Wilderness June 2017

SOME GOOD cheer for DOC at last: it has finally been given a funding boost, and a substantial one at that. On the surface, the $76 million DOC has been promised in the 2017 budget looks great: tracks and infrastructure will be enhanced to spread the load of tourists and local trampers. Fantastic: such improvements will make the outdoors more accessible, allowing more people to enjoy a wider variety of tramping and walking experiences. Hopefully some of this spend will be slated for the upper North Island, which lacks opportunities for weekend hut trips for the approximately two million people who live there. There is also talk of creating two new Great Walks and a series of Great Short Walks and Great Day Walks. I’m less enthusiastic about this –…

Fixing it or finding fault IN VISITING several West Coast huts recently I gained a brief insight into a range of user expectations and contributions to these backcountry assets. At Youngman Stream and Tarn huts, I read in the hut books that both had recently been repainted by DOC, assisted by a team of volunteers who enjoyed the challenge in wild weather. Two days later, I headed up the Mikonui River to Explorer Hut. The route had recently been marked with rock cairns in the upper riverbed, and the final stretch to the hut had also been cleared and marked. In the hut book, I read how Permolat Trust members had cleared four routes that depart from the hut, cut back nearby vegetation, re-piled and painted the hut, and built…

Get your photo published here to receive an Opinel No.5 folding knife worth $20. Learn more about Opinel at ampro.co.nz. Last Weekend submission criteria can be found at wildernessmag.co.nz…

DARRANS ACCIDENT TO HAVE INDEPENDENT REVIEW THE NEW ZEALAND Alpine Team plans to conduct an independent review of the accident that claimed the lives of team members Conor Smith and Sarwan Chand over Anzac weekend. Both experienced and competent climbers, Smith, 22, and Chand, 27, were attempting a rock climbing route on the south face of Marian Peak. Their intended route was Barrier Knob to Barrier Peak, with a descent into Marian Valley and then to ascend Marian Peak. It’s believed they sustained a factor-two lead fall, meaning the lead climber fell below the belay, which can happen when the belayer is on a ledge during a multi-pitch climb. In such a scenario, the force of the fall can pull out the protection set for the belay anchor. New Zealand…

My feeling of triumph has evaporated, leaving a dull sense of stupidity and dread I stand at the base of the Brown Wall, looking up at the twin slanting cracks of Captain Kronos, studying the route and gathering the nerve to try leading it again. Lured to try it as a first gear lead four years ago I backed off, spent; Matt finished it and declared it more like 5.9 than 5.7, another Joshua Tree sandbag. Two years later, a better climber, I returned to try again. I got further but again found myself in over my head: reaching a point where I could find no secure purchase, I clung to the rock as long as I could then fell. My neck saved by the rope, a finger-width cam, and…

It was the best trip of my life. It’s given me confidence to push my comfort zone ABOUT A YEAR AGO, Scott Sinton was on a boat tour in Doubtful Sound. While puttering around the many arms of the fiords was breathtaking, he felt he barely had enough time to take it all in. He vowed to return, but with a stand-up paddleboard. And so, with a week to spare before walking the Milford Track in late March, the Auckland-based photographer borrowed a friend’s stand-up paddleboard for a seven-day, 150km-voyage through Doubtful Sound’s many arms. Sinton has had his fair share of paddling epics. He was the videographer for Paddle for the North, a documentary in which a group of friends canoed through Canada’s Yukon Territory in 2013 to raise…