Photo by Scott Taylor – John Nankervis ski touring on Mt Roberts Magnificent seven A small band of mercenaries drawn from assorted Wellington mountain clubs headed deep into the Sabine valley seeking Spanish gold on Mt Franklin. The first gunslinger dropped out not far from Sabine hut with old war wounds and five continued. They met up with the seventh who had been left behind after the post-AIC expedition and had gone feral. Being alone in them thar’ hills left him ill-prepared for human contact and after a dodgy poker-hand he departed down valley to join the new Sabine colony. Another then decided there was insufficient treasure to warrant getting up that early so only four rode forth to Franklin. From the ancient moraine wall above Blue Lake they climbed away from an ice covered Lake Constance and sidled across into the main basin below Franklin. The loot on the summit must have had an old Navajo curse guarding it however, and not far from the summit ridge, a wet snow avalanche propelled one mercenary back from whence they came. No damage done, but no one messes with them ol’ curse-things, so the mercenaries decided to hang together lest they all hang apart and beat a retreat to Blue Lake and an afternoon of sober revelry and some dived for sunken Spanish galleys in the lake. Main stars: Mike Phethean, Lorraine Johns, Fiona Morrison, Richard Davies Supporting cast: Jonny Robertson, Adrian Smith, Nicola Johns Looking up the debris slide A South Island traverse Emma Richardson had no genetic predisposition for the outdoors.. nor was she forced by parents to endure suchlike “family holidays”. Rather she independently joined the Christchurch Tramping Club (CTC) while at Hagely High at age 16 - because her mum wouldn’t let her join the kayaking club. She soon outgrew early Banks Peninsular and foothill trips for harder adventures. In no time at all she became known to other backcountry legends. I know of one lads’ trip where the group had taken great pride getting to a remote Westland Biv only to encounter a lone teenage girl already there… and they had flown in! They soon discovered her ability to scrounge food off anyone… a very useful skill for her most recent endeavour! I do remember one early trip with Emma. I was leading a South-North traverse across Mt Owen in terrible weather. Here we encountered a party at lake Bulmer and they lent me a GPS to help navigate the snow covered Owen massif in almost zero visibility. It was a challenging trip… our cross-over party did not risk the North-South crossing (a good move in the these conditions for those who don’t know Mt Owen).. the morale of my group was pretty low and some began to doubt whether the leader knew where he was going… however, Emma’s characteristic determination showed through on this her first snow trip… (It’s amazing what you can endure after being at school with the Mains’!) Well, at the vastly older age of 21, Emma has recently completed a solo traverse of the South Island. Here are some statistics from Emma’s tramp: Distance: 1780 km Uphill: 93,125 m Downhill: 93,591 m Marked huts+bivies (including named rock bivs): ~170 Days: 180 (I think) I was surprised at these numbers… and double checked the computation… especially the uphill… but if anything, the stats are probably an underestimate! This is the hard way to get the maximum benefit from your annual hut pass! Any traverse of the Southern Alps is a remarkable and individual achievement. But a solo, continuous traverse at 21, with very little external contact and support (her Mum + Dad met her at Mt Cook and Springs Junction, and I met her at Arthurs) makes this one rather unique. In the months preceding December 2008, Emma packed maps and food parcels… (what else is the final year of your degree for?) and then posted these off to high country stations and DoC offices – no helicopter food drops on this trip! Many of the sections along Emma’s route were over 20 days in length… up to 195km long and involved up to 9000m of climbing… that’s a heavy pack haul! Furthermore, many of the hardest parts were off-track.. and she had to cross some very big rivers alone. Her boots failed her in the very first 2 weeks of the journey… but undeterred, she found a pair of disgarded men’s boots with no tread whatsoever in a Fiordland hut and continued the rest of the journey in these. Comparing epic tramps is meaningless… so much depends on the fickle weather and the conditions encountered… and Emma had her fair share of foul weather… gales, NW storms and unseasonal early heavy snows. Her tent was almost destroyed by gales on the tops of the Princess mountains, buried in snow beneath the Waiau Pass, partly eaten by rats in Wanaka…. and she encountered 80cm of rain in 24hrs while trying to get to the Mungo Hut. Without a mountain radio there was no forewarning of these events (especially the rats) other than the usual weather precursors immediately before. Sensible river crossing decisions, good basic gear and good decision making are a given for this kind of adventure. However, the motivation to persevere is something else. Her route was compromised by conditions and there is unfinished business in Fiordland… but deviations and side trips to the East (like a 5000m, 95km detour into the Takitimu ranges) made up for most of these compromises in my opinion. During her trip several friends encountered her in the hills… most observing that traversing the South Island appeared to be an effective weight loss program. Certainly in Arthur’s Pass she was in scavenge mode (camped out in the church). She reminded me of stray dogs I had encountered in Patagonia earlier this year - a happy stray dog. Although Emma survived the recession and housing crisis… she did not completely escape the leaky building syndrome… However, rather than pursuing a path of litigation she found that a packliner between the fly and outer was particularly effective. It was ea
