After around 35 hours traveling I arrived in earthquake devastated Christchurch… I didn’t actually realize that signs from the earthquake would still be visible, but shortly after arriving the aftermath became disturbingly obvious: uneven roads spider cracked like windslab, wooden struts holding up buildings, containers substituting hotels, piles of debris and the whole city centre still declared a ‘red zone’ unsafe and guarded by the military. Apparently over 10,000 people fled, giving up on the earthquake tormented city.

I arrived at the hostel in the evening to meet up with the auzzie boys Tim and Todd; I hadn’t met them yet but had had lots of skype contact previously to help them organize their expedition.  They were super keen, had everything planned and arranged for their expedition to climb Mt Aspiring, the Matterhorn of New Zealand.
Next day we traveled south by coach to Wanaka. An 8 hour journey passing through Twizel, the foot of the valley leading up to Mt Cook. After arriving in Wanaka we got rid of our bags and headed down to the foot of the lake – I had just left a snowy, cold Innsbruck winter and traveled half way around the world to New Zealand midsummer. Definitely psyched after all that to swim and lounge on the beach.

The next day we had time to organize everything: checking weather forecasts, getting snow stakes, an e-pirb and buying food. Climbing Mt aspiring involves either a 3 day walking approach, or a 15 minute helicopter flight followed by a 2 hour glacier plateau traverse in order to reach the climbs staging point, the Colin Todd Hut. Due to our time schedule and the constantly changing weather in New Zealand we decided to fly in; to give us the maximum amount of time possible, increasing our chances of having a weather window good enough and long enough to achieve our goal.

The next day we awoke with anticipation, the forecast was ideal, the team fit and the taxi 1 hour late! This, for Todd and Tim this was the about to be the realization of something they started planning, dreaming about well over a year ago! Tense moments…
We arrived at the helicopter pad, departed with eye watering amounts of money and began loading up one of the helicopter landing feet with all our gear.  It’s always quite an adrenalin rush taking off in a helicopter, being dragged aloft, swooping through mountains and scraping over ridge lines. I find it quite daunting, being jettisoned deep in the mountains; a flight that took us 15minutes would have taken us 3 long days walking and with the added time probably 10kg added weight per rucksack in food and fuel!

The helicopter disappeared in the distance, the skies fell silent, we where alone. We got geared up; harness rope, walking axe. The first part of our trip was to descend from the Bevan Col and cross the Bonar glacier and ascend the other side up to the Colin Todd Hut (named after a pioneering climber who tragically died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 28 in 1955). It had been great seeing half of the south island traveling down from Christchurch, but ten times more amazing being finally back in the mountains, jagged white peaks lining the skyline bordering with perfect blue skies. Glacier guarded with Seracs and hidden Crevasses.

We descended down onto the glacier and found a suitable spot to put our crampons on and adjust the rope length to suit the glacier – long enough to ensure all of us not ending up in the bottom of the same crevasse. From a distance the Bonar glacier plateau looks fairly benign, but due to the warmth and being late in the day, the glacier was filled with pond delta’s. They were daunting. I couldn’t think of anything worse than suddenly disappearing south, but in this case not just down, but down into an icy water filled hole and wearing a 40ltr rucksack anchor! Fortunately we picked our route wisely and arrived at the hut safely and dry-our new home for the next few days. Mt Aspiring base camp.

We were alone in the hut apart from the scavenging Keas waiting outside the hut like vultures. Keas are New Zealand mountain parrots and will ravage anything that has the remote possibility of being something to eat. We had a quick ‘snickety snaeck’ as the kiwi’s say,  then started up the Shipowner ridge for a bit of a reconnaissance trip. We made it to the top of the Shipowner ridge, onto the glacier, around the corner and onto the start of the NW ridge. This section is knife edged, complicated, and exposed terrain – just what every mountaineer seeks. Everything was going well, the boys were moving like mountain goats in all terrain, were fit, psyched and we had the opportunity to reconoitre almost half the route. It was looking promising for an uncomplicated ascent the next day…

