TO CONQUER TASMAN

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12604, 15 November 1926, Page 7

TO CONQUER TASMAN

INTREPID CLIMBERS’ AIM ATTEMPT TO BE IADE EARLY NEXT MONTH MEN ARRIVE YESTERDAY The conquest of MoijntjTasman is to he attempted by two ’intrepid climbers from abroad who arrived by the liner Tainui yesterday. They are Mr Harold Porter and Mr Marcel Kurz. Both are thoroughly experienced climbers, the latter having a erect renutation as a winter man, while str Porter has to his credit many of the main peaks of Europe, and has climbed Mount Cook and Mount Sefton in New Zealand. Mr Marcel Kurz is a Swiss mapmaker, and works for his Government. He was employed by the Greek Government to make the first map and survey of Mount Olympus, and he is the perfector of the new technioue of mountain climbing on ski. Until the advent of this method there were firstclass peaks in Switzerland which had not been aseended at all in the winter. It is largely a matter of mapreading. There are certain gradients which call far special attention, and where the danger of avalanches is greatest. HOW THEY COME Avalanches result partlv from the State of snow and partly from the position of the snoiv. and looking over his maps (the modern mountain map is a beautiful piece of work) the climber is enabled to plan his route to best advantage. Ski climbing itself is a great assistance, tliere are slopes which can be mounted on ski which would be impossible for ordinary boots. CLIMBED MT. COOK IN 1923 “It was in 1923 that I climbed Mount Cook in company with Professor Algie, of Auckland, and Frank Milne, the guide,” said Mr Porter yesterday. “I climbed Mount Sefton in my second season, and now wish to have a shot at Tasman which is considerably the most difficult of the lot. It is practically one sheet of ice. It lias been climbed only three times, by Fitzgerald and Zurbriggen, a Swiss guide, whom Fitzgerald brought out with him for the attempt, by Samuel Turner, Peter Graham and Darby Thomson in 1914. and by Peter Alec Graham and Miss du Faur, of Australia, about 1910. CHANGED HIS MIND “Fitzgerald came out with the intention of making the first ascent of Mount Cook, but he was forestalled, and I am pleased to say by three New Zealanders, George Graham, D. C. Fyfe and Clark. So he then refused to have anything to do with Mount Cook, and mado the first Tasman climb. ‘‘We shall probably go down, about December 4th, and try to get to the top before Christmas. High up the Silverborn, the subsidiary peak of the Tasman, there is a great bergsebrund —a very exaggerated' crevass with one wall higher than the other, and filled with snow. I think that early in the Reason it may be easier to got across than later, and that we mnv be able to cut our way up the ice on'the other side. I ain very glad to have the company of Mr Knrz, who was taken with the idea of coming out hero. Naturally I jumped at tho chance* for he is * fii-si-C.if»fs climber,’-