Monday, March 17, 2014

Mt Cook New Zealand. Glaciers and Awe

Avalanche


Mueller Hut walk
Hooker lake Iceland ?

bivouac Hooker glacier. Dodgy rock everywhere... 

All photos by Jules



We seemed to breathe a heavenly atmosphere,
To live a new life in another and a better world
Where is the man who can come into contact with these surroundings and
Not be better in body and soul ?

G.E Mannering 1891


Mt Cook is a place of power – like Chamonix (France), The Matterhorn (Switzerland) . It both humbles and uplifts and connects one to the transcendent.
The mountain dominates at 3724m, framed by the Hooker valley and a glacial lake with icebergs which looks like Greenland

Sacred to the Maoris as Aoraki (son of the Sky Father) , similarly to Mt Everest/ Chomolunga (Goddess mother of the world).
So the connection of big mountains to the sacred goes across time and culture.

I certainly was affected by it. One night when I was bivying in an old hut,  the bright moon lit up the snows and the beauty brought tears to my eyes.

Walks I did: Mueller hut  - 3 hours up to 1800m no probs excellent views;
Copland ridge part way. The latter involved walking across a steep moraine left of Hooker lake for hours with my 25kg plus pack . Exhausting and dangerous. Lots of route finding and decisions. Bivied under the ridge , under a huge rock . Next day up at 5am. At 7am went up the dodgy narrow ridge barely marked with cairns  to 1500m before turning back, wisely. A dangerous ridge to come down in foggy weather. Made it back to the tourist track south of Hooker Lake and camped, happy to be off the moraine.
NZ is not as plain sailing as the French alps with its clear tracks and solid rock.


The training ground for Hillary who conquered Everest in 1953, as a humble bee-keeper.
There is an excellent alpine museum with 3D cinema which I visited. I venture to say that people were more happy-go-lucky in the 50s and 60s than they are now. We are living in tense, confused and slightly insane times. To much love of comfort and materialism and utopian ideology and not enough tolerance, friendship, smiles, carefree adventurers and spirituality.

Freda du Faur went up tough mountains in 1910 and had a peak named after her, another woman became the first female mountain guide in 1929.  The more I learn, the more I see that the Feminista theory of (European) male “oppression” is a load of crock.  Set women against men, children against their parents, blacks against whites. Divide and conquer – such is the strategy of the power hungry elitists who want to allocate Victim status to some and  rule your ass. Wake up and don’t be a puppet for these power-mad destructive freaks.  Students revolt against the zombies who shut down debate and brainwash you at Uni…  “Take the red pill” (the Matrix)  and see through the web of lies and manipulation the chattering classes have weaved to enslave you.

The world we’ve been born into is a cleverly designed story-factory to keep us from the truth so that we stay in neat little boxes, all lined up in a row. We do what we’re told like little soldiers afraid to test what happens when we claim our own power.


from   http://www.angelamaycompany.com/?p=516