SUMMER SKI ING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 224, 10 December 1927, Page 8

SUMMER SKI ING

MR. AMERY AT MT. COOK “PANORAMA OF PEAKS AND ICEFIELDS” (Special to THIS SUN.) THE HERMITAGE, Friday. Mr. L. S. Amery, Secretary of State for the Dominions, is very enthusiastic over the wonderful ski country available at the head of Tasman Glacier. He considers it the finest summer ski-ing he has seen. After 24 hours of boisterous weather conditions improved at mid-day on Wednesday, and allowed Mr. Amery and party to leave the Ball Hut for Malte Brun Hut, where they arrived in the aftern'oon and met Miss Feiling, who had been ski-ing from this hut for two days while the others of the party were climbing. Yesterday was a perfect day, with a good deal of fresh snow. Mr. Amery, Miss Feiling and the Hermitage ski experts left the hut at 5.30 a.m. for a ski run to the head of the glacier. Mr. Amery was very much impressed with the panorama of peaks and great icefields which is seen from Malte Brun, and which other alpine visitors have considered to be probably finer than anything outside the Himalayas. Apart from the wonderful scenery Mr. Amery considers the head basins of the Tasman, Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers provide an unequalled ski ground which, with proper development, would soon attract oversea enthusiasts. Mr. Amery, Mr. Harper, Miss Harper and Messrs. Graham propose to cross over the Minnerat peaks, 10,958 feet, and descend the Franz Josef Glacier to the Defiance Hut, where they will probably remain to-morrow, and then descend one of the neighbouring peaks, reaching the Waiho Gorge Hotel to-morrow night or on Sunday. Miss Feiling returned to the Hermitage yesterday from the Malte Brun Hut to rejoin Mrs. Amery, who vVill go to Waiho Gorge, via Arthur’s Pass.