august 1999........ the kokoda track, papua new guinea
The Kokoda track is little more than a path through the highland jungle of Papua New Guinea, this track was used by the men of the Australian Infantry in WWII to defend Australia from the impending advance of the Japanese forces. Heavily outnumbered, the Australian force turned back the Japanese advance at great human cost to ensure Australia's freedom. Even today this track is a formidable undertaking and requires a high level of fitness to complete it comfortably.
Our small group managed to cover the whole track over 5 long days. As my first big adventure I had no idea how different it could be from Australia and random characters carrying machine guns at the petrol station soon woke me up to the fact I was a long way from home! Trekking through the jungle of New Guinea highlands, making friends with the local villagers, seeing the relics of war and the remnants of trenches where battles were fought and lost are memories I'll not forget and experiences everyone should seek out.
june/july 2001............ hiking and climbing in the swiss alps
The Alps! Snow capped, dazzling mountains which lured me all the way to Switzerland with all it's chocolate and cheese............between the chocolate and the cheese it's a wonder I climbed anything at all!
But climb I did, beginning with a traverse of Les Aiguilles du Dorees (3509m) on the Swiss/French border before moving around to central Switzerland to climb the peaks of:
Pte de Vouasson (3489m)
La Pigne d'Arolla (3796m)
Weissmiess (4023m)
Nadelhorn (4327m)
Ulrichshorn (3925m)
Duforspitze (4634m)
And by then the trip was over and it was time to return to the flat brown land of OZ..............
december 2001......................... mt cook region, new zealand
My short trip to the Southern Alps of N.Z. was not a very successful one, due to weather conditions and a bit of inexperience, but I did learn quite a few valuable lessons which taught me alot and have been helpful to me in later trips. I am yet to return to N.Z. to climb but I hope to very soon...........
april 2002 - may 2004..................... chamonix, france
Chamonix, the home of mountaineering. It all began here with Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard's historic first ascent in 1786! I had returned to Europe to live and work for two years with the hope of spending all of that time in the Alps - if possible - and despite having no legal right to live or work in France I still managed to make a living there and climb myself to the point of exhaustion for the whole two years. Sometimes work did get in the way of climbing, but who cares when you are living your dream in a European alpine town!
The first summer was a good one, I worked night shift in a hotel as the receptionist and spent my days hiking or climbing all over the valley, finally attacking some great alpine rock routes with Ron (USA) such as:
Chapel de la Gliere 2663m SE ridge- with it's famous 'razor' pitch
L'Index 2595m S ridge
Frison Roche on Le Brevent 2525m
Then came my solo climb of Mont Blanc (4810m).................................
A hastily made decision beginning with a quick check of the weather for the coming days - and feeling confident the weather would hold just long enough I set off from the village of Les Houches that October night at 7.30pm on an all night climb of the Gouter route.....stopping twice for a rest and a marmalade sandwich. Walking alone through the night along the ridge leading to Mont Blanc's summit, biting cold winds and only the vague hope that I was following the right route, I became steadily more and more tired the closer I came to the top eventually considering turning back but deciding instead to leave my backpack on the snow to collect on my way down. Now lighter, and feeling suddenly stronger, I easily climbed the the short distance to the top - where I stood alone on a summit so often crowded by people. The euphoria of being there alone, knowing I'd climbed all night alone was such an intense feeling of achievement and happiness. It was 10 am when I summited, and after just a few minutes it was time to head down to beat the bad weather that was fast approaching.........that and there was no way I was missing the last bus out of Les Houches at 7.40pm that evening and walking even further back home where I would later gorge myself on spaghetti and relax in a hot bath!
The winter of 2002/2003 I climbed very little, just a solo attempt on the Cherie Couloir, instead my time was devoted to skiing. I had a job which involved driving hotel guests to ski areas then skiing all day until they decided they wanted to go home. I skied and skied and skied almost every day that season, from late December through to May when my parents came to town to visit! there were day trips through to Italy to ski in Courmayeur and feasts of fine Italian pizzas and pastas as well as day trips to ski in Switzerland at the glamour resort of Verbier. Towards the end of the season I made the switch to telemark skiing ...........and there was no going back to alpine skis!