Later on after having our curry flavored gourmet meal we sat around the CV radio. Every night at 8 the warden from Aspiring hut ( down in the valley) contacts all the huts in the area to make a note of the plans for the following day and to give us the new, up-to-date local forecast. Whilst listening to the forecast we got an unexpected shock... The forecast for the next three days were storms, gale force winds, high temperatures and rain. The atmosphere in the Colin Todd hut plummeted. With conditions like these we would have no chance of an ascent, but not only this; we had planned food and fuel for 3 days and being so deep in the mountains meant no chance of going out and coming back in. This would mean another week of time needed, a heap of money for a helicopter, and with the weather so bad no chance of a helicopter pick up.  At this point we were utterly defeated, 1 year of planning, 2 weeks of travelling, to get this far and then just to be slapped in the face by mother nature. Unfortunately that’s how it is. This wouldn’t be the first time for me, just another trip to add to the long list of glorious failures.  This is the main crux of mountaineering in New Zealand, the approaches being so, so long and the weather being so random. Reading through the hut book and speaking to friends before coming out it seems that it takes most people in average 3 trips before being granted the weather window needed for an ascent. This was a hard truth to swallow; we were not ready to give up…

The next day we awoke to rattling corrugated iron on the hut roof and a new challenge of maintaining moral. Outside was chaos, roaring wind, heavy rain and 5m visibility. Today we were definitely hut bound and still needed a solution for the ‘lack of food and fuel scenario’. We reckoned that if there was a chance of getting a weather window then it would be after this storm passed and would be in about three days. So with rationing it would be possible to stretch our 3 days worth over 5 and we could also live in hope that another rash change in our favor occurred. After agreeing on this decision there was only the problem of keeping occupied in the hut. Our program of highlights consisted of many all time favorites: shit head (cards), hut bouldering, reading, yoga, boyish stupidness and well, of course being bored. In the evening the time came again for the forecast and our only possible communication with the outside world... After fighting over who got to talk with hut warden Estee, Todd took the microphone in hand and we eagerly awaited good news… The forecast was a little more promising, still gale force winds, but clear. This was the first tiny bit of hope which we decided to clench on to. My plan was to pack for Mt Aspiring, wake up at 4 if it was a clear sky then we go as far as possible.
I woke up at 4, tip-toed outside, no stars, back to sleep. I woke up at 7, went outside to see stars. I sounded the alarms...

We left the hut a little before 9am and headed back up the Shipowner ridge. It was all going well until we got onto the start of the exposed part of the NW Ridge. We climbed around the side of the first large Gendarme to be nearly blown into oblivion. Didn’t have to consider the options for long… Not wanting to be yet again hut bound we decided to head up a slighter smaller neighboring peak called the rolling pin. This was perfectly sheltered, but still brilliantly exposed. Ascending up the snow ridge was beautiful and along with the 3 pitches of steep mixed terrain leading up to the summit pillar.

Back in the hut after another lovely dinner it was time again for conversing with the outside world. What would tonight’s social escapade bring? The weather report left us a little dumbstruck. Not exactly what we wanted, but it seemed that from midnight to midday that there would be a window. Still strong winds, but a summit attempt plausible. Just no room for incident! Sometime in the afternoon a violent storm expected. Being caught on the exposed ridge would be disastrous and then descending to the valley from Colin Todd hut improbable. After putting all the known info together we agreed to leave the hut at midnight, ascend in the dark, arrive at the summit for sunrise. This would give us the biggest window for getting the hell out of danger before the storm arrived. We also aimed to leave the hut and descend to Aspiring hut, this all before the storm. A massive day ahead…

I heard Todd get out of bed around 11.15pm. I lay silent and waited for him to come back into the hut. I asked ‘And stars?’ he replied with a cheeky grin ‘only stars’. That was the green light. After eating the already prepared power porridge we left the hut under the cover of still darkness… We got to the high point of the previous day feeling fit, carried on through the steeper exposed terrain, moving steadily and surely at a good pace. We climbed for hours in darkness, ascending the steep buttress of the North West ridge, skirting around huge gendarmes. Concurrently with height gain we were greeted with increasing gusts of northerly wind. Eventually we arrived at the Col, the start of the long icy summit ridge. The ice ridge was intimidating. Hard mushroom ice underfoot, exposed, a strong gusting wind and unexpectedly long; giving an honest feeling of having a lot of complicated terrain between us and safety. We pushed on and on... The summit pyramid was steep and unsecure, pushing us hard to the bitter end, but we were there. Looking in Tim and Todd’s eyes I could see that they were satisfied, content that all the time planning, everything else, the experience and adventure of the journey, had ended up with the goal being achieved. But still firmly set behind that look was a knowingness that we still had to safely descend and escape the clutches of the Colin Todd hut; across the glacier, descending to the valley and walk out…
12 hrs after leaving the summit of Mt Aspiring we hobbled into Aspiring hut with raw heels, aching everything and empty stomachs.

