June 2014 Preview

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FLEECE AND INSULATED JACKETS THAT'LL BEAT OFF WINTER'S CHILL New Zealand's magazine of the outdoors since 1991

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JUNE 2014

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A NEW WORLD OF VERTICALITY

Learn the ropes of alpinism and broaden your bucket list

WHAT’S UP MAC? WHY MACPAC’S FORMER BOSS HAS STARTED A SCHOOL

GEAR FREAKS www.wildernessmag.co.nz

NZ $9.95 Aust $9.95 INCL GST

Meet the DIY trampers making and modifying their own kit

4 weekend trips to try

right now A stunning alternative to Otago’s classic Five Passes tramp Give your knife a WOF Kiwi mountaineer Graham Zimmerman on his name-making Alaskan climb

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contents June 2014

FEATURES

22 From Macpac to packed lunch Why the former boss of Macpac is putting his name and money behind a brand new school 30 Learning the ropes of alpinism Throw yourself in at the deep end and you could be dangling upside down over a crevasse in no time 36 Grand (gear) Designs

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Innovative trampers discover that making their own outdoor gear comes with its own headaches

WAYPOINTS

43

14 Destinations

Sharks Tooth, Egmont National Park

16 Destinations

Crater Lake, Tongariro National Park

18 See more

Four memorials to fallen trampers

44

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1

YOUR TRIPS, YOUR PIX

What did you get up to last weekend?

Isla Sharp, 11, climbed Gordons Pyramid in Kahurangi NP

Ilse Corkery took a break while walking the Te Paki Coastal Track in Northland

Ruth Barratt found reason to smile during lousy conditions on the Five Passes tramp

Carolyn Vasta hiked the Lewis Pass Tops

Oxana, Nick and Natasha Repina climbed Ruapehu’s Crater Lake

Paul Bromwell celebrated his birthday climbing Mt Tapuae-O-Uenuku

Peter and Caroline Gates admired the view from Garibaldi Ridge in Kahurangi NP

Alison Walton enjoyed a cup of Earl Grey at Frew Saddle Biv

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Kerstie Harris took a precipitous rest on The Remarkables

6 JUNE 2014

Alex Peterson and Alfie Wright roasted marshmallows at Devils Creek Hut, Mt Richmond FP

WAYPOINTS

The sun sets over Paretetaitonga as a climber walks the final section of the Crater Lake Traverse

SPECTACULAR TRAVERSE Crater Lake traverse, Tongariro National Park

MODERATE

A

traverse of Ruapehu’s Crater Lake is a spectacular and unique alpine trip involving an arête and an exposed face on the North Island’s highest volcano.

It’s a challenging day’s climbing – perfect for those graduates of an alpine instruction course who are looking for a first climb.

It’s a hard slog from Whakapapa Ski Field to Ruapehu’s Summit Plateau and the lake.The circumnavigation is best done anticlockwise, beginning from Dome equipment shed where gentle snow slopes beneath Paretetaitonga are followed to a point below 2797m Tahurangi from where a broad ridge leads down to the sulphurous smelling Crater Lake outflow.This is where Ruapehu’s periodic lahars flow from, but the crossing is normally straightforward.

A devilishly narrow arête stretches ahead from here; the smell of brimstone and sulphur wafting overhead. Falling from the arête would mean a tumble into the lake and the exposure is heightened by the dark shadow of the lahartracked Whangaehu River falling away to the right and the Desert Road 1500m below.

At the end of the arête there’s a steep descent to a col below Pyramid Peak, 2645m. In poor snow conditions this can be a noxious scramble of a descent on loose scoria and rubble. From the col traverse right onto the steep, shaded south face of Pyramid Peak. A rope and some ice screws may be welcome here – blue ice sticks out close to a rock ramp and the slope kicks back steeper for a pitch.

It’s not dissimilar from the feeling you get on one of the big faces down south; intimidating and uncertain.The final pitch zigzags up a steep ramp and out into the sun on the summit of Pyramid Peak.

From the summit a long ridge with a red tower of rock halfway along leads back towards the equipment shed and the completion of the traverse.

- Fraser Crichton WILD FILE Access From Whakapapa Ski Field car park Grade Alpine 2+ / moderate Time 8-10hr from car park (shorter if you take chairlifts up the mountain) Map BJ34

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

COUNTRY

A meltwater tarn below Park Pass Glacier

CARL WALROND

A VARIANT ON OTAGO’S CLASSIC FIVE PASSES TRAMP PROVES HONEST EXERCISE FOR CARL WALROND

WILD

GEAR

GRAND (gear) designs

Matthew Pike meets the people who turn original ideas into their own quirky reality

T

he uninventive folk of this world (I easily slump into this category) become grumpy when a piece of outdoor equipment doesn’t work as it should. We become grumpier still when we encounter a situation where there just isn’t a tool for the job.

