Southern Alps

This time ... the REAL mountains.

Well, I've done the odd shot out of aeroplane windows before, some of which have been of the mountains, but these are the real thing!

In the centre distance is NZ's highest peak Aoraki/Mt Cook - the one which looks flat-topped (it's not). It stands at 3754 metres (12,316 feet), The more cone-shaped peak to it's right is the second highest - Mt Tasman.

I've climbed Aoraki/Mt Cook twice. The second time turned into something of an epic. Briefly, my climbing partner and I set out to climb the classic East Ridge route. We left the hut at midnight and made our way across the Grand Plateau, dodging crevasses. We then started up the East Ridge, a classic ice climb. Conditions were more difficult than expected and earlier, due to a mishap, we had lost all our water. As a result we became dehydrated. We eventually hit the top of the ridge, which culminates in Middle Peak, at 2:00pm. Descending the same route was not an option, so we pressed on. The summit ridge from Middle Peak to High Peak is approximately one mile and can be done in as little as one and a half hours in good conditions. We hit solid ice and sastrugi. We were on the front points of our crampons, pitching the entire route, with the rope continually being snagged on the sastrugi and having to be freed. At times we were hooking the cornice with our ice axes, rather than drive them into the incredibly hard ice. It took us nine hours to cover the one mile, with no horizontal ground the entire time. We summited at 11:00pm, 23 hours after setting out. We were not in good shape. Fortunately, the descent route down the other side is the route I had come up the previous time. We descended a short way and came to a section which requires 10 abseils. We didn't fancy that in the dark, given our weakened state (both mental and physical - that's when mistakes are made). So we stood there, walking on the spot to keep warm, until the sun came up. We then descended for 8 hours back to the hut. The weather promptly turned to custard and we were snowed in for another 3 days!