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Story: Mountaineering

Climbing Aoraki/Mt Cook

Climbing Aoraki/Mt Cook

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 – since a landslide in 1991 the High Peak has fallen to 3,724 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.

Using this item

GNS Science

Reference: CN22324/50

by Lloyd Homer

Permission of GNS Science must be obtained before any use of this image.

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How to cite this page

John Wilson, Mountaineering – Aoraki/Mt Cook, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/10483/climbing-aorakimt-cook (accessed 8 June 2026).

Story by John Wilson, published 2 March 2009, updated 1 February 2017.

Comments

Hart
10 October 2024
Hi - great to see this article! Meanwhile - and sorry to be *that* guy - let me share that the primary sources for Green, Kaufmann and Boss' 1882 expedition (such as Green's Alpine Journal article, including a sketch-map, and his water colours) suggest that the upper reaches of their route went through the rocks on the mountain face above Linda Glacier (i.e., to the right of the yellow line shown). See https://hartstamps.blogspot.com/2024/10/green-kaufmann-and-bosss-1882-near.html for a collation of the material and an amateur analysis. Many thanks again!