Rather than behaving in a mature, constructive manner, we tut, then sigh before grumbling to ourselves or anyone unfortunate enough to be within earshot. “This is disgraceful – something should be done about this,” we moan.

“Someone needs to sort this out!” We then continue our day as normal, shaking our heads and cursing society.

But there are some in this world who, rather than bemoaning their luck, see a problem as an opportunity to grab by the neck, re-mould, add a few bolts, give a thorough polish and then marvel at their creative home-made masterpiece.

Many of today’s top brands began life in the garden shed of someone with a good dollop of creative flare.

I will never be one of those people. But we’ve found a collection of innovators who may well be. Often it’s the story behind the creation and the reasons for creating it that are just as compelling as the finished product.

36 JUNE 2014

JORY AKUHATA’S TE ARAROA CHALLENGE

When I called Jory Akuhata to interview him for this article, I interrupted him replacing his spectacles frame. He’d recently broken the original and decided to attach a new frame he’d made from bamboo. He’s just the sort of person I’m not. He’d much rather make or fix his own things than buy replacements.

This isn’t because he’s tight with money, but because making practical things is his hobby. In September he’ll begin hiking the Te Araroa Trail and he plans to complete it using as much home-made gear as possible. He hopes to catch and collect as much food as he can and he plans to do all this as close as possible to the traditional Maori way.

This is not a lightweight task – nor is it always practical.

“Today’s environment is very different to life before Europeans arrived,” says Akuhata. “The concept of going for a hike is new and, if you were to do something strenuous it would be with others, not normally by yourself.”

Akuhata started by making his own pack frame from wood.

He’s also carved his own knives,

weaved his own food basket, experimented with stove designs and realised how hard it is to make your own dual-use fishing net and hammock.

“I had no idea how much rope I’d need to make a net,” he says.

“I use flax and started making

Jory Akuhata plans to walk Te Araroa Trail with gear he’s made himself

“WITH ONE ATTEMPT I ENDED UP with UNCONTROLLABLE FLAMES

around the pot and there was nothing I could do to stop them BUT

WAIT FOR THEM TO GO OUT”

ROWAN WORTHY

the rope too thin and it snapped instantly when I lay on it.

“But I’ve had a lot of practise now and can make a piece double my height in 40 minutes.

But it takes a ridiculous amount of rope and I’ve been working on it since Christmas.

“I tried to make a gas burner out of beer cans.

I ended up having to drink a can every time I made one and, by the sixth can, I had a pretty good design but I haven’t since been able to replicate the technique.

“With one attempt I ended up with uncontrollable flames around the pot and there was nothing I could do to stop them, but wait for them to go out. I’m inviting some mates over for a stove barbecue, where we’ll each try different preparation methods to see which gets the best result.”

Much of the developments have come through trial and error, which is very much part of the fun for Akuhata.

One idea he had to shelve for his Te Araroa Trail trip was the pake – a flax cloak Maori used to wear. “It was a practical cloak they used for everyday jobs like gardening and they would even use it as a shelter.They would sleep sitting up in them and I liked the idea of it replacing my sleeping bag and tent.

“It took forever to make and I wanted to train myself to sit up while sleeping. The first time I took it into the bush was in the Tararuas and it was very wet.

“This thing absorbed water so it felt 100 times heavier. When sleeping it only covered half my body.

It would take a tougher guy than me to use this to replace a shelter.

There’s nothing worse than a bad night’s sleep – it was a nightmare – I was cold and wet and sick of the sight of it. I later read that to make it water resistant I was supposed to

David Jagoutz with his prototype hypothermia sensing device

soak it in fat first.”

The pake wasn’t the only piece of kit Akuhata’s had to ditch. His attempts to make a natural drink bottle have had difficulties. “I’ve tried to grow gourds, but they’ve always been too small to use. Maori used to use moa eggs – the nearest thing I could find was an ostrich egg but I dropped it and cracked it.”

Akutaha is determined to tramp the trail with as much home-made gear as possible without it being dangerous. And there are still a few pieces of kit he wants to have a go at before he sets off. He’d like to make his own pot and a bow to help him catch animals. He’s also trying to make shoes from the leaves of a cabbage tree. “They’re

not great at the moment,” he says.

“They absorb a lot of water which makes them weird and heavy.”

DAVID JAGOUTZ’S EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

Fourteen-year-old David Jagoutz is from good mountain stock.

His dad, Aran, is an instructor for the Mountain Safety Council. So David’s had the dangers of the backcountry drummed into him from an early age, including the threat of hypothermia.

One of the issues, David

discovered, is that people suffering from the early onset of hypothermia tend not to tell other members of the group they’re struggling. They fear they may be letting the side down. So David’s created a device for climbers to let others know when one of the party is getting dangerously cold, without putting that person under pressure.