An awesome experience and a great adventure…

Last week I travelled into Kaunertal with Hubert Gogl 'aka the Wipptal alpha Hunter' in search of ice. We climbed a line in the back of the valley and un-expectantly stumbled upon this little beauty as a new variation to the last pitch! 40m plum vertical, 40cm wide ice chandelier, fixed to the rock occasionally! A  touch of tenderness was required ; )

A couple of weeks before Christmas I decided instead of Californian luxury to get back to the roots and suffer with Bullhorn in Scotland. Two weeks of 5am starts, power salads, no internet, gale force wind, horizontal rain, air born razor sharp snowflakes in the eyes, LMFAO ; ), new routes and plenty of Burpees…

For the full story read Nick's write up on http://nickbullock-climber.co.uk/2011/12/17/ride-of-the-wild-bullhorn/

Back in October I spent 5 weeks travelling around Utah climbing dessert towers and splitter cracks. Started in Salt Lake made way around through Arches, Canyonlands, Fisher towers, Castleton towers, Indian Creek, Las Vegas, Mammoth Lakes and Zion.

Was an awesome trip! The highlight was definitely climbing Moonlight buttress in Zion National park with Crusher crack climber Monica and meeting loads of other really sound people: Andy, Clayton, Jess, Ralph, Roger… just to mention a few.

Back in September together with the ‘Dutch Superman’ Jelle Stahleman, I climbed the Freney Pillar direct. Climbing on this side of the Mt Blanc massive is a real adventure, giving you the feeling of being far, far from home. Retreating from the Freney face can often prove harder than continuation to the summit!

On arriving at the Eccles Bivouac at about lunchtime Jelle and I decided against tackling the nasty approach in the early morning darkness, opted to push on, sleep at the start of the route (approx 400m altitude) without bivy gear – nice idea! After arriving at the Col and abseiling down the other side on Abolakov ice threads, I found myself standing un-roped above (probably the most active Secac fall in the alps), just below a sopping wet crevasse with stones whistling past my head like bullets, waiting for Jelle to finish the last abseil; trying my best to keep cool and be patient as I waited. Next minute Jelle shouts ‘oh shit!’ I say ‘oh shit, what!’ Jelle had dropped the thicker of our two ropes over the 100m choss Serac cliff! Jelle then asked ‘what do we do’ I said ‘get the f##k out of here’ he replied ‘what back’ I said ‘no up’. We roped up made for the Bergschrund which was rapidly deteriorating in the midday sun. We headed directly upward to the safety of steep rock.

We got to the base of the rock but unfortunately 200m to far left, but it was much safer to waste extra time traversing across in safety on the rock. At about 5pm we reached the base of the route and after 2hrs of scraping away ice had finished constructing our 40cm x 2m ‘not so luxurious’ bivy ledge…We ate and then got cold, then didn’t get into our sleeping bags – because we didn’t have any, so we just got colder and closer and closer to each other… Annoyingly for us this scenario continued most of the night, vigorously spooning and shivering.

But thankfully a south face. We awoke to one of the best, most beautiful sunrises ever – this probably had a lot to do with the concurrent warmth.

We started climbing the magnificent pillar. It was fun when we could ignore the fact that we were climbing on a single 8mm rope and the fact that the clouds were building up behind us. Though soon enough I found myself close to the top of the Pillar belaying Jelle up after the crux pitch, desperately pulling the rope from the teeth of the vice crack after the chimney, showing my fake - everything is ok smile, saying ‘yeh got you, awesome! Nice pitch eh’ – when really an 8mm rope together with 1 sharp rock vice – hmmm ; (  After this 2 pitches, then underestimated mixed climbing to the top of Mt Blanc and all the way down to the Cosmiques for tea and medals – well almost. It was already 9pm so we had to settle for beer and a snickers.