"Slipping and a-Sliding"

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"Slipping and a-Sliding" Rob Hosking Welcome to the only trip report named after a Little Richard song. (Actually John Lennon did a cover version, now I come to think of it.) Okay, musical trivia bit over now for the alpine trivia bit. fter a couple of weekends learning the basics On the way home several of us staged an insurrec- "This is a rope; it will save) your miserable life; try tion over the venue for our takeaway dinner. We antinot to stand on it, especially if you're wearing Levin-ites won and we wound up in Bulls.. An empty crampons" it was time for the Real Thing. No not victory. Coca-Cola. We were off to Ruapehu to jump around in For the second weekend of the stupendous Alpine what little snow the elements were able to muster this Instruction Course we were to go to Turoa but we diwinter. verted to the Lodge at Whakapapa as it appeared there Piled into the bus, took off up State Highway One was little on the Turoa side that we could work with pausing only for dinner at arrggh no! not Chinese in to whit, snow. Personally, I learned a lot more on this Levin again! Alas, it was so. weekend, probably because I made more mistakes. Thatl bit of thej journey endured, we hooned to the Wel hooned up the hill on Saturday. It was starting to Lodge. Almost half the group had never been to thet Lodge blow by the time we got up to the ridge above the Pinbefore and it was a pleasant surprise. Most of us had nacles, but it wasn't tool bad. It was getting cold though. imagined something fairly basic, not the luxurious den Ireached the top feeling a bit puffed but otherwise okay, it is. then had a sudden giddy spell and pitched over. Really Even more wonders awaited us in ther morning. What's bad gut churning nausea it was worse than those this? Tea brought to us in bed? Surely some mistake? flashbacks of the "Donny and Marie Osmond Show" No - and what was also no mistake, it was time to get used to get. up. la also had an odd ringing headache. Someone said Up the hill for the day's instruction. Mostly this in- have some water and something to eat; I did the water volved learning to self-arrest - falling over down a slope first, then a cabin bread, which stayed down about five and stopping oneself with the ice axe. Now, the falling seconds before heading back up again. No one can fully over bit I could handle. Falling over is something I - do appreciate the term "dry retch" until they have regurgiwell, could do it right now actually.. oh bugger! Sorry... tated cabin bread. anyway, I mastered the falling down bit fairly quickly I got in out of the wind and huddled up. After half an and the instructors of our little sub-group, Steve and hour felt better and went down to where my two group- Ann, were particularly impressed with my ability in the mates, Andrew and Clive, were digging a snowcave. Clive "Oh-dear-here-comes-the-ground-again - THUD" ac- was well into the side of thel hill and frantically throwing tivities. The "stopping-quickly-before-hitting-a-rock-or- the white stuff out behind him, while Andrew was cleargoing-over-a-bluff" bit came a little slower just how ing itaway. I helped Andrew, butl I was still sluggish and much slower would be seen the next weekend. clumsy on my feet. Someone suggested it might be an We stopped for lunch and noticed little flakes rolling idea if went back to the Lodge with a couple of the down the valley in front of us. We wondered what they others that evening and the idea was a much needed were. Much discussion ensued - were they bits of snow, slap in the face. No bloody way.... - I had some more or something else? water and started to perk up. After much argument I went over and caught one of After a while volunteered to have a crack at digging. them. It was a $10 note. yelled this out to the others, l'd been dreading it, but I found the cave less claustrowho thought I was having them on. I wasn't. And we phobic than I expected and it was actually good fun. watched - ooh, my guess is about 10-15 of these Soon I was shovelling the stuff back and singing "Take roll down the valley and over the little bluff at the end. me to the April Sun in Cuba, woah-ho ho!" - guess There didn't appear to be any more. Turned out there you had to be there. Or not, as the case may be. were a couple of snowboarders above us and one of The cave became quite cosy, although smoothing out them had lost his wallet. Tried to find them at the end of the floor to a decent flatness took some doing. I was the day but they'd gone. Yes really. determined to get it smooth because every timel camp By the time we walked out the snowl had turned quite outdoors there is a phantom tree root waiting for me. slushy and it was hard-going walking back. Did I say No matter wherel pitch camp, therei it'll be, usuallyjust walking? It was more like wading half the time. That under my hip. I can camp miles from any vegetation night there was a talk about avalanches which provided larger than ap paspalum, butyou can bet your last muesli much food for thought; then we were off up to the slopes bar that tree root will be waiting for me when I get into below the Alpine Club Hut the next dayl learning how to my sleeping bag. No chance of that in a snow cave, I cut steps before walking back down roped together. figure. Tramping and Mountaineering 1998 a Returning to the snowcave at sunset Andrew Squires We're the last group to finish our snowcave, some- around my wrist). All the while I was saying one word, thing I initially put down to my not being able to con- over and over. One very short word. Between the slope tribute in the earlier stages, but we found another rea- and the creek there was a little bluff. Not a big one. But son when we tried to put in air holes: our cave was at the speed I was going, I figured I could do myself much deeper than the others. In fact, we were almost some damage ifl went over it. I got my legs around the curling in behind one of our neighbours at one end. right way and managed to dig my ice axe in, and that, Andrewa and Clive wriggled in andy we discussed where plus a couple of rocks before the edge, stopped me in to sleepand where to put the cooker. Initially we planned time. to cook inside but the cooker had a leak so we decided There was a bit of blood and Instructor Steve halfthis wasn't the safest option. We borrowed one of the jokingly told me I had just failed the self-arrest part of other group's cookers, which ran out of fuel just as the the course (and I was uneasily aware of the half that pasta was beginning to boil. In a rare moment of fore- was not a joke) but the damage was minimal. It was a sight, - had suggested fresh pasta, So our meal was ed- particularly valuable lesson and the next time I went on ible - just. We pegged out for the night. The cave was the snow I was very conscious of the need to keep alert warm, and we were tired from digging SO we dropped at all times. off quickly, although there did seem to be a tree root Off the snow, down a steep rocky hill and up over under myh hip. Mead's Wall. We were one of the first groups back but Next day we opted to gostraight down from the caves we used the time to learn how to find people buried by instead of round the ridges like most of the other groups. an avalanche who are wearing electronic detectors. This involved trusting the crampons (not to mention the Back on the bus. Good trip back i.e. we didn'tstop quadriceps) but it was good fun. We made it through for Chinese takeaways at Levin. A couple of blokes the steep bit and were wandering down a gentle ridge opened a surreptitious Speights. Totally by coincidence just before the snow ran out. I had relaxed after the it was the same two who required a comfort stop at earlier tricky stuff andlwasn'tpaying: attention. tripped. Otaki... it took a while but they found a suitable place to It was icy snow and I was surprised at how quickly one do their business. She's a hard road finding the perfect gets up speed. urinal, boy. They were welcomed back onto thel bus with The ice axe flew out of my hand and I was hurtling a chorus of "Drink yourself more bliss... " It was one of down the slope towards a creek at thel bottom, trying to the noisier moments on the trip back. Most of us were haul the ice axe back in on the tape (which was still too knackered. Tramping and Mountaineering 1998