The Quest - Magazine feature

THE QUEST Words And Photos By Neil Kerr

Fox Glacier, on New Zealand’s wild West Coast, is one of the closest Glaciers to the sea in the World. Tourists flock to this corner of New Zealand to view it year round.

They walk up to the terminal moraine and scratch around on the dirty toe of this huge river of ancient ice. Little do they know that high above them, on the snowy Neve at the head of the Glacier, rise some of New Zealand’s gnarliest peaks and one of our coolest Alpine huts. It’s from here, Pioneer Hut, at the very end of October we find ourselves searching for big lines to ski.

Late spring sees a lot of high alpine faces coming into ‘condition’. The melt-freeze cycle means, by lunchtime, the hard frozen snow is released from its frozen form and corns up, making for extraordinarily good big-mountain skiing.

With me is fellow cameraman Jason Hancox. We’ll be filming the pilot show of a web based video series: The Quest. It follows The North Face sponsored athletes; Fraser McDougall and Janina Kuzma as they develop the experience and knowledge necessary to climb peaks and ski first descents here in New Zealand. To provide us with tutorage we brought in the expertise of Adventure Consultants, who gave us Geoff Small. An experienced guide and ski mountaineer, he’s also won the NZ Big Mountain Championship eight-times!

As our helicopter ascends the prehistoric Glacier towards the Neve it started to dawn on us how vast the landscape is up here. Geoff was the only one of our group who’d been to the fabled Pioneer Hut, a climber’s mecca that precariously perches atop a rocky outcrop beside the glacier. We dropped off our gear and bagged a bed each for the night. During spring this hut is busy with mountaineers and ski tourers making the most of the great conditions.

NZSKIER.COM 60

Scoping lines on the lookers left shoulder. Janina Kuzma, Fraser McDougall, and guide Geoff Small.

NZSKIER.COM 61

The closer we got the more the true size of this gigantic place sunk in, it’s simply massive!

Straight to business, we donned our skins and started out across the upper slopes of the glacier towards the imposing peaks in the distance. The closer we got the more the true size of this gigantic place sunk in, it’s simply massive! Doubts started to creep into my mind, were we fit enough, were our packs simply too heavy with all the extra camera gear? Had we bitten off more than we could chew?

Clockwise from top left:

After an hours skinning in the intense spring heat at 2000m we were parched. While we had covered a good distance across the Glacier towards the central divide, we weren’t remotely close to the top of any peaks. During a short respite we weighed up our options. After much debate we decided on the large shoulder off the West ridge of Haidinger.

– Escaping the void.

– Doing the hard yards.

– Crevasse rescue 101.

– Quick interview at Pioneer Hut.

Opposite page: – Fraser sends it glacial styles…

So, we upped the pace and began to climb. It wasn’t long before we needed to put on crampons and un-sheath our ice axes. This was it – the real beginning of the trip. The intensity was increasing and as reticent as this made us this is why we were here. This was the essence of the series we were shooting; to push ourselves and develop our skill sets. All in the quest to conquer bigger and more exposed peaks. Training had definitely begun in earnest.

Half way up we spilt into two groups; we cameramen were to wait in position to film the descent, while Geoff and his proteges would keep climbing up the shoulder to the entrance of their line.

We were here as a team and although Geoff was our guide he wasn’t simply leading us. To take on the bigger challenges of filming first descents we would all, camera crew included, have to be able to look after ourselves as we climbed, skied and moved about in New Zealand’s high alpine realm. Geoff ensured we were rising to the occasion.

The lead group, still climbing quickly came to the edge of an exposed crevasse strewn face. They had to rope up to get across, the young Jedi’s; Janina, and Fraser were quickly introduced to ‘rope skills’.

Their steep and essential learning curve suddenly got steeper.