His device links thermometers placed under the arm pits to a series of lights on each climber’s helmet. When their temperature’s normal all the lights stay on, but as it drops the lights switch off, two by two. If all the lights go out, the climber’s temperature is dangerously low. www.wildernessmag.co.nz

37

BEING NICE

can be

SELFISH

Mark Banham shares a few lessons in paddling culture and how racing down the Clutha River taught him that being nice can actually help you win

W

e scribes do actually get out from behind the computer from time to time. When we do, it’s usually quite the educational experience.

That’s been the case for me lately.

I’ve just spent four days competing in the Wild Descent, a source-tosea race down the Clutha River; some 261km of paddling in doublekayaks (or ‘divorce boats’) that ranges from white-knuckled white water to glassy cliff-lined gorges.

The conventional wisdom when it comes to this sort of competition is: nice guys finish last. If you want to do well, then you need to squeeze all of your life’s frustra-

tions into a white-hot ball of rage and deliver it onto the water via the carbon fibre of your paddle blade.

But in this race I’ve found that quite the opposite is the case. The nicest guys tend to win. In fact, the overall winners of the race (for the second year running) Ian Huntsman and Wendy Riach came across more like coaches than competitors.

Okay, you could be cynical and say that perhaps Ian and Wendy were just playing the ideal Machiavellian Prince and Princess, smiling sweetly at the start line then ruthlessly crushing the competition when the time was right. But I think

it’s a little bit more interesting than that.

I think paddling, like open water swimming, peloton cycling, speed skating and other hydrodynamic or aerodynamic sports touch on the altruistic ideas that people like Richard Dawkins wrote about.

In case you slept through biology class, Richard Dawkins’ ‘selfish gene’ theory basically says in the animal kingdom, altruism comes down to genes selfishly doing what they do best: surviving.

That turns up in two ways: titfor-tat behaviour and looking after the family. So, for example, prairie dogs will sound a warning call because the genes that predispose

pants to argue. And true enough from time to time you’d hear a teammate call for a sprint only to get the response “I’ve been sprinting for the last f****ing half-hour!”.

But among the more experienced teams, you’d notice a more considered tit-for-tat approach: one teammate would paddle hard, while the other stopped to eat, then the other paddler would reciprocate.  – The pigeon among the cats Thanks to the fortuitous hydrodynamics mentioned earlier, it’s generally possible for a slow kayak to keep up with a bunch of faster ones.

However, that boat poses a risk to the fast boats around it. If the slow boat gets between two fast boats then slows down, the trailing fast boat may not be able to sprint past it to catch up with the pack.

As a result, fast bunches will typically try to shake off a slow boat.  – Anything you can do…

Of course, that strategy can be played backwards. If there’s only a couple of fast boats in a pack, then it might pay for one of the slower boats to get between them and deliberately slow down, allowing one to sprint clear of the pack.

The end result is a bunch that’s a little slower, but that’s less likely to progressively shed off the slow boats.  – If in doubt, be nice Although there are definitely times to put your own interests first (it is a race after all) you don’t want

to become known as the team that doesn’t play nicely, lest you spend your race battling on alone. If in doubt, do as your mamma told you and play nice with the other kiddies!

So, what does all that mean for the non-paddling public? Well, these unwritten rules of the sport are usually just that – unwritten. They’re implied, insinuated and encouraged through paddling culture. It’s only after spending a bit of time immersed in that culture that you begin to see the logic behind it all.

I don’t think this phenomenon is limited to kayakers. Look around at any cultural norms and taboos and although it may seem a bit odd at first glance, there’s usually some pretty sound logic behind it.

From not throwing ropes down a cliff when people are climbing up it, to offering tired trampers cups of tea as they walk into a hut, to not eating with your left hand in Morocco – there’s generally some pretty sound logic underlying the culture.

Although it’s definitely good to push cultural boundaries – we’d still be burning witches otherwise – before you start breaking taboos, it’s probably a good idea to learn the logic behind them.

WARREN BATES

the animal to that sort of behaviour have a better survival rate. By sounding the alarm, the prairie dog is looking after other dogs that are likely to share those genes. Likewise, dogs will groom each other because they receive grooming in return; behaviour that improves both animals’ genes’ survival rate.

Paradoxically, genes looking after their own interests create a wonderful world of altruism. As Dawkins puts it: ‘Selfish genes create to altruistic individuals.’

Paddling for 261km over four days down a river in a bunch of competing kayaks you see a lot of examples of it. Here are a few:  – The hare and fox Two kayaks slip-streaming each other are faster than the same boats paddling alone. Three are faster still. So if you look over your shoulder to see a boat chasing you, and they’re not an immediate threat to your race ranking, it’s best to actually slow down and let them catch you.  – The amicable divorce boat Double kayaks are known half-jokingly as ‘divorce boats’ for the tendency of their occu-

Self interest – wanting to win a race – is sometimes best served by helping others