LOVES N.Z. HILLS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 412, 22 December 1932, Page 3

LOVES N.Z. HILLS

DOMINION TIIE MECCA OF MOUNTAINEERING PARTIES MANY COMING THIS YEAR Switzerland was not climhed much hy English mountaineers this season . . . Norway was stormed by British climbers who custoniarily visit the Swiss Alps. . . New Zealand mountaineers have progressed in both enthusiasm and ability "out of all sight" in the past decade. . . Four English cliinhing parties will be in New Zealand this season,' an unusual number. . . These the points one gathers from 1 Mr. H. E. L. Porter, who is back from j a summer in Eng'land for another of j his periodical assaults on the high ! peaks of this country. Mx*. Porter has been to New Zea- , land six times in a decade. He lceeps on coming back to climb new peaks. In j 1927 he married a daughter of Mr. i J. M. Barker, of Woodbury, and that j gives him an additional reason for ; coming back again. On this trip, which' will last till April he aims to climb Dampier which has been scaled once so far, and Douglas Peak, which has been done only twice. These are two of the three ; peaks above 10,000ft in the Mt. Cook j region that Mr. Porter has not topped j yet. He is going to try Dampier from the Ilooker Glacier. He has a grudge j against that mountain. He eonsiders ; that by all the rules of the game he j should have scaled t a few years ago, j but he did not start early enough and j had to turn back. He's got an even bigger grudge ( against Douglas Peak. He has had I „hree shots at it from the nermitage ! side. Now he eonsiders it almost im- j possible going that way, and intends , to try from the Fox. Mr. Porter's party will he one of four English climbing expeditions in New Zealand this season. It is the first time that so many hav"1 come, so far as Mr. Porter can remember. Miss K. Gardiner is hack again on ones of her very frequent visits and Messrs. H. Goodfellow and A. M. Binnie, well-known English climbers, are the others. Mr. Porter said the annual march' on Switzerland had not eventuated this > year. The pound was worth only about two-thirds of its face value in Switzerland, and this had lcept many climbers away. They had gone instead to Norway, but he had done little climbing sinee his last visit to New Zealand. he New Zealand mountains were becoming better known on the other side of the world. Mr. Porter mentioned that he had seen in England aerial photographs of Mt. Cook, which were taken from an airplane which was chartered for th'e purpose by The

Christcurcli Sun. I What has impressed Mr. Porter most about mountaineering in New ! Zealand is its extraordinary growth ! from the time when he first visited the I country, he said. Ten years ago a ! New Zealand Alpine Club existed. j but it was not a very live body, and i there were few New Zealand climbers. ! Now there were fiourishing cluhs in | both Christchurch and Dunedin, as I well as the North sland, and there were scores of "extraordinarily enthusiastic and enterprising" climbers, | who were "doing wonderfully good , woik." New Zealand's alpine play- ' ground was unique in many ways, and ; it was pleasing to know that ^local : climberse were making such progress | in it. I I Mr. Porter will he accompanied on | his climbs by Mr. Ilugh Chamhers, of 1 Hawke's Bay, and probably Vic Wil1 liams, Ihe head guide at Mt. Cook, will go with them.