Guide Frank Alack at Graham Saddle with his dog, probably Chief, said to be the first canine to cross the central Southern Alps. Photo / Herald, National Library
Guide Frank Alack at Graham Saddle with his dog, probably Chief, said to be the first canine to cross the central Southern Alps. Photo / Herald, National Library
Alpine guide Frank Alack's large, shaggy dog was claimed in the early 1930s to be the first canine to cross the snowy central Southern Alps.
Alack (1899-1991) was born in Austria, raised in Australia and, after some time in Canada and Alaska, took to guiding at the Aoraki/Mt Cook Hermitage hotel in the early 1920s.
A decade later he was working at Franz Josef Glacier and later again at Fox Glacier.
While at Franz, he and a client made the first winter crossing of Graham Saddle to the Hermitage. They used skis when they could, but struck 1200m of ice on the descent from the 2635m saddle down to the Rudolf Glacier and "had to cut every step" with an ice-axe and carry the skis, Alack records in his memoir, "Guide Aspiring".
Alpine guide Frank Alack inset into a picture of the snowfields at the head of the Franz Josef Glacier, where he skied in the 1920s and 30s. Photo / Herald, National Library
The image of Alack and his dog was published in the Herald in 1932 without identifying the dog or the location. It appeared in the Christchurch Press in 1934, where it was stated they were on Graham Saddle, but again the dog went unnamed.
Alack's book, however, said a male dog named Smut was left behind in Fox when the family which owned him moved on. Smut gradually adopted him, they became strongly attached to each other and he renamed him Chief.
Alpine guide Frank Alack with his dog Chief on a glacier ice pinnacle. Photo / Weekly News
A Weekly News picture of Chief appears in the book and Chief looks like the unnamed alpine dog of Herald and Press fame.
Alack devoted a chapter of his book to Chief, "A canine in the alps".
"He was very much glacier and mountain wise, and rarely got into difficulties."
But on one glacier trip, when Alack was leading a party of six during a break from his high-climbing work, Chief fell down a melt-water hole, a "moulin" that was 5m deep and just 60cm wide.
"Should water be pouring down them [moulins] they can be extremely dangerous. Fortunately for both of us, this was one proved almost dry," Alack wrote.
"I had to get him out. I took stock of my party, but did not think there was one who could be lowered into the hole and who would be strong enough to bring Chief up, for he was a heavy dog.
"However, I felt that their combined strength on the end of a rope would be sufficient to pull me up with Chief in my arms."
"So I fixed the rope to myself and went down head first. It had to be that way. Had I gone down feet first, the moulin, being only a couple of feet wide, would not have allowed me to bend down to grasp the animal.
"Slowly the party lowered me. Coming close to Chief I grabbed him behind his forelegs, then gave the order for those on the rope to haul me back."
The rescue was a success and Alack sat for a moment to recover, the dog watching him. "As soon as I moved to get to my feet he jumped up, trying to bury his shaggy head in my arms …
"If it is possible for a human being to tap a dog's 'wave length', then I think I could claim to have done it at that moment. It might have been just imagination on my part, but all I can say is that I experienced a most uncanny sensation at that instant of reunion."
Graham Saddle, although an achievement for a dog, was far from the peak of Chief's alpine career.
"I took him to the top of Mt Lendenfeld," wrote Alack, "which is more than 10,500ft [3200m] high, which gives him the honour of having been higher than any other dog in New Zealand. Knowing the nature of the peaks which are higher than Lendenfeld, I think Chief will hold this record indefinitely."
In 2019 Lendenfeld Peak is listed on latest maps at 3194m (10,479ft). Although high, its main route is a relatively straightforward climb from Marcel Col and the tributaries of the Fox Glacier.
