THE CLIMBER NEW ZEALAND’S CLIMBING MAGAZINE
ISSUE 93 SPRING 2015 $9.95
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF THE NEW ZEALAND ALPINE CLUB
I TRAIN h c it P t s a L e h T FOR YOU’RE TRAINING FOR MORE THAN A GAME. PREPARE FOR YOUR NEXT A D V E N T U R E W I T H A C T I V I T Y- S P E C I F I C W O R K O U T S A N D T R A I N I N G G E A R B U I LT T O D E L I V E R B I G G E R D A Y S A N D B E T T E R M I L E A G E . THENORTHFACE.CO.NZ
EMILY HARRINGTON
JOE BUDD /
CORY RICHARDS
SNAPPED Get your photo published on this page and we’ll give you a stylie pair of Chalkydigits pants of your choice from their current range. James Gunn giving it full beans on a flash attempt at Insane Automatism (28), Chasm Crag, Fiordland. TOM HOYLE
CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS
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26
34
40
NZAC Photographic Competition 2015
Embracing Diversity
Balfour Rock
A Mild Thing
BY PETER LAURENSON
BY TAICHIRO NAKA
BY DANILO HEGG
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THE SHARP END
The 2015 NZAC Darrans Winter Climbing Meet
Alpine rock climbing on Magellan and Drake in the Balfour Glacier area
The South West Face of Emily Peak, in the Ailsa Mountains
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NZAC NEWS
Results and judges' commentary
04 EXPOSURE
14 PEOPLE 16 PEOPLE
ON THE COVER The El Topo sector at Whanganui Bay has some of the best ignimbrite climbing around, and it’s not all run-out grade 28 Roland Foster testpieces. More moderate mustdos include Neil Parker’s sloper masterclass Hot Lava (23), Mike Rockell’s ‘best route name ever’ stemfest A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (25) and this new addition, Transmission (24), a long technical arete. Pictured here is Jana Wold dance, dance, dancing to the radio! JOHN PALMER
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THE CLIMBER ISSUE 93, SPRING 2015
THIS PAGE Short, sharp and refined: Zac Keegan samples Crema (V6) at Turakirae Head, a problem for the Wellington connoisseur. TOM HOYLE
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ACCIDENT ANALYSIS
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BOOKS AND FILM
50
STUFF YOU NEED
54
WALL DIRECTORY
56
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EXPOSURE
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THE CLIMBER ISSUE 93, SPRING 2015
EXPOSURE
DANIEL JOLL
THE WINTER this year provided exceptional ice and mixed climbing conditions. A stack of stellar new lines were completed in the Southern Lakes and Fiordland regions, see climber.co.nz and the the area reports in upcoming New Zealand Alpine Journal for full details. Karl 'Merry' Schimanski got busy during the Remarkables Ice and Mixed Festival. First he onsighted Under Pressure (M8) on the Telecom Tower (pictured here), then he swapped to the east side and set to work on The Fly project at Terminator Crag. After a couple of days of effort, Merry redpointed The Fly, thus establishing New Zealand's most difficult trad mixed line (by two grades) and the country's second climb graded M10 (after Northern Exposure at Wye Creek, put up in 2005). Awards at this year's festival went to: • Macpac Hardest New Route – Men's: Karl Schimanski for The Fly (M10); Women's: Jin Cong for Learning to Lead (M3). • Macpac Hardest Repeat – Men's: Jono Clarke and Karl Schimanski (joint) for onsighting Under Pressure (M8); Women's: Diane Drayton for The Fastest Indian (M4). • Black Diamond New Zealand Alpinist of the Year – Daniel Joll, for his ascent of the North Pillar of Fitz Roy in Argentina. • Osprey Packs Double Cone to Single Cone Traverse Race – Steve Fortune, with a time of 2hrs, 10min. THE CLIMBER ISSUE 93, SPRING 2015
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THE SHARP END
PRAISE FOR SHERPA I AM wanting to advise that some images on pages 24 and 25 of The Climber winter 2015 edition (issue 92), which were published with Mike Madden's article on the avalanche at Everest Base Camp this year, were incorrectly credited to my name. I am unsure who took them. I want to make it clear that we were all very much occupied with the rescue, and not taking photographs of injured people during this time. Can I now draw readers' attention to the image on page 25, which is an excellent example of the fine work the Sherpa did with carrying the casualties to the treatment tents. After the avalanche, these men and their lungs formed teams and searched Base Camp for casualties. They preformed primary and secondary surveys and not only did they build excellent stretchers out of old debris, but due to the seriousness of the injuries they completely immobilised almost every patient they delivered to us. Over demanding glacial terrain, these men carried casualties with life-threatening injuries all day and into the night and the following day. On hand-over at the medical tents, some of the injured already had splints on fractured bones, and open haemorrhaging wounds were covered. All patients they delivered were covered in multiple sleeping bags due to the cold temperature, and the length of time it was taking to carry these people to shelter. This shows the Sherpa were not only identifying and treating the patients' chief complaints, but they were also managing the secondary threat to life, which was hypothermia. The Sherpa's routine finished with helping us untie the patients from the stretchers, then they would immediately take off and do it all over again. The Sherpa's actions of patient treatment and packaging were absolutely correct. It would be fair to say these Sherpa worked incredibly hard
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THE CLIMBER ISSUE 93, SPRING 2015
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and demonstrated outstanding teamwork; they saved lives. The Sherpa deserve the reputation they have of being wonderful people. –Richie Hunter
WRONG HEADEDNESS I ATTENDED the Alpine Access in the Southern Alps meeting in Queenstown on 25 August 2015. I wish to congratulate the organisers for arranging this much-needed forum. It would have been abundantly clear to all that our access rights are not receiving the attention they deserve. Irrespective of the legal legitimacy, to simply cut off our legal access without consultation is unacceptable. Hopefully recent events in the area, and this meeting, will bring about a greater recognition of the public’s rights in this respect. I was somewhat surprised to hear a number of statements that either displayed loose use of language or a misunderstanding of the status of the land that attendees wish to ensure their access to is assured. Reference was variously made to the Soho
area as being 'private land' and ‘pastoral lease'. It cannot be both! A pastoral lease is Crown land that the government allows to be leased, typically for grazing. Crown land is an area belonging to the public. A lessee may effectively have many of the rights of a private landowner but the public of New Zealand still own the land and the government can, under certain circumstances, not renew or change the lease. Reference was also made to DOC lands. This is misleading. The lands in question are owned by the Crown (the public). DOC is managing these lands on behalf of the public via the mechanism of the government. I would argue it is very important to understand the correct legal situation and refer to it correctly since not to do so places one at a disadvantage in negotiations. The two examples I provide here serve to illustrate this. In both cases we, the public, are the owners. The government and its various agents are managing the lands on our behalf. Since we have a democratically elected government, it and its agents are answerable to us. I will close with a related example: How many times have you heard a landowner say that an unformed legal road passes over their property? Next time you are told this you should point out that it is incorrect. The legal situation is that there is the landowner's property in the left, then there is road owned by the Crown or a local authority, and on the right is the landowner's property. This example illustrates another point in these debates: these roads are often termed ‘paper roads’ but this term devalues the status of the road and puts the user at a disadvantage. –John Langley
THIS ISSUE’S PRIZE GOES TO: JOHN LANGLEY
THE SHARP END
we ARE climbing
Takeshi Tani on ‘Cyber Pasty Memorial’ WI5+ / M7, Alberta, Canada Photo: ex-Bivouac Staffmember John Price johnpricephotographic.com
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www.bivouac.co.nz THE CLIMBER ISSUE 91, AUTUMN 2015
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