Hopeless and Hope

Mount Hopeless in the foreground of this early summer view of the Travers range

Its been 6 months today since I broke my leg and over 7 months since returning from China. It’s hard to say which event has had more effect on me in the last 7 months although perhaps they are one and the same. Throughout so many years in the past travelling I always found the hardest thing to do was to return - somehow your soul is somewhere else , your body back in New Zealand and the spirit flitting backwards and forwards , waiting restlessly for the next voyage. Finding meaning(fulness) in what one could term normality in the Western World is rather difficult for one like myself - far more easy for ones spirit to soar with the soul on the vast empty(of humans anyway) spaces of the High Plateau. One thing that has been meaningful has been recovering from breaking that leg - rather then been a negative its almost the most inspiring circumstance I could have been placed in. The first 3 months are the most exciting and for awhile progress is on an almost daily basis. When one is so involved in a single ambition - to recover its so easy to focus and get on with it and most else is pushed into the background.

As I lay in a hospital bed with a fractured tibia I set out a plan of action and the first goal on a path to recovery would be to climb Mt Hopeless within 3 months , the name alone giving inspiration! Hopeless for the hopeful! Along the way various other objectives were involved - just walking for a start and then my first trip up Mount Arthur which was a mission in itself as I had trouble balancing and going downhill. Just a few weeks later with friends helping I managed to get up a rather harder objective, Mount Chittenden - one of my favorite’s . Although I found it difficult especially the balance and descending the improvement in just 3 weeks from my first hike up Arthur was phenomenal. Also I knew that Hopeless , although a tough climb physically, it was no more demanding than Chittenden otherwise and it was to be just a mental game of pushing on regardless. Hopeless was a good trip and although I was still slow the climb was achieved a week inside 3 months so the first part of the recovery plan was over. Since then life has moved to normal activities , like a job and housework but physical recovery has been ongoing - largely due to lots of bike riding and a bit of tramping with my guiding work locally. Last weekend I went up Chittenden again with some friends and the difference was amazing - I could now run where just three and a half months ago I was only crawling. Time was perhaps more the essence here rather than ambition and training.

Now the soul is calling that its time and the spirit and body grow restless.

Kadin and I had already toyed with the idea of “Hopeless” in a day fast one day alpine trips being in vogue at the moment and the thought alone of the Travers valley twice in a day making it a formidable mental undertaking. So I hit Kadin up – no longer Hopeless in a day but rater over 2 days. We made it easy as possible for ourselves- bivvying high the night before at 1950m with the only weight concussions being a pair of crampons each.. Why we didn’t use these in perfect crampon conditions early Sunday morning is beyond me as I opted to follow a rock hopping Kadin to the top of the standard route. There’s no real difficulty in that but for the fact that this route lends itself admirably to the sport of “rock tossing” which we – Kadin in particular are leading exponents of- enough said. Daunted by the displays of high speed rock flying down cliffs and with the descent in view Kadin suggested we try the NW ridge as a descent route. Now, I was rather skeptical that this was an easy route that the guide book maintained but for once the guide book was correct and the horrors of the descent were confined to the lower slopes – sliding on tussock, lacerating ones hands on spear grass and crawling like a pig through dense bush.

Mount Chittenden - just short of 6 months. Beginning to run again.