The Tramping Report

Ed Hillary on Everest

The Christchurch Press printed this photo of Ed Hillary on its front page on 12 Jan. It was taken by Alfred Greg high on Everest, when Ed and Tenzing were going for the summit. I like it because it features Ed in dynamic mode. (click it to see a larger version) I hadn't come across this image before. I hope it gets made available in a better medium than newsprint sometime.

I was thinking today when it was that I first learned about Ed Hillary and Everest. For my tweIth birthday, a few months after my father died, I was given The Ascent of Everest. This was the book written by expedition leader Colonel John Hunt. I read it through and I can remember studying the photos intently trying to understand what it was like being there. I can't remember the text giving what I needed.

Here's another link to a particularly good obituary article from Time:  http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1702543,00.html  

Ed's funeral was today. The country will be back to its routine again tomorrow.

Ed's gone

 

'Big Ed' Hillary, the man that raised the bar for heroes, is gone.

The mainstream newsmedia obituary that appealed most to me was on Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,321906,00.html

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark also says it well:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0801/S00074.htm

Tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary, a New Zealand icon Friday, 11 January 2008, 11:43 am Press Release: New Zealand Government

Rt Hon Helen Clark
Prime Minister of New Zealand

Prime Minister Helen Clark said today that the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary is a profound loss to New Zealand.

“My thoughts are with Lady Hillary, Sir Edmund’s children, wider family, and close friends at this sad time,” Helen Clark said.

“Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality, he was a colossus. He was an heroic figure who not only ‘knocked off’ Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity.

“The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived. But most of all he was a quintessential Kiwi. He was ours - from his craggy appearance and laconic style to his directness and honesty. All New Zealanders will deeply mourn his passing.

“Sir Ed’s 1953 ascent of Mt Everest brought him world-wide fame. Thereafter he set out to support development for the Sherpa people of the Himalayas. His lifetime’s humanitarian work there is of huge significance and lasting benefit.

“Sir Ed was not one to bask idly in celebrity. He drew on his international prestige to highlight issues and values which he held dear. His enduring commitment to and respect for the Sherpa people reflects the best of what we as New Zealanders can contribute, from our small developed nation helping another less privileged one.

“Sir Edmund established the Himalayan Trust in the early 1960s and worked tirelessly until his death to raise funds and build schools and hospitals in the mountains.

“The legacy of Sir Edmund Hillary will live on. His exploits continue to inspire new generations of New Zealanders, as they have for more than half a century already,” Helen Clark said.

54 days into Fiordland

Dreams don't come easy.

Honora and Janet Macnab were 54 days into Fiordland, after leaving the south coast just before Xmas 1994. For a 32 day stretch they saw no track or other people. Two days after this Janet's badly infected leg meant an emergency evacuation, and the end of the dream.

Honora told the story of their incredible journey in a presentation at the Christchurch Tramping Club the other night.

In '94 Janet had asked me to join her on a South-North traverse of the Southern Alps. I couldn't take 6 months off work and said no. That was such a stupid thing to do. When Honora was asked she didn't need to think about it.

Janet planned right from the start to do it complete. That meant going through the centre of Fiordland. Very few have got through there.

Honora and Janet faced up to the steep and jumbled terrain, the heinous scrub, the atrocious weather, the horrendous loads, the scanty route information and got to within a week or so of reaching the Milford Track.

A year later they both went back to the Glaisnock Wilderness to complete that short section. Janet fell and died while climbing steep slopes to a pass out of Taheke Creek.

Routeburn Rage

This email came around on the Christchurch Tramping Club mailing list:

Southland Tramping Club
PO Box 41
Invercargill

The Routeburn Classic Adventure Run has been granted a four year concession and will be held in the second week in May each year. This year it will be held on Saturday the 13th of May with the 14th being used in the case poor weather forces postponement from the original date.

Runners like walkers enjoy this amazing track and this is their one chance during the year to run it. The running community is very excited and grateful for. We would like to hear from any walkers or clubs that would like to be involved in the marshalling of the event. This would give your club members the chance to get on the track while having your food, hut fees subsidised by the management for the event. Please contact me if there are any members interested. It is always a lot of fun and we would enjoy having those who truly enjoy the outdoors and keen to share their enthusiasm with the runners.

Sincerely,
Evan McWhirter
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEB: www.goodtimesevents.net
PHONE: 027 420 4313

I've got to admit I'm not personally interested in these runs myself, but I recognise that a lot of people are (good mate Trevor Scott is going down to marshall on this one). But I also know there are people who would be happier if DoC didn't permit them.

A friend of Honora's, and mine, Simon Johnson opposed the initial concession for the run over the Routeburn. On his website, Soft DoC, Simon has documented the rather loose procedure DoC followed in issuing the concession for the first running of this race. I can't fault his case, even if I still don't have an opinion one way or another on the merits of the run.

However, even though Simon wasn't able to convince DoC not to issue the concession, he still gained far more than those who brought rancour and division to the Christchurch Tramping Club in their attempt to end its support for the Avalanche Peak Challenge.

Sadly that rancour and unpleasantness is still being played out in the CTC two years later.

I guess, unlike Simon, some people are not just in it for the love of tramping.

Needless Death on Mt Aicken

Murray Cullen told the Coroner that if there had been a marked route leading to Mt Aicken in Arthurs Pass then Elizabeth Thomson would not have died.

