The Conquest of Mt Cook
by Freda du Faur

Read: Oct 20-30, 2022
Genre: Adventure

I picked up this book after reading Solo by Hazel Phillips (also an excellent book) and was not disappointed. Freda was an amazing and inspirational woman of her time. Many accounts of her climbs paint a picture of a truly different time. The climbs, harrowing, the equipment and clothes, rudimentary, and the tracks more or less non-existent.

It was interesting to me to find that most of her main climbs were done being guided, where her guides would tend to go out each evening to cut steps and scout the track for the next day. They also carried the majority of the equipment in their “swags”. This is not to diminish her achievements, but only serves to exemplify the incredible hardness of climbing guides of The Hermitage. Absolutely incredible.

The book is remarkably readable and not at all dull. Freda never ceases to amaze. She truly inspires me to go out and do some basic mountaineering — that is until I get on a slope and realise I’d love to not fall and die. Hah.