New Zealand 2003

New Zealand alpine is tough. The mountains, although not as high as the Western Alps, are remote. The height gain from the valley and from many of the mountain refuges to the summit considerable; add to this long walk-ins, complex glacial topography, a lack of traffic, severe and rapidly changing weather conditions with large levels of precipitation and you have a serious mountain range of international repute. It's no wonder that the first proven person to stand on the summit of Everest was a New Zealander. It's also no coincidence that some of the most advanced skills in avalanche awareness and crevasse rescue in the world have been developed in NZ.

Walking in over the unrelenting moraine of the Tasman glacier, Rocket in true "pommie"style, wondered whether he had been a little ambitious in his estimations. Routes in NZ tend to require a minimum of 3 days, a day to walk in, a summit day and a day to walk out, and that assumes all goes to plan and the weather holds. 'Moraine bashing', as kiwis refer, is the hours of tortuous stomping over piles and piles of loose 'chossy' boulders of all shapes and sizes in big mountain boots (it's not unusual to cover a distance as small as 1km an hour) before you finally reach the haven of the white ice of the upper glacier. By this time you may well have lost your sanity if not all your enthusiasm for setting foot in the mountains again! Nevertheless, by 8.30pm, Rocket had safely reached his bivi site beneath the south face of Malte Brun, and with a fine view of the mountain shrouded in evening sunlight, settled down for the night.

S.face Malte Brun The objective was to solo the west ridge, a classic rock route at NZ Alpine Grade III (probably akin to French AD/AD-) and return to the bivi the same day.

To gain the ridge an intricate system of steep icy couloirs and rock ribs were followed with the route description in the guidebook typically understated. This was probably the most challenging part of the climb, it being easy to get off route onto tricky mixed ground. Hitting the ridge at 9.00am, the summit was gained at about 1.00pm. Exposure on either side of the ridge was exciting, particularly at the 'cheval' section where most sensible people 'ride' the crest of the ridge as they would a horse with legs dangling either side!

looking down the west ridge The return to the bivi site was also exciting, the last 600m of descent was completed 'sur la derriere' in one long bum slide! This was awesome, or as a kiwi might say, "..chooooice…sweeet as bro'…". The walk out the following day was equally as arduous as day one, in fact more so as by this time feet were utterly 'trashed'. Meeting up with a fellow Brit' on the glacier was a fine way to end the trip. While exchanging tales and mouthing off about 'moraine bashing' the two 'poms' demolished several litres of beer at the mountaineer's café in Cook village.

The next opportunity to go alpine came several days later after a hefty storm had blown in from the south west. Coinciding with England's World Cup victory Rocket had found himself outnumbered by kiwis and aussies in the local bars and figured it might be a good time to retreat into the mountains! A spell of 4/5 days of fine weather was forecast. This time Dean Johnson (a kiwi and former member of MMC) was able to join his 'pommie' buddy and the ambitious pair settled for the 1800m East Ridge of Mt Cook followed by the infamous summit traverse. This combination is hailed in some guidebooks as probably the most classic ice climb in New Zealand.

mt cook from the Plateau (arrow denotes forced bivi) By now, rather wary of the notorious NZ walk-ins, Rocket suggested that to optimize their energy and acclimatization at altitude they should charter a Mt. Cook ski plane to drop them on the glacier at Plateau Hut situated close to the start of the East Ridge.

Fortunately Dean didn't need much persuading. As it happens a lot of climbers adopt this method of approach when going for routes from the plateau. The charges for such a flight are very reasonable. After settling in the hut a large contingent of NZ SAR (Search and Rescue) showed up to spend a week completing their training in snow and crevasse rescue. Dino and Rocky joked with one of the more outspoken members of the team, herself a veteran of benightments; "if ever there were a good time to f**k up then it would be now with a team of SAR stationed at the hut!"