See this article from the Christchurch Press in Stuff News:

SORRY, CHRISTCHURCH PRESS HAS TAKEN THIS OFF-LINE "http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/0,2106,3605104a6009,00.html"

Of course this puts DoC on the back foot. But let's be fair. There are reasons DoC hasn't marked the route on Mt Aicken. The same reasons apply to why the route is not marked on Mt Cassidy, where another visiting tramper died. The same reasons apply to the lack of marking that resulted in the death of a local tramper who went down the wrong scree from Avalanche Peak to the Crow valley. I would even go back to the death of young Nigel Popplewell in the Otehake, only a short distance from a perfectly useable swingbridge.

There are so many examples.

However it's difficult to pull them all together because in each case there's an attempt to put the blame on the unfortunate victim. So we tend to just see them all as one-offs.

I've been collecting information on every back-country 'incident' I've seen reported in the media for the past fifteen years. I'm identifying some clear patterns.

A lot of people get off course on popular routes because of a lack of marking. Some of them die.

DoC isn't to blame however. DoC can only do what it's funded for. And there are some people arguing against DoC being funded to do this work.

I've even heard some old crusties in the Christchurch Tramping Club complaining about the route DoC marked to Avalanche Peak from the Arthurs Pass village. And this is despite them knowing that people had gone off route and died there before it was done.

Big Tops Hut roofing repair

DoC's Ronan Grew, who's responsible for huts etc in Waimak area, told Simon Lewis the Koropuku Creek's Big Tops Hut roof will be repaired in March.

I'm glad to hear that. I've seen Ronan as someone that can be trusted to follow through. If he says it'll be done I expect he'll make sure it does happen.

Actually this sheet tearing loose on the roof of Big Tops Hut reminded me of something Ray Forsyth told me. Ray was in charge of hut building for the old Forest Service in that area and, with generosity that was typical of him, gave me access to his work books from those years.

Ray had tramped into the Koropuku and selected the site for the Big Tops hut and was then involved in its building in March 1964. The pre-cut hut kit that was dropped in included a fireplace and chimney. However Ray decided to build the hut without the fireplace as he believed strong wind would be a problem in the area and likely to damage the chimney.

Now I've no idea what Ray saw that alerted him to that possibility. The weather was fine on his trips there so maybe he recognised it from the vegetation or valley angle. I've no doubt he was right though.

I wonder how that sort of instinctive, yet sound, judgement would fit in with how DoC works now.

Ray was one of the finest of the golden years of the NZ Forest Service and his feeling for the back country was an inseperable part of him. He and others like him, are sorely missed in NZ's hills.

Big Tops Hut repairs needed

Simon Lewis was in at Big Tops Hut in Koropuku Creek this past weekend with Mauricio Lloreda.

He sent me these pics of damage to the clearlight in the roof. The damaged clearlight is letting rain get down into the wall.

It seems the clearlight had only one nail holding the bottom end of the sheet. The wind has flapped the sheet until its solitary nail has torn through.

Simon and Mauricio tried improvising some repairs to reduce subsequent damage. If this isn't successful it's likely the whole sheet will be torn of in the next big blow.

DoC have been notified. But my question is: Should we hold our breath til they get there?

An urgent trip to the Koropuku might be coming up.

River crossing technique

Last night Honora ran an excellent theory session on river-crossing techniques for the Christchurch Tramping Club. The session was based around a useful video produced by the NZ Mountain Safety Council, "River Safety - Do you need to cross?".

To properly teach people how to cross a river safely you have to actually get them into a river, so they can fully appreciate the forces involved and practice the techniques. But there has to be a theory session beforehand to cover how to assess the river, inform the decision to/or not to cross, recognise the safest crossing points, prepare for the crossing and cover all the options and risks when in the river.

Unfortunately with sessions like this in tramping clubs a lot of people think they can just go along to the theory evening and leave it at that. With the Christchurch Tramping Club's own rivercrossing training they usually haven't bothered with any prior theory at all.

With Mountain Safety Council river crossing courses the theory evening is mandatory. Then the session at the river can be finished in half a day, before people get too cold.

When I was active in the Christchurch club in the early 1990s I didn't achieve as much as I hoped to improve the club's skills in river crossing. There were quite a few old ideas about river crossing that longer term members weren't prepared to let go of.

During the winding up Q&A session on Honora's evening Adrian Busby, the club president, interjected that people shouldn't wear glasses when they cross a river. Adrian didn't give any reasons for this idea of his so I'm not sure what his reasons were. He doesn't wear glasses but I do, and I can only think of disadvantages to leaving my glasses off in a river.

• See this other post on this subject - No Way to Cross a River

 

Avalanche Peak tramp/run

Jo Milne saw people running up Avalanche Peak on the weekend and was impressed. The runners would have been in their final training for the Avalanche Peak Challenge. I'd forgotten this was coming up.

Tonight, Honora said Dave "Wattie" Watson asked if we would help with marshalling again. I enjoyed it last year and wouldn't want to miss helping out again.

This year's event is Saturday 25 February. That's only two weekends away. As usual it has sections for trampers and runners. However DoC have put a limit of 150 participants so I'd recommend getting in quickly if you haven't already.

Update

The crazy end of year rush plus the move has kept me away from updating Tramping Report.

Honora did get her wallet back ($100 cash, etc included). Some honest trampers handed it in to the police. The police dropped it in to Honora's work.

On the 10th we got away on our one short tramp to try to gain a little pre-Xmas tramping fitness. Look back for the full report of Mottram Peaks, in the Waimak valley. I'll get that up with pics early in the new year.

Right now we're just off to Arthurs Pass for a few days at Big Tops Hut in the Koropuku valley. There'll be news of that on the 4th.

I hope the nor'westers don't spoil your plans.