for getting the trip clone ! quickly. So far as mere effort and i endurance went, we had done more i than enough to have climbed all over ! Ruapehu. That we failed to reach the i summit was the fortune of circumi stances, rather than individual fault. The Ohakune track is useless, in its present deplorable state. I understand the Government has allotted £2OO for survey and engineering work on the route to the camp, but it will swallow £3OOO to make a really good graded road, and it is dubious whether the State is justified in going to that expense when so many more urgent claims needs attention. If Ohakune people really want to develop their access to Ruapehu, they will have to put their hands in their pockets and do it themselves. To clear the present nine mile track to the camp could be clone for a couple of ; hundred pounds probably, sufficiently so to enable walking in comfort. It is to the interests of the hotelkeepers ; and the shop 3 and sto>'C3 that a decent ; approach be made and a properly equipped camp be provided. As ■ thing 3 are no lady could dream of 1 attempting the journey and only the most athletic of men, except in late summer. If we go again—and the mere suggestion of anything on ice nauseates me at present—then it will be by Rangataua and at Easter. I intend to give Ohalume a wide berth.