above the clouds East Ridge At about midnight that night the pair set off, escaping the heavy snoring of the SAR team, who after their 'tucker' had stayed up to play cards and drink whiskey! Barely half an hour later whilst crossing the glacier to the base of the route the pair almost struck disaster. Rocky renowned for his finesse and impeccable competence, managed to pull the hose off his bladder. The 3 litres of sticky fluid infused with carbo-powder emptied itself into the contents of his rucksack and within minutes had frozen his spare clothes and gloves. There followed a shocking outburst of rage. The language was unrepeatable. Fortunately Dino was able to calm the situation and suggested distributing half the contents of his bladder into Rocky's while adding snow to both to top up the levels. The idea being that the snow would melt more easily in the remaining water. Confidence restored the pair set off up the ridge.

high on East Ridge The East Ridge is long and sustained with some technical ice and mixed sections, but nowhere desperate. It involves long stretches of moving roped together over terrain that is ever increasing in exposure; there is also little opportunity for rest or belay. However it's normally only necessary to pitch a couple of sections, the first a mixed traverse, and the second a steeper section of hard blue ice that terminates just below the summit ridge. There is also sometimes a tricky section weaving through some overhanging seracs to get established on the summit ridge proper.

After completing the lengthy East Ridge you are confronted with the summit traverse of Mt Cook before reaching an easier descent route. On the summit ridge the exposure is awesome. With a drop on the west side of some 2000m to the Hooker glacier and on the east, huge cornices hanging over a plunge of 1500m, it's not the kind of place to hang around. A slip would equate with a one way ticket, there being no opportunity to self arrest on the steep icy slopes.

By the time the pair had reached the summit ridge at about 2.00pm they had been without water for some hours. Unfortunately the plan to top bladders up with snow had not worked as it was too cold. Not only had the snow freezed up but the remaining water in the bladders had also freezed. Casting their eyes along the traverse to the summit they realized why it is not unusual for teams to be benighted on the route. Although there are a number of tantalizing glimpses of the summit along the ridge there is roughly half a km of exposed traversing from the top of the East Ridge to the summit with no opportunity to escape.

summit traverse Furthermore, being springtime, the conditions on the ridge were quite technical with hard 'sastrugi' ice on the windblown west side, offering marginal placements for axe and crampons. The technique adopted was a kind of 'crab-like' sideways motion of front pointing into the slope a short distance below the crest of the ridge. To cut a long story short the pair agreed that pitching it would probably be a safer option than moving roped together, that said, it is unlikely that many of the belays would have held a significant fall! Moreover the problem with pitching was it took a lot more time, probably three times as long as moving together. With daylight hours dwindling the team were by now resigned to an inevitable belay high on the mountain (neither had brought bivi gear) whilst recognising the need to get onto easier ground before it got dark. Spurred on by the most awesome sunset dipping into the Tasman Sea (unfortunately no time for photo!) the weary pair reached the easier ground at the end of the traverse at about 11.00pm.

sunrise over Mt Tasman Dropping down rapidly to the rocks below the summit ice cap they were unable to locate the abseil stations for the descent to the Linda glacier and decided to dig a snow hollow and wait out the night. Too cold to sleep the lads kept the morale going by exchanging secrets, whilst vigorously jumping up and down and 'marching on the spot' to keep warm. Ironically it was to turn out to be almost the exact spot where barely a week later four Latvian climbers fell tragically to their deaths. The next morning the pair set off again and although weary and dehydrated descended the 1500m back to the plateau hut in about 5 hours. The last 200m upward slope to the hut was the hardest. Fortunately the SAR team were out practicing crevasse rescue and seeing two bedraggled climbers stopped to offer some very welcome water. It had been some 36 hours since the pair had drunk anything more than the smallest drops of water from sucking on snow and ice, and most of that time had been above 3000m!

Dino & Rocky recovering at a wine farm Back at the hut life was (as a kiwi might say) "…sweeet as…" with much drinking, revelry, and boisterous card games. And it wasn't till about 11.00pm that Dino and Rocky finally made it to bed; it had been a long and exhilarating 48 hours!