Mountain climber and author Paul Hersey shares the three trips that have had the greatest impact on him.
(Listen to Paul discuss these three trips in more detail in The Wild Podcast.)
Paul Hersey has climbed extensively in the Southern Alps as well as many places overseas. A published author, his most recent books include The High Pathways, a guidebook to mountain scrambles and snow climbs of Te Waipounamu, co-authored with Shelley Hersey; The Cold Inside, a story about mountains, friendship and doubt; and Protection, his first work of fiction.
1. An overseas expedition to Kyrgyzstan
In 1996 I was invited on my first overseas expedition by an early climbing mentor, Hugh Nicholson. An absolute greenhorn, I was lucky not to get the team arrested, first by inadvertently taking photos of an important building in Tashkent, and second by changing currency on the black market. We were also held up by armed bandits near our basecamp but couldn’t tell if they were just trying it on, so refused to hand over any money.*
On the trip I came to realise how slow I was at acclimatising to higher altitudes. Despite this, I managed to summit three mountains, including a solo rock scramble. I’d never felt so far from home, and yet also discovered an unerring, if not slightly unnerving, desire to push myself and explore further.
(*Ed: Four years later. American climbers Beth Rodden, Tommy Caldwell and two others were taken hostage by rebels in Kyrgyzstan.)
2. North Buttress of Mt Hopkins
I’ve always been attracted to striking aesthetics in the mountains, and a photo of the 1100m North Buttress of Mt Hopkins in Ross Cullen’s guide to the Ōhau region aroused my interest. The fact that the potential route was difficult to reach, had been previously attempted and yet remained unclimbed, only added to the allure. I convinced Kynan Bazley, one of my strongest climbing partners, to attempt it in January 2006. Still the longest, most challenging alpine rock climb of my mountaineering career, what sticks in my mind is a combined state of flow as Kynan and I climbed unroped for a large portion of it. This was nothing flashy or ego-driven, just a quiet confidence in each other’s ability and judgement – of moving with rather than against the environment.
3. Honey Badger
In the winter of 2011, Shelley Hersey, Graham Zimmerman and I attempted a four-pitch water ice line below Pt2143m, north of Rabbiters Peak in the lower Hopkins Valley. As was typical, I struggled to overcome my nerves before the start of the climb, and Shelley stepped up to lead the first pitch. I eventually got myself sorted and led the second pitch, building and clipping into an ice screw anchor at the top. Seconds later, chunks of ice and snow broke off from overhead and pummelled me. I was knocked out for a few seconds. Coming to, I managed to rig an abseil with only one hand working. The others had also been injured, Graham the worst with a broken shoulder and lower leg and Shelley with extensive cuts and bruising. We managed to descend the climb and make it to a nearby hut before I hobbled to the road end to find someone with a four-wheel-drive who could pick up the others. Once back at our car, we drove ourselves to the nearest hospital. Self reliance and self responsibility (not to mention a decent slice of luck) are key learnings from that day, and they remain essential building blocks to a climbing philosophy that I have carried with me ever since.
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