THE CLIMBER
AUTUMN 2015 $9.95
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NEW ZEALAND’S CLIMBING MAGAZINE
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF THE NEW ZEALAND ALPINE CLUB
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Mats Peder Mosti lighting up Fire in the Sky (30), Waipapa, Waikato. JOSHUA WINDSOR
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ON THE COVER Zac Orme on his new route Old Man Winter (27), the Den, Borland Valley, Southland. TROY MATTINGLEY
CONTENTS ISSUE 91
FEATURES 20 CLIMBER PROFILE— ROSE PEARSON BY JAZ MORRIS
28 HOMER HUT—50 YEARS A celebration of the 50th anniversary of Homer Hut BY KESTER BROWN
36 HEADWATERS Snowboarding from Harman Pass in Arthur's Pass National Park BY SHANE ORCHARD
42 THE INCIDENT Belaying accident analysis BY PHILIPPA OLIVER
REGULARS 4 Exposure 10 The Sharp End
Comment and opinion
14 NZAC News 18 People 44 Technique 46 Books and Film 48 Stuff You Need 56 The Last Pitch 2
THE CLIMBER ISSUE 91, AUTUMN 2015
we ARE climbing
Thomas Van Den Berg on Cocaine (28) Al Cap Wanaka
WILD COUNTRY
Photo: Michal Karnik Photography
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With support from a Sport NZ Hillary Expedition grant, Neil Silverwood and Neil Warrington spent the month of January developing a new crag at Bullock Creek, near Punakaiki on the West Coast. The goal was to establish 30 new routes in 30 days at Paradise Crag, a previously untouched cliff that offers some of the best rock in the valley. With a little help from Ashley Millar, Jen Robinson and Troy Mattingley, the team achieved their goal on day 29, and the total number of new routes done in the month added up to 33 (with 37 new individual pitches). Most of the new routes are in the high teens/low 20s grade range, and the two Neils have produced a high-quality guide to the region, which can be downloaded for free at kiwitracks.com/paparoa/. Pictured is Neil Warrington, not missing a single beat as he moves into the crux of High Contrast (22), Paradise Crag. TROY MATTINGLEY
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REMARKABLES ACCESS
GUILLAUME CHARTON
BY ERIK BRADSHAW FOR THE last ten or more years I have regularly driven up the Remarkables Ski Area access road to go climbing, take the kids for a wander around Lake Alta or, in winter, head over to Wye Creek for some backcountry skiing or ice climbing. I semi-understood that the road was private but also knew the ski area was on public conservation land and in exchange for this land use, myself and many others got to use the road at any time of year. I assumed DOC was my advocate and was ensuring the taxpayers’ side of the bargain was vigorously upheld. On 18 December 2014 my innocent world view was rudely shattered when the road was suddenly closed under the excuse of health and safety while NZSki, the company that operates the ski area, constructed a new base building. DOC had negotiated access for concession holders who run guiding businesses on the mountain but left out recreational users. Presented in a more cynical light, DOC negotiated to preserve its revenue base from concession holders but left out the general public since it would not have a financial impact. The ensuing fight to get some form of public access, and more importantly hold private companies accountable to their public obligations, was a steep learning curve that exposed many of the challenges the climbing community faces when tackling issues in the public arena. Some background Prior to the construction of the Remarkables Ski Area in the mid-1980s, the Remarkables Range was recognised as an area of national significance and most of the Rastus Burn Basin area was protected by a scenic reserve designation. The Mt Cook Company proposed a ski field in the late 1970s and entered into a decade-long battle to construct a road up the Rastus Burn and have access to the conservation land at the top. Before the road was constructed people would frequently walk up the Remarkables to ski and adventure in an untouched alpine area. As compensation for the degradation when the ski area was built, the public were given right of way access up the private road. The catch being that management, safety and decision-making on the road lies with the private owner.
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The argument NZSki’s argument for closing the road was that their lead contractor, Arrow International, had raised concerns about large truck and trailer units sharing the gravel road with unskilled tourism traffic. This is a valid concern, but to completely close the road is an excessively blunt approach. The greatest irritant is that construction activity does not happen on Sundays or public holidays and the road is completely deserted but remains closed. NZSki’s justification for this is that the trucks leave the road in a dangerous condition that is not suitable for normal vehicles. This is farcical and everyone using the road (including concession holders) agree it is in the best condition it has ever been in and an order of magnitude better than in winter. On the six days of the week when construction is happening the gate is open and swinging in the wind with no supervision preventing someone from driving up the road (you would be growled at on arrival at the top though). Come Sundays and public holidays someone dutifully locks the gate to keep the public out when the risk does not exist! DOC’s stated position is they ‘support NZSki’s health and safety concerns with road management’. However, they have failed to ask whether NZSki’s implementation of the Health and Safety Act is acceptable and appropriate. The Health and Safety in Employment Act has specific exclusions for recreation users (section 16) stating that a ‘person who controls a place of work’ must take ‘practicable steps’ to ensure that recreational users are not harmed. It also includes a clause that assuming practical steps are taken, it ‘does not impose on any person who controls a place of work any duty in respect of any person who is in the place of work solely for the purpose of recreation or leisure.’ During the course of the argument, neither DOC nor NZSki presented a legal opinion of why the road should be closed. The reason I suspect is that neither of them read the legislation. The argument appeared to be that it’s a private road and NZSki can close it if they want, conveniently forgetting about the public access guarantee. DOC’s main liaison person working with NZSki is a ranger in his 30s. While a good and competent person, a young voice with a Parks and Recreation degree was hardly the tough negotiator required to manage the relationship with a $100 million company.
