Introduction - How I got to where I am going

2 days til I depart for my vacation. So welcome to my little stories of traveling to and around the Greater Southern Land.

This journey started in about October 2011. My climbing friend Vanessa happened to mention she was sussing out a trip to Antarctica in 2013. Sailing from Argentina on a small yacht, visiting the landscapes and wildlife, and with the main aim of ski mountaineering (mountaineering with skis - more hardcore than just backcountry skiing, usually involving glacier travel, ice axes and crampons, and ropes). It sounded like my dream trip. I have long been fascinated with Antarctica, studying it at high school, then later discovering the stories of Amundsen, Scott and especially Shackleton - true heroes. It also sounded like a good vaccine to a midlife crisis. 

So anyway, I politely asked Vanessa if she would mind if I applied to go - didn’t want to crash her party - but she was fine about it. So I contacted the leader, a certain Stephen Venables. Now the first mountaineering book I read was Chris Bonnington’s ‘I Choose to Climb’. The second was this venerable Mr Venables’ story of his oxygenless ascent of a new route up the east face of Everest, an amazing tale. We Skyped and discussed the trip. My credentials were that I can rock-climb, ski (though not much technical backcountry experience) and have done a little sailing. Plus I have done some mountaineering 10 years ago (Stephen was chuffed that my mountaineering instructor, Breed Arkless, also taught him back in the 70s!). But I had to stress that I was not a hardcore mountaineer with ample or recent experience. That seemed to be OK and they urgently needed a fourth person to secure the booking - so I was in!

2012 was a year of buying and using new stuff. I had to learn all about Alpine Touring (AT) skis which are wide like downhill skis, but have bindings that either hinge at the toe for walking or have the heel locked down for descending. When going up skins (sticky carpet) are attached to the base to allow forward propulsion (or disallow slipping back, really). So I fitted myself out with Dynafit skis, boots, bindings and poles. 

Ascending Guthega Spur

I coaxed my Norwegian friend Kim, presently working in Brisbane, to come to Guthega in the Snowy Mountains for a tour up the back somewhere. Fortunately our planned visit was just after the first big dump of snow. We left on a beautiful morning with the aim of getting to Mt Jagungal and back, hauling 23kg packs. But we skied straight into a blizzard on the main range, then I got cold and ‘bonked’, and we had to escape to the Munyang Valley huts below. We skied in cloud and snow for three days before we bailed. My new boots gave me bad blisters, and the skis are not suited for undulating slopes such as we were on - they are more for bigger mountains. Anyway, it was very educational. The next day we went up Kosciuszko, which was much more fun, especially as we were not burdened by heavy packs.  

Horsecamp Hut

In August I took the kids skiing to Guthega for a week of downhill. I used the touring skis the whole time - they are pretty good on most stuff except ice and sludge (far worse that normal heavy skis). The last few days had deep powder and the wide skis poetically drifted through that - lovely.

My last preparation trip was a backcountry skiing instruction course run by the NZ Alpine Club at Mt Olympus, out the back of Christchurch. Spending a lot of time with the guides was very informative, with much time spent discussing avalanche and terrain assessment.The snow wasn’t particularly abundant but we still found some very steep corn skiing (‘corn’ comes from Cornucopia, ie perfect).  It was also a fantastic social week - a great bunch of like minded skiers and climbers.

That's me on the left, in the tutu.

Over the last few months I have tried to get some appropriate fitness. Slogging up the hill at Brunkerville Gap with weights in a pack was the primary activity. Plus a bit of gym work. The hot weather has been an excuse for not doing enough.

About 3 weeks ago I heard from Vanessa - she was in hospital with a severe viral infection. The serology came back as Epstein-Barr Virus. It can take weeks to months to get over, and she was especially worried about her enlarged spleen - I could take out her appendix, maybe (it would be my first!), but not a ruptured spleen. So she has pulled out. All rather disappointing for everyone.

Anyway, now I am packed and ready to go. Hopefully I have everything I need - and it works!

Pack training in Glenrock