🏔️#56 - Confidence Erosion, New Triangles, Tradegy, Discovering New Trails, & More.

And we are back with the 56th NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every week.

No video this week. Maybe next week.

As usual, I'll let you know what’s going on in the hiking scene in New Zealand, along with other related bits and pieces I find interesting.

Alright, let’s get into it.

😿 The Sad News You’ve Probably Heard

These two news items were covered all over the news this week, but I’ll mention them anyway.

• Unfortunately, it looks like missing man Connor Purvis has been found dead, high on the slopes of Mount Huxley. While at the time of publishing it wasn’t confirmed that it was Connor’s body found, it’s assumed it is. A big search was put in place, and while it isn’t the result we wanted, it can be better than not knowing for his friends and family?
  
  The media were referring to Connor as a tramper in all the articles I saw. I’m not sure how many would consider the goal of Mount Huxley a tramping route? It doesn’t really matter, I guess, but it did make me double-take when I looked at where Mount Huxley was on a topo map. Latest press release here.

• And in more gutting news, the search for missing hiker Graham Garnett moved to a limited search phase as of Friday. From what I understand, this means they’ve exhausted all areas based on the current information they have. Search parties will continue searching, but are being scaled back ☹️ Kahurangi National Park, the second-largest in the country, is one of the least wellknown, and based on photos from searches, there’s some tough terrain to navigate. Latest press release here.

🔺 Makarewa Falls Track Gets More Triangles

• After multiple LandSAR callouts on the Makarewa Falls Track, the Southland Tramping Club decided to make the track easier to follow by adding arrows and orange triangles to the track. Having done the route a couple of summers ago, I can see how people get lost, so it’s a great shout from them. If you’ve got a DOC trail nearby that you reckon needs more orange triangles, reach out to your local DOC office and see if you can get some and help out. Source.

🍃 Track Clearing Ain’t For The Faint Hearted

With an average age of over 76, it makes the photo above even more impressive. Jim Hepburn, Alistair Barr and Derrick Field spent a few days clearing growth with chainsaws and scrubbars, installing waratahs, and fixing up huts in the Tararua Ranges. How good!

Check out the photos and details here on the Greater Wellington Backcountry Network page.

❄️ Free Avalanche Awareness Course

• Last year I mentioned this free avalanche course from Mountain Safety Council. Here’s another free course https://www.avalancheaware.com/ from the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education. If you’ve got some spare time, no harm in spending 45-minutes learning. Remember, it’ll never replace in-person learning.

  Note: If you know of any other free online training resources that are relevant to hiking/backcountry etc., 100% email me, [email protected]

🚨 ACR PLB Tip

• The world of Personal Locator Beacons is complicated, with more options available than ever, including satellite text options. But sometimes, it’s easiest to stay in your lane and do what you’re best at, which is what ACRartex seems to be doing.
  
  And when someone questioned about the best way to dispose of an activated ACR in the Tramping in New Zealand Facebook Group, they dropped in something I hadn’t heard of…the ACR Survivors Program. So, if you get in a situation where you use your ACR beacon for a rescue (and survive), you can submit your rescue story to ACRartex where they’ll give you another beacon for free (the terms and conditions are pretty simple). You can find out more here (and read some rescue stories).

😹 Hiking Funny

🗒️ Other Track News Etc.

• If you’re looking for hot pools around this country, I came across nzhotpools.co.nz lists most natural (and commercial) hot pools in the country.

• Good on DOC for unauthorised ticketed New Year party that was held on DOC land. Surely a massive fine for the organisers and tree planting hours for attendees. Full story.

• Mountain lions give me the heebeejeebees (yay NZ), and one hiker in the US was killed by one recently. I was surprised how few mountain lion deaths there are. Story here.

• Another US one, but this is a fun write up about an off trail backpacking route created by Dan Stenziano in the Eastern Sierras. He’s been working on this for a few years, and provides a trip report, video (above), photos, and gear list. Goals. Read all about it here.

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

I had a great Saturday night at Kirtle Burn Hut celebrating a friend’s birthday. What a good idea (not mine) that was, booking out the hut and having all the bunks filled with friends for puzzles, laughs, and the obligatory visit to the Mount Pisa summit.

While I am generally against more huts becoming bookable, this time it worked out well.

And then on Sunday, I learned about some new trails in Wanaka. In addition to Mount Iron, there is now hiking tracks to Little Mount Iron. The Queenstown Lakes District Council purchased land in 2023 and designated it as a recreational reserve, and now there’s a bunch more variations of short hikes you can complete in the heart of Wanaka combining Mount Iron and Little Mount Iron. You can read more all about the plans for Little Mount Iron here.

Have a great week, hike it up.

As always, reply to this email (or message me on Whatsapp +642041702764) with anything and everything…I’m happy to chat.

Chur,

Jub

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