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The fight With the road closure announced there were many annoyed emails flying about but no structure. A group got together but quickly realised that irrespective of the size of our egos a small group of climbers was ‘ignorable’. We decided to ask Pat Garden, Chair of the Otago Conservation Board, to help us approach NZSki and negotiate a compromise. To our surprise and disappointment, NZSki refused to even meet Pat and discuss the issue—in their view it was a closed case. Initially, it was the concession holders and guides helping to push the argument along. With a more intimate involvement with DOC and NZSki, they could see where it was all heading and were concerned that if we didn’t fight, climbers would be steamrolled by big business interests. Local climbers were harder to organise. With no Central Otago Section of NZAC and some existing tensions between local climbers, getting a solid group together was difficult. This contrasted with plentiful support at a national level with help from outside the region including from Sam Newton from NZAC and Robin McNeill from FMC. In essence, we had an issue of national significance but with a fractured and ineffective local climbing community trying to push the issue.
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Working with media With the hope of a negotiated solution reaching a dead-end, there were two paths to follow: a legal challenge, or a media-focused fight. A legalbased approach would be expensive, complex and winter would probably have arrived before any results were forthcoming. The challenge with media was the angle to use. A dirty, dusty road and a few unhappy climbers does not make much of a story. An opportunity presented itself when I walked through the ski area to visit Lake Alta with my family on 15 January, the last day the road was open. Work was being undertaken at a standard well below what would be acceptable in alpine areas in other developed countries. Photos of rock smashing equipment leaking oil, rubbish in the Rastus Burn stream, and general mess were posted on Facebook, which created a lot of attention, resulting in many letters to the Minister of Conservation and warming media attention. Although environmental concerns were a side issue to road access, my strategy was to fling as much mud as possible at NZSki knowing that a negative media image is a problem for any company to deal with and would hopefully force them back to the negotiating table. To generate more media attention, good photos were required, so a gathering with a large banner pointing out the hypocrisy of NZSki’s marketing strapline ‘Live it, Love it, Share it’ in front of the locked gate was organised. With the assistance of some good locals we had a meeting of 40 people at the local pub, with 30 people driving up to the gate for the photo. It was great to see the support and realise there was a local group with consensus that was prepared to fight. With increasing media interest the challenge was how to focus the story on the key issue of public access, and how private companies and DOC should be held responsible for their public obligations. This is where being friendly, honest and open to media is vital. A pattern emerged where Sam Newton and Robin McNeill were the voices of moderation, talking to NZSki’s CEO, while I was the rabble rouser, stirring the media and causing an escalating amount of embarrassment. On TVNZ I set a date for a large protest and stated that I would cut the lock and exert my public right to use the road. My thinking was that such actions would force NZSki to present their legal argument or back down, either way the media story would be far more damaging to NZSki and DOC than to myself. Even if I lost in court (I was confident I wouldn’t) I would still win. My understanding is that from that point NZSki got some legal advice and realised the argument was not clear cut and it was better to find some compromise. They suggested a free bus to operate on Saturdays and Sundays, and although this was far from ideal it deflated our main argument. To not accept and continue fighting would make us look like fools. The solution is not working well for either party. For NZSki it costs them money and for climbers the timing is inconvenient and excludes people who I know would like to take their children or visitors for a walk around the lake. I suspect that NZSki dug themselves a bit of
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a hole, with pride and face-saving preventing them from finding a more simple solution, such as just opening the road on Sundays and public holidays.