The following summer was hard, I had the experience I needed to go and attack harder routes but the alps were falling apart, France's hottest summer on record was literally melting the alps away one day at a time. The ice and snow which binds the mountains together began to melt and routes like the Mallory on l'Aiguille du Midi began to crumble and fall menacingly to the valley below, sections of Le Petit Dru also broke away and bergschrunds on peaks like the Aiguille Vert were impassable. Despite the frustrating circumstances Rob(UK) and I still managed to climb various routes in safer locations such as:
L'Aiguille de l'M 2844m NE ridge (more than once with various different people)
L'Aiguille de l'M 2844m NW face Couzy route
La Brioche 2779m E ridge
Papillons 2817m W ridge
The coming winter of 2003/2004 was a greater frustration than the preceding summer! The heat of summer melting out classic snow and ice routes which had never ever disappeared before! Conditions were dangerous, there were greater numbers of rescues than normally performed and quite a few good Mountain Guides were also killed including my friend Alain Geloen. I had alot of time to climb this winter, mostly with my good friend Alan (Scotland), though for all our repeated efforts we met with little success, attempting big climbs on over a dozen occasions we had just one successful outing - on the Arret des Cosmiques! the rest of our attempts were cut short by avalanches, serac falls, insufficient snow or ice on the route. or the route simply no longer existing! I was even swallowed by a crevasse requiring helicopter rescue! You name it, it happened to us, and reassuringly to many others we spoke to, alpine ice routes were a waste of time, so Carlos (Spain) and I went road tripping through Germany and Italy, climbing sporty limestone routes in the Frankenjura in souhtern Germany and awesome multi pitch granite routes in the beautiful area of Aosta in northern Italy!
All too soon two years in the Alps had slipped by, and with Alan, Carlos and I planning a trip to the Andes the following year I felt it time I returned to OZ and get a hold of the cash that welding in the mining industry so readily provides. So my time in Chamonix was over, all the mountains which surrounded me in that valley no longer part of my everyday life as I returned to the coastal town of Newcastle, Australia.
june/july 2005 cordillera blanca, Peru
Nevado Pisco (5752m)
Toclaraju (6033m)
Huaraz, Peru - I had teamed up with Rob who i used to climb in Chamonix with, Alan was unable to make to Peru in the end and Carols would not arrive for several days.........Rob and I began acquainting ourselves with the bustle of the Andean town with its symphony of honking car horns and random road rules in between hikes into the foothills of the Andes to acclimatise to the altitude. Once Carlos was on the scene we were all set to begin buying up supplies and organising transport to our chosen climbing areas.
It was awesome! Real adventure! Just ourselves to rely on and quite often entirely alone, unable to here or see another person! Just the giant snowy, icy masses of the Andean giants. my first climb, Yanapacha, was not a success as I was not yet acclimatised enough, however Rob and Carlos had the benefit of recent climbing in the alps, so took a seat on a rock for while as Rob and Carlos continued for the top. I waited patiently for the sun to come and warm me before I began my slow down climb back to our overnight camp among the boulders to wait on Rob and Carlos.
Our second climb was much more successful, Nevado Pisco (5752m). A nice uphill hike from our base camp to camp 1, sited on a pleasant alpine meadow with a little stream for water and the stars to gaze at while going to sleep. The buzz of the alarm at 1am signaled time for our slog through the moraine to the beginning of our route to Pisco's summit, the rarefied air was exhausting, every step was an effort - clearly I was not yet fully acclimatised - steadily though we gained height until I flopped onto the snowy summit of Pisco, lying motionless against my backpack taking a series of very lazy summit photos..............
After a few days rest back in Huaraz and a restocking of our supplies we were all set to go again when the weather closed in for a few days, Carlos took the opportunity to visit the coastal town of Trujillo while Rob and I set off for a couple of days rock climbing above Huaraz, beneath the beautiful peak of Ranraplaca. Once Carlos had returned from the coast we eagerly set off for the Ishinca Valley and Toclaraju (6033m) With loaded donkeys we set out for base camp to pitch our tents and rest the night, before going higher the next day to camp 1 just below the snowline where we pitched our two man tent - for the three of us to cram into! A 12.30am alarm kicked us out of bed and into the cold to get ready for our departure while breakfast of porridge was heated up, before it was crampons on and into it! A short walk in the dark frigid night brought us to a short wall of ice I quickly climbed while belayed by Carlos, and then came the leap of faith - a few gentle steps across a scarily flimsy looking ice bridge barely a metre wide across a yawning crevasse which barred our way. A meandering route soon brought us to the final ice slopes before the summit where we had to satnd in the bitter cold wind waiting for a Japanese group to move forward before we could begin climbing, once slightly higher we were able to move around them and continue towards the summit!
Toclararju was a great climb with alittle bit of everything thrown in, though sadly it was our last successful climb in Peru. Our attempts on Artesonraju (6025m) were denied through food poisoning sickening Rob and Carlos on our first attempt, and bad weather halting Rob and I on a later attempt after Carlos had returned to Spain. Rob and I also attempted Valnaraju, but found the route to be out of condition and unclimbable.
