For this trip we based ourselves in Cordova, ski touring on the Heney Range and flying with Points North on primo weather days in the Chugach. I was joined by Paul van Lamsveerde, Pete Benson and Evan Cameron.
Category: Lifestyle
New Zealand 2006
For this trip I hooked up with my friend and fellow Scot, Evan Cameron, who was living in Dunedin at the time. We travelled all round the South Island climbing in the mountains, sailing the fiords, swimming in rivers, sleeping on beaches, surfing, bouldering, walking. He had dislocated his shoulder a week before I arrived and carried a vial of morphine everywhere and gave me strict instructions on how to put his shoulder back in should it pop again.
The most vivd memory is getting caught in a storm sailing in the Marlborough Sounds and the boat getting knocked flat every five minutes with the mast in the water. I don’t think the boat owners ever sailed in bad weather because there was nothing to secure the drawers and pans were soon flying as the hull rolled 90 degrees. In the middle of the night one of the sail’s securing ropes wore through and the roller jenny sail got ripped open and immediately shredded. The next day dawned beautiful and calm and another yacht sailed past looking at our battered and tattered boat. Terrifying.
Bivi Site Below Malte Brune after Morraine Bashing up the Tasman Glacier
The Remarkables 
The Lake at Queenstown from the Remarks
Traversing the Remarkables After a Multipitch Route 
Bouldering Near Queenstown
A moments respite from the rain in our 1 man tent, Bevan Col, Aspiring
Camping Below Aspiring
On the summit of Aspiring
Descending Bevan Col in Heavy Rain
West Coast Fury, Charleston Crags
Payne’s Ford – Sports Climbing and Swimming Pools
The calm before the storm, we spent the next night with the mast in the water every 5 minutes
Stunning Organ Pipes at Lover’s Leap
The Darrens
Waiting for the rock to dry, Darrens
Trying to avoid the seepage
View West from Hommer Tunnel
Darrens Rock
Raining Again!
The Chasm
When it rains, it pours
No Need to Wash Dishes, Just Put Them in the Rain Outside
Looking for Rock to Climb in the Jungle?
Mitre Peak
Wye Creek
The Weekly Wash
Old Faithful, 1.0 Litre Ford Laser Estate Car
Siberia Flats, en Route to Mount Awful
Long walk on to find wet rock followed by a longer walk out
Frisby at Flock Hill
Christchurch Peninsula
Norway 2003
It would appear that Norway has more rock than it knows what to do with so they don’t mind putting a few bolts in. We spent some time around the Stavanger area visiting sports crags like Bersagel & Norland to climb and BBQ with the locals. I was some months into recovering from some Glandular Fever type virus I’d picked up from working in West Africa so chilling out in the sunshine was very welcome. 
Preparing for the Next Adventure
Sunday’s Stroll
Its been a few years since I skied this line and its definitely one that has been significantly affected by glacial thinning making it much harder that the guide book rating of 4.3 Assez Diffcile 45 degrees for 50 m. I went back a month ago to try in in good powder conditions but the East wind was loading over the ridge where the sun meets the shadow in the photo. As I moved towards the ridge things started to crack around me, propagating up the slope above me and releasing some slab material down onto my companions who were about 50 m behind me. No one fancied manning up to go over the blind convexity so it was time to go home.
With no new snow in Chamonix for weeks, I went back with John Minogue. This route is so blind as you start to ski over the convexity and the only thing you see is the glacier 500 m below. The glacial recession has continued and there is much more exposed rock at the choke where instead of rapping across ice on skis, we rapped over rock on crampons. Its pretty steep too, the glacial death ice is always at the back of your mind, there’s a strip of ice at the base of the route which I had to downclimb, and the crevasses look hungry. Apart from all that the views are amazing and the snow was good.
Ross Hewitt Guiding 