CHAPTER XX

THE FIRST CROSSING OF MOUNT COOK—_concluded_

On the Summit of Aorangi—We commence the Descent—An Ice-Glazed Rock Arête—Suspended over a Precipice—A Sloping Chimney—An Ungraceful Descent—Graham loses his Hat—A Cold Wind—Down a Frozen Slope—Falling Stones and Ice—An Accident—Cutting Steps by Moonlight—The Final Bergschrund—Crevasses by Candle-Light—Our Second Sunrise—The Hermitage at last 297

INDEX 313

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mount Cook, from a Tarn on the Sealy Range _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

Ruapehu from Ngauruhoe, looking through the Rift at the Side of the latter Volcano 6

Crater of Ngauruhoe, party on farther lip of Inner Crater through which clouds of steam rise 3000 feet 10

Kaufmann, Rev. W. S. Green, and Boss in New Zealand 16

Jack Clark, New Zealand Alpine Guide 16

Peter Graham, New Zealand Alpine Guide 16

The Hermitage, Mount Cook 30

Crossing the Hooker River in the Cage 48

Crossing the Tasman River, Dixon driving 54

Camp Cookery at Bivouac Rock, De la Bêche 54

The Mount Cook Bivouac 66

The Hooker River, Moorhouse Range in background 74

Camp on Plateau, during attacks on Mount Cook 88

Crossing the Murchison River—Fyfe and Turner 88

Elie de Beaumont, from Malte Brun Bivouac 100

Mount Cook from the Upper Tasman 114

Mount Darwin 122

Mount Sefton; the short white line at foot of dark moraine in middle distance is the Hermitage 130

Cooking Scones at Ball Glacier Camp 140

T. C. Fyfe, emerging from Murchison River 140

The Sun-bonnet Brigade, on Tasman Glacier Ice Cliff 158

On the Upper Tasman, Mount Darwin in background 158

De la Bêche Bivouac Rock 166

Crevasse on Tasman Glacier, from 400 to 500 feet deep 182

On Lake Te Anau 222

Homeward Bound, Sealy Range with Footstool of Sefton in background 244

Mount Walter, part of Elie de Beaumont on right 272

Above the Clouds: view from Mount Cook Bivouac; Tasman Glacier thousands of feet below; Leibig Range in background 286

Mount Tasman, from 11,000 feet on Mount Cook 290

A 3000-feet Slope, the dotted line indicates route to where the Zurbriggen Arête is reached 296

Summit of Mount Cook: First photograph of it taken: Graham, Turner, and Fyfe on summit 296

A CLIMBER IN NEW ZEALAND