Ski mountaineering is a completely different craft to simply touring, even for experienced backcountry skiers. While skiing around the side country of your local ski-field or spending a night in a backcountry hut have inherent dangers, up here in the high alpine glaciated environment the dangers are so much more apparent. It’s not just the snow conditions you have to worry about. There are holes in the ice and terrifying exposures – a fall in the wrong place is not an option.

The rewards, however, were rich. We saw the three specks in the distance arrive at the top of the shoulder and the slope below them open out like a fan. The descent must have been around 800m vertical. Fraser dropped in first making solid turns down the freshly released corn, airing through a small cliff band at the bottom onto the flats to join us sun-baked cameramen.

NZSKIER.COM 63

Above: Fraser with a cork 7 in a harness and a backpack. No mean feat.

Opposite page: Miles from anywhere.

He was pumped. Mild complaints that his heavy backpack (with skins, crampons, and axe) had cramped his style soon faded as he watched Janina, a tiny dot above, carve her way down the mighty face, followed

by Geoff.

Slowly, our team was learning that skiing is very different up here.

Everything takes more time, climbing is difficult and tiring, setting up shots is technically challenging, and the way you ski is different too. No flashy straight lines or huge drops here, you need to err on the side of caution and live to ski another line.

Carrying camera equipment also proved challenging. There were no choppers to do a quick drop, nor chairlifts to quickly get back up and reshoot. These difficulties were compounded with every endeavor. The filming project we once thought was feasible, we now understood to be hours of sweat and no guarantee of a worthy result.

We spent the rest of the afternoon traveling around, skiing some smaller pitches and learning more from Geoff about this new boundless environment. We scoped a lot of lines for the next day and relaxed into building a jump as the late afternoon spring heat had drained us of everything.

We stopped off at the hut for a hearty dinner then took advantage of the long spring evening to head out for a sunset ski. A short pitch not far from the hut provided an epic backdrop of the west coast at sunset. In the foreground Janina and Fraser arced their way down the golden snow. We skinned back to the hut in the fading evening light, just in time for a nightcap.

The next morning we awoke with tired bodies yet grand plans for another day of exploration and learning. While our day on the Neve was bluebird and sunny, the ever-present sea clag was again massing on the coast below. We checked in with the heli-operator only to be told not to venture too far from the hut as the pick-up would probably have to be in the next few hours, not at 5pm as we had intended.

NZSKIER.COM 64

We abandoned our planned lines, instead doing a morning of rope skills and crevasse rescue near the hut. It was straight back to school; snow anchors, pulleys, and prusik knots. However much as it wasn’t big mountain skiing, it was an invaluable learning experience. With so many of the world’s big mountain lines accessed via glaciated terrain knowing how to travel safely on them and rescue your buddies if things do go wrong is essential.

After a few hours of intensive work in the hot sun, winching each other in and out of crevasses, we heard the faint sound of rotors and hightailed it back to the hut. While it wasn’t the heli picking us up it signaled our ride shouldn’t be far away.

Packing up at the hut, we said goodbye to our new climbing buddies, and also met a lone climber who arrived after summiting Mt Tasman. He was pumped as Mt Tasman was the last of NZ’s 3000m peaks on his list. He had now soloed them all! This put our newly gained climbing skills into perspective.

Thirty minutes later we were onboard the squirrel and heading down the glacier. It was an extraordinary flight as we ducked and dived through the fast closing gaps in the cloud, down into the grey mire below. It turns out ours was the last load of the day.

More than that, we had reinvigorated our respect for the mountains and the daring few who climb them.

While the trip had been cut short it was still a great success. We had some amazing footage for our first show and had explored a stunning piece of alpine, New Zealand. We had learned a lot of new skills and progressed towards our goal of skiing and filming first descents in New Zealand.

More than that, we had reinvigorated our respect for the mountains and the daring few who climb them.

As we started the drive home the team’s focus quickly moved to the next mission: the challenge of conquering first descents using what we had learned.

As always, unskied peaks beckon.

NZSKIER.COM 65