Mood:
accident proneTopic: local news
We took a walk up Hooker Glacier in 1989 in Mt Cook National Park north toward the awesome Mt Cook itself. This was after doing the moutaineering course with Geof Wyatt's climbing school at Mt Aspiring* National Park near Wanaka in another part of the New Zealand south island. Including a climb of Mt Aspiring soon after.
The reports in the press today refer to 6 lost Aussie climbers (more like trekkers?) "half way up Mt Cook" (p3 Sydney Daily Telegraph) in the vicinity of Metelille Glacier, travelling from Meuller Hut to Barron Saddle Hut.
Here are the Mt Cook Guidebook images showing these risky or unlucky 'climbers' are just outside the urban village on a grade 1 minus 'doddle'. That's on a scale of 1 to 7 in the guide book with 7 being hardest (though higher off the scale is said to be possible).
That's not to say dangerous weather can't be life threatening even close to home just like Thredbo here, but this is not an intrepid Mt Cook ascent adventure story. For a start Mt Cook is a good 12 kilometres north of here (based on the 1 km scale in the diagram above, at bottome right corner). At first we thought it was even more but realise that was just our very old memories of fatigue, apologies for any confusion.
Here are a few more revealing images regarding location and geography - all within the 'Mt Cook National Park' hence I suppose the confusion in the general media.
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* As mentioned we climbed Mt Aspiring (pictured below from the guidebook called "The Mount Aspiring Region" by Graham Bishop 1974, 1989 edition) which was an impertinent thing to do at that level of training having completed a course with Mountain Recreation school. The climb this writer was proud to complete was Grade 4 out of 7 on route 63, west face. This was with a local guy name Tim Garwith (if vague memory serves).
This mountain is not in the Mt Cook Region, rather near Wanaka. Those were the days. So fit, so young, so thin, so crazy brave. Absolutely freezing in the windchill, and hot enough to sunbake on the summit sheltered from the same wind. The mountains are very beautiful and intoxicating.
