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Olivine Ice Plateau-Dart-Hollyford. (Feb.1963)

Party: Steve Reid, Geoff Norris.

On Monday the 4th Geoff Norris and I crossed the Ice Plateau and, climbig above the Memorial Icefall, headed for the gap in the ridgs that is called Solotion Col. Just below the Col we avoided some bergschrunds by cuting a ladler up a crack between snow and rock. We left the Col at 4pm, descending to the Joe river.. Moir's route guide for the ascent was so brief as to be of little use, so we picked the easiest route sidling to the left through snow basins, donned the rope after an encounter with a crevasse, and found ourselves on top of an ice cliff between the two branches of the Twin Icefells. We groped back for 1000 feet into the collecting mist, sidled amont the gaping black neve crevasses which we had carefully avoided on the way down and then found ourselves on Moir's "ridge off Destiny". We descended as quickly as possible, ran into confusion as to Moir's "main ridge" and had to retreat 300 feet from the jaws of a further icefall. Moir's "main ridge" is the one heading for the Victor Creek Juntion. We reached a moraine basi on the snowlin a as darkness was falling and bedded down.

The next day was cloudy with a N-E wind. We had a dohy. veg. breakfast which we did not repeat, and headed off down to the Joe The going was not bluffed but was over rough loose moraine and was slow, the Joe turned out to be a narrow, grey river but deep and vicious. Depressed, we moved down into the very bouldery gorge. We tried a ford where the river was wide, but it was far too deep. Then we found we were looking at a pile of boulders stretching right across the river. This natural bridge required claborate mountainearing techniques, but one further up stream was crossed with a smal jump.

Victor Creek bivvy was a five star one-clean, dry, soft, quiet and scented by the masses of white ribbonwood flowers that hung from the trees in the glade in front The grass too was carpeted and after the roughness of the surrounding country, this bivvy, far above the roaring river, had a charm and serenity without precedent. In fact when the following day dawned drizzly wo decided to stay.

The next day was much the same; however time was running out so we tackled O'Leary's Pass. Up the old slip, the key to the bluffs, to the right up steep slippery wet snowgrass and rock ending in a piece of vegetable climbing (avoidable), and so no above the slip. There is really only one rather feeble animal track here and no matter how glibly Moir describas it, parties descending will find it to be the key. From here on the going was up a deer highway on a textbook ladge - pleasant, despite the wind and rain. We reached a ridge and a priori assumed it to be the pass. We climbed to the top east side of the pass, a Moir, and found instead of a sidling deer track, a bluff and an icefall disappearing ito the mist. We put Moir away hurriedly and went back to a rubble covered series of ledges leading to some frozen snow and moraine, which to my surprise did not lead to more bluffs but to gentle tussock slopes above Pass Burn. The going was easy, the tussock was not covered with moraine, the bush was open, and the sun was shining page break on the green expanses of Cattle flat.

So we came to the Dart, and the sandflies descended on us in their hosts and verily I say unto thee the very sky was black therefrom. The night was ort and our sleep shorter and we were chased from our camp. The Dart was big and in a hurry and waist deep a yard from the shore so the track staye on the "other" side, and we pushed off into the gorge. The going was fairly rough through slips, boulders and windfalls, and forever up and down. Twelve hours later we camped in rain at the Beansburn. During the night the weather cleared for the first fine day in seventeen The Beansburn was clea and six inches lower in the morning and although our rope ran out in midstream we crossed quite easily. The Routeburn did us well with raspberries and the next day we crossed over to the Hollyford and a car that wouldn't start.

S.J.R.