In a quarter of an hour we entered a rocky gorge, and still down we sped on the snow, winding about in and out between magnificent rock precipices, until before another fifteen minutes had elapsed we emerged into the Hooker Valley, having come down 4,000 feet under half an hour.
Turning down the valley we kept to the old lateral moraine of the Hooker Glacier (which stands 235 feet above the present level of the glacier), and found it good walking.
Once more, however, fortune forsook us, and an enemy in the shape of a south-west gale, accompanied with heavy rain, met us, against which at times we could scarcely make any headway. But struggling on we crossed the Hooker River on the ice of the Mueller Glacier, which at that time spanned it, and reached the Hermitage drenched to the skin at 4.30—eight hours from the Ball Glacier.
This was the first, and up to the time of writing is the only crossing of the Ball Pass, an excursion which ere long must become a favourite one, for a track is just completed to the Ball Glacier, where a two-roomed hut has been erected by the Government for the use of tourists and mountaineers.
A finer point of observation than the Ball Pass would be hard to find, as it commands the most comprehensive views of the Tasman, Hooker, and Mueller Glacier systems.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FIRST EXPLORATION OF THE MURCHISON GLACIER
Hard Swagging—Erroneous Maps—The Struggle for Starvation Saddle—Exhaustion and Hunger—Return