Mountain climbing in New Zealand is in decline. Some blame climate change, others the perception of danger and the multitude of other activities vying for people’s time. But even though fewer Kiwis are taking up alpinism, there are plenty out there rocking the mountaineering world
Think of mountaineering in the 1970s and 80s and images of large sunglasses and rugged beards come to mind, often accompanied by bandannas, plaid shirts, beige leggings and sunburnt faces. Dungarees and matching overalls weren’t out of the question either. These images tend to become romanticised over time and many of today’s mountaineers will refer to them as ‘the glory days’. Days when groups of students and friends would spend a week exploring alpine passes and peaks. Days when competition to find and complete new ‘firsts’ was rife. There aren’t many counters measuring the popularity of the really remote stuff, but anecdotally many alpinists believe there’s been a significant decline. They sense people are more inclined to avoid the glaciers, snow fields and knife edge ridges that were, at one time, so appealing to so many Kiwis with a sense of adventure. So, are we a softer bunch now? Is a latte in Westfield more appealing than a mug of soup at Tasman Saddle? Not so, according to Whitney Thurlow, who has been guiding for Aspiring Guides for 20 years. He says it’s the mountains themselves that have changed, rather than our desire to explore. “Access to glaciers is getting more and more difficult all the time,” he says. “The big thing is the moraine – on lower glaciers you end up with impassable over-steepened towering walls of loose rock. You can’t really deal with them and access is cut off to places you used to get to. “People used to walk into places where now the only option is to fly. With the Copland Pass, for instance, Kiwis used to go over that all the time. But it’s getting harder every year and now you can’t do it easily. You have to negotiate dangerous moraine and hardly anyone does it anymore.” Thurlow cites the example of Tasman Glacier, where there used to be two huts half-way up, but one’s been destroyed and the other’s now unreachable. “In a lot of places, flying becomes more of a necessity.” On top of this, Thurlow says the increase in choice of different activities will inevitably lead to fewer people in the high mountains. “There are a lot more options of things to do now. For instance, there were no bolted climbing routes 30 years ago. Climbing gyms didn’t exist, people didn’t tend to go kite surfing, wind surfing, mountain biking or kayaking.” However, some believe cultural factors play a far greater part in the apparent decline. Andrew Hobman, from the Mountain Safety Council, believes one of the reasons is the increased perception of danger. “The fear factor is a large part of it,” he says. “These days people do things with a high perceived risk, but where the risk is actually very low, such as bungee jumping.” [caption id="attachment_3789" align="aligncenter" width="1280"]