GUIDEBOOKS RECALL Spectrum Print have issued a recall of four recently published climbing guidebooks. A production issue that resulted in some of those books having poor binding quality has been identified. Three NZAC guidebooks have been affected: Rock Deluxe North, Wanaka Rock (2014) and Rock Deluxe (South Island, 2015); as well as the recent new edition of The Comprehensive Castle Hill Climbing Guide. If you have purchased any of these four guidebooks, either online or from a retailer, please return the front cover page to: NZAC, PO Box 786, Christchurch 8140. Please enclose details of where the guidebook was purchased, your name, email and a courier address that we can send your replacement copy to. All the guides are expected to be reprinted during April with replacements going out as soon as possible after that. We sincerely apologise for the disruption this has caused and hope that you will bear with us while we work through this issue. Thank you. –the team at Spectrum Print
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Where to from here There are two main issues to confront. Firstly, it is important to understand DOC’s current position, as lumping too much criticism at their doorstep will just make the situation worse. DOC has always been a cash-strapped organisation. The recent restructuring reduced their budget by $9 million, resulting in operational dysfunction in many areas, on top of this it has left them internally confused and disorganised. DOC lacks ‘free cash’, which means when an issue such as this occurs they can’t pull together the few thousand required to get independent legal advice, whereas their ‘partners’ such as NZSki, always have a hand on the legal trigger, and the cash to make a fight, should such a course be to their benefit. I believe the funding cuts to DOC from the current government are not about saving money but more about having a weak department that will not get in the way of people who share our government’s business philosophy. We need to keep his sentiment in mind when interpreting the new partnership model that DOC is pursuing. We need to do more than just help to cut tracks and build huts. We also need to wave the conservation stick when required and be prepared to get into a fight to stand up for our rights as the owners of our public conservation land. A group of us, with the help of NZAC, are collecting all the concessions and easements that DOC has with NZSki so we can make our own interpretations and get legal advice where required. Our plan is to expand this library to cover all significant documents in the Queenstown and Wanaka areas. The collection of such documents requires a simple written application to DOC and does not incur a cost so I strongly recommend other areas do the same where they see similar potential conflicts. Secondly, we need to tackle how we are seen by the media. To mount successful challenges we need to have both a strong legal and strong public position. The mainstream media know virtually nothing about climbing, unless it's something to do with Ed Hillary. It is very easy to portray climbers as middle income, able-bodied, risk-taking males who only make the news when someone dies. Accidents are seen as a burden on the taxpayer caused by irresponsible fools. Rock climbing is perceived as an activity done by kids at school camp and bouldering is not perceived at all. Dig into our social media (which is public for the world to see) and there is a lot of bitchy, small-minded drivel, we spend more effort expressing worthless opinions than celebrating success. In the last year there have been some good media stories, such as Georgie Chin’s ascent of Single Cone in the Remarkables, and Guy McKinnon’s climb on Popes Nose. Unfortunately, this is far outweighed by the negative stories of accidents and tragedy. Media need a good story that the general public can understand and relate to. As a club we must actively cultivate these stories even if they require deliberate effort. The most difficult route is not required for a good story, more important is something people can connect with, such as a child’s first mountain climb, a family working together or an older person celebrating a first ascent done 50 years ago. I believe NZAC should monitor mainstream media and develop a five-year goal of having more than 70 per cent positive news exposure. Conclusion The Remarkables access issue is a wake-up call. A reminder that we must protect, and ensure we have access to, what is important to us. We need to see ourselves as more than just climbers but also as guardians of the spirit of climbing. We must be prepared to stand up and be counted when such freedoms are unfairly taken away. I would like to thank the many people who helped by writing to the minister, stirring up social interest or just being encouraging and supportive.
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IT'S ALL ABOUT PEOPLE I’VE BEEN a member since 1965, when I was aged 31—my golden period of climbing. They were wonderful days and I met some wonderful people. But my climbing really ended when I had a life medical crisis in 1965, and more permanently when I got married on January 30, 1969. What is most interesting for me to read about is the highlights and life histories of all climbers, not just Ed Hillary, Graeme Dingle and the likes. It's people that matter. The only parts of previous New Zealand Alpine Journals that interest me are the obituaries. It is a shame when we have to go to a funeral to hear fascinating stories. My journals and issues of The Climber end
up in the rubbish. I'm 80 now, so perhaps I'm biased, but I remember as editor of the NZAC Taranaki Section newsletter in the '60s or '70s that I was planning to write stories of active members of the Taranaki Section in our newsletters. I started with one on Keith Wells, which was published in either the alpine journal or the bulletin, I can't remember which. I didn't do any more because I was busy with work, my marriage, alpine clubs, climbing, SAR and being the father of three children. Get the point? Writing profiles of climbers requires a lot of work. Doing one on Keith Wells was easy because I knew him. He was a friend. It's not just about gun climbers. Just before Walter Fowlie died I went to visit him in hospital. I knew he was writing his memoirs. He was only half way through. I myself would like to record my climbing career. I've spent three years of accumulated time in the mountains in New Zealand and Europe. It's not going to happen. I'm having difficulty just writing this. In closing, for me it's all about people, the beauty of the mountains, the peace, creation, facing fear and overcoming it, the challenge, life and death. It's great to get into the mountains and away from the rat race. –Roger Mann
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