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North West Ridge of Mount Aspiring

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18/2/2020 -  19/2/2020 Party: Torea Scott-Fyfe, Tom Hadley I'd just arrived back in the South Island and Torea had just finished 12 days of fieldwork when we met in Wanaka. There was 2 days of workable weather ahead of us and we were both ready to get stuck into some mountains. Tom: “Hmmm well the Raspberry flat road is open again”, Torea: “Oooh yes we could climb some domes”, Tom: “Hmmm how about climbing the big dome...?”, “Yes let’s climb Mt Aspiring!”. The next morning, we set off with light packs and lighter legs from raspberry flat at 8am, jogging and walking along the expanses of the Matukituki valley. The open grasslands soon turned to beech forest, then to scrub as we carried on. We arrived at the waterfall in 4 hours time and began the push up to Bevan col. After negotiating slabs and bluffs, the expanse of the Bonar glacier spread itself out before us. We moved our way through gurgling blue crevasses to arrive at an empty Colin Todd hut, how good! At 5am the nex...
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Drawn Upwards

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Crossing the divide into the Landsborough (Easter 2019) (Maddy Whittaker) Our mountains, how they bend and fold. Glaciers flowing from rock to ice to me. This past year I have been mesmerised by the scale, the shapes, the way light plays upon the ice and the patterns the wind whittles in the snow. I used to think it was a strange force that draws us upwards. But now I understand that this force is not so strange at all.  Some moments seem to burn brighter than others. The first time I saw the Bonar glacier, clambering over the top of the Quarterdeck, the golden moonlight and pink rays of first light washing the snow in a magical glow. The first time I scrambled upon warm granite in the Darrans, impossibly steep rock expanses rising straight up out of the sea. My first New Years in the hills, running through golden tussock, my memories tinged with the overexposure of golden hour. My first trip deep in the bowels of the Landsborough. Water cascading everywhere in a wild...
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The Talbot MacPherson Traverse and Fiordland Slab Climbing

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28/12/2019 - 29/12/2019 Party: Conor Vaessen, Tom Hadley I eagerly jumped off a bus straight into Conor’s corolla, parked in the Dunedin Countdown carpark. After a whirlwind of shopping and gear accumulation, we hit the road, headed towards the Darrans mountains, headed towards the granite, headed towards pure unadulterated stoke. After a night spent at some high quality accommodation (camped in a paddock near Gore), we parked at Homer Tunnel and tilted our heads back to take in today’s objective, the Talbot MacPherson traverse. This traverse of between the peaks MacPherson and Talbot is the classic mountaineering day trip of the Darrans mountains and has been enjoyed by generations of kiwi alpinists. As we started climbing towards Talbot’s ladder, the sheer immensity of the Darrans was impressed upon us. The looming granite monoliths around us formed an incredible amphitheatre of grey rock, soaring into the dramatic cloudscapes above. Once the ridge was gained, we made our ...
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