Beyond the Bushline

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BEYOND THE BUSHLINE Don Goodhue Wegruntedupthescreamerand eventuallyf found the self-arrestlearning slope. Afteraquickbite of lunch we were back in business, decked out in PVCS, hurlingourselvesd downhill every which way. To the average ski bunny hopping it on the slopes that day, we must have looked like a cross between break dancing yeti's in PVCS and the original village idiots. The day was getting on, so after as spot offront pointing onabitof ice, it was time to head back to thel Lodge. Arriving at thet top of the "cirque", we spotted "Joe' s" group below US. Still feeling energetic andlookingforabitof sport, we starting hurling snowballs in their general On the summit, Mt Ruapehu Don Goodhue direction. It seemed odd, but they gave no reaction to our efforts, otherthanstrangelooks. For most trampers, there is something dance step, andi thel Italian hitchi is not a Next thing, Lyndsay was off down the specialaboutgetlingabovethebushline one night stand off thel Italian variety. By hill to join them at what can only be After a long, hard slog, often through the end of the evening, out of all the describedasamaniacp pace. Nowonder mud and bush, there is a sense of tangles and curses, most present could they gaver US strange looks, as Lyndsay achievementtobreaki outintotheopen. make a bight, go left over right, up raced straight past when it became Once above the bushline there is the throughhere, down through there, and obvioust thati it wasn'tJoel but abunchof temptation to go further, higher, and comeupwithsomethingthatresembled total strangers. (Wet felt like even bigger search for a new challenge. We find at figure-8. village idiots now!) ourselves in an environment where the weather can throw US everything it's Two weeks later all that practising of A month later and another late night got, and more, while at the same time knotswasputtothet testi int thestl Patrick's arrival at the Lodge for our second be spectacular and rewarding. Along gymnasium. Karabiners, slings, prusiks, weekendont themountain. Thev weather withthiss stepinto thealpine: environment andother paraphernalia were addedto was lookinggood and we werekeen to comes a whole new bunch of gear and thel knots, and before long things were get further up the mountain. As we skills. startingto fallinto place. Therer was only climbed@wayfromthelodge,itseemed one thing fori it head for the mountain. as though the weather was following M aking the most of what the US. With crampons on we managedi to mountains have to offer, the After a late arrival from Wellington, the keep ahead of it until we reached the Club runs an Alpine Instruction Course Lodge wasawelcome sight Evenmore glacier below Paretetaitonga. In the (AIC) every year. The AICtakes thet form welcome was a clear sky the next time it took to have lunch, the cloud oft three weekends at Mt Ruapehu, after morning. After much frantic organising finally caught US and beforel longi it was initialt trainingin Wellington. Thecourse ofgear, wer weret finally off- each group like sitting inside a cold bottle of milk, is aimed specifically at providing heading off to do their own thing on trying to look out. (And about as wet!) participants with thes skills necessaryt to different parts of the mountain. Our move about safely above the bushline, group, under the guidance of Lyndsay, Harnesses were fitted and Lyndsay put rather than technical mountaineering. washeadingforhis favourite: self-arrest- US through the "ropes" of glacier travel learning-slope. But first, we had to get The rest ofthe day was spent practising Early. July: saw 23 keen participants and there. Wep practised kicking and cutting pitches and then a spot of ice climbing six instructors converging on the steps, and once crampons were at Delta Corner. By the time we had Tramping Club Hall for a rundown on introduced, we soon appreciated the done with the ice climbing, the weather whaf'swhatingear, andanintroduction benefits. What a difference after the had really packed a sad SO it was time to the science of knots. Contrary to trudgeofthelasthour, its seemedliker we toheadforahotdinnerd andthecomforts popular opinion, a figure-8 is not a were moving at warp speed ten. of the Lodge. TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING

The weather the next day wasn't conducive to gelingoutvithropesand crampons, sothemoming was spent building snowcaves outside the ba Lodge. (It's building snowcaves in when Gomne style you can pop inside for lunch and a hot drink). . Needless to say, quite an U e audiencehadtheir noses pressed to the windows offering all sorts of advice but not prepared to do any of the spade work. Having practised the art of snowcaving, the final weekend of the course was to be spent at Turoa doing it for real. We decided to build an igloo but as fater wouldhave it, the practise snowcaving was not going to be wasted. While the other groups burrowed into the slope, we were busy cutting blocks of snow and stacking them in everdecreasing circles. After about an hour of cutting and stacking, Lyndsay was quickly becoming entombed within the igloo. However, all was not well - as the everdecreasingcircleofblocks FORT D) slopedgraduallyinwards, sodidtheresto oftheigloo, which wasn't supposed Aineeal @ to. Like a slow motion replay, one side slowly sagged further inwards Retchers last Oland and before we knew it, BASED ON THE TRUE STORY OF FIELD MARSHALL FLETCHER'S Lyndsaywasleft: standing in a pile of rubble. EAC JOURNEY INTO IGLOO CONSTRUCIION E PRESERVATION After a quick conference and given the time left, we decided to down the mountain on their first run, andby thet time wewerer readyt to depart dig a snowcave. Four hours of frantic andi just overt twol hours after setting out from the summit, there was standing digging later, we were settling into a we: stopped for a snack on the ridge ten room only. snowcave big enough to sleep four. minutesbelowthes summit. Theweather was event better thanitwasdownbelow In the words of a famous New Zealand As if to make up for the efforts of the perfect! Wetraversedbelowthesummit climber, we had "knocked the bastard previous day, Sunday dawned fine with before climbing up onto the ridge a few off". The climb wasn't spectacularly notabreath ofwind. With the mountain metres below the summit. difficult, butt from where wel had started clearc andi liceunderfoot, it was abrilliant three months earlier, we certainly felt climbtoTahurangi. Wewerewellupthe Before long there was a steady stream like wel had achieved something even skifield before the skiers had headed ofpuntersheading upt ofrom thel bottom, ift the igloo had been a disaster! TRAMPING & MOUNTAINEERING