Story: Mountaineering

The flags marked on the summit ridge of Aoraki/Mt Cook represent successive attempts at climbing the mountain’s peak:

The yellow flag shows the point reached in the first attempt, by William Green, Emil Boss and Ulrich Kaufmann, on 2 March 1882. They climbed up the Linda route to within 60 metres of the High Peak (12,349 feet, or 3,764 metres, at the time – a landslide in 1991 has now reduced the High Peak to 3,754 metres).

The red flag marks the point reached by Guy Mannering and Marmaduke Dixon on 6 December 1890. They followed the same route and came within 30 metres of the point reached by Green’s party.

The blue flag records the successful climb on 25 December 1894 by Tom Fyfe, Jack Clarke and George Graham. They ascended from the Hooker side.

The second successful ascent was a solo effort by Matthias Zurbriggen on 15 March 1895. His name is positioned over the ridge he ascended.

First attempt on Aoraki/Mt Cook

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First to climb Aoraki/Mt Cook

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