Scottish Scouts Seven Summits Project  2004

 

In January of 2004 10 Scottish Scouts attempted the highest Mountain in Australasia the 12,500ft Aoraki/Mt Cook, on New Zealand’s South Island. This trip was the culmination of 22 months of preparation and training and represented the highest level of Scouting challenge.

 

Why the Seven Summits? Well back in 1989 Kevin Lloyd then Scottish HQ commissioner for activities and mountaineer realized after reading the book ‘The Seven Summits’ by Dick Bass, that there were scouts on all the continents except Antarctica- and we could always invest a penguin!

So what about Scottish Scouts on the summit of the seven highest mountains on the seven continents? People said we were dreaming, it would take to long to train them and they wouldn’t be up to it anyway. With this support behind us how could we fail!

 

Lots of hard selection weekends and harder training has now seen Scottish Scouts on the summit of Mt Elbrus 5642m in the Russian Caucasus Mountains in 1993, then in 1997 on Mt McKinley/Denali 6194m in Alaska,  Aconcagua 6906m in the Andes in 2000, and Kilimanjaro 5895m in Tanzania in 2001. This level of sustained training and commitment was achieved from a close knit leader team who included a Doctor, Mountain Rescue members, and Mountain Leaders, all warranted Scouters. What does the future hold?

The preparations have already started for the Scottish Scouts Mt Everest Expedition 2007-‘The Centenary Mountain’ to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the Scout Movement and an expedition to Mt Vinson in Antarctica in 2010. Having successfully run five expeditions to the high peaks the Leaders are confident that the Mt Everest Expedition will be the highlight of the Seven Summits Project.

 

The countdown to the Aoraki/Mt Cook climb started in Feb 2002 with a rigorous team selection at Fordell Firs, followed by a series of structured training weekends in the Scottish mountains, every four to six weeks. This culminated in ascents of Grade 2/3 snow/ice climbs on Ben Nevis and Glencoe as well as high level camping (3000ft+) all over Scotland.

 

The team had contacted NZ Scout HQ to obtain a contact and we were lucky to be put in touch with Noel Herman a scouter and mountaineer who would act as ‘our man’ in NZ. Many e mails and phone calls ensued, and by the departure date on the 27^th of Dec, our expedition was organized.

 

After a 26 hour flight we landed at Christchurch, to be meet by Noel, and pick up the hired minibus and trailer, that we would live with for three weeks, not one of the newest on the road!- still it was entertaining! We then made the 20min journey to the Blue Skies campsite in Kaiapoi where we were to spend a few days recovering from the flight and getting our legs stretched. We walked from Christchurch Gondala up and over the Port hills to Lyttelton Harbour and back, stopping briefly for Hokey Pokey ice cream, a NZ specialty and not to be missed. We met and had a barbeque with local Venturer and Rover Scouts, our equivalent of Explorers and Network, and we arranged to meet them to go to the New Year festivities at Cathedral Square in Christchurch, the sight of 10 kilted Scotsman caused a fair stir, and we were waylaid often for photos. It was certainly strange to not be in Scotland for New Year but practicing the Haka the Maori war dance, took our mind off it- a sight to behold!

 

We then moved to the beautiful Omaka campsite one of the sub-camps of VO4- the NZ International Venturer camp which we were privileged to be asked to attend the opening ceremony at Rimu Park. With over 500 scouts taking part we caused a stir as there were very few visitors from out with NZ and Australia. After this we set off south en route to Mt Cook village passing the glacier lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki. We arrived at the Unwin Hut owned by the NZ Alpine Club where we would spend the next 2 nights. It was important to get some acclimatization in, and next day we left at 7.00am to climb to the Mueller Hut overlooking Mt Sefton. We were somewhat surprised to see avalanches at 9.00am on Sefton- very early and a bad omen as it would turn out. Spectacular views of Aoraki/ Mt Cook and finding the beautiful Mt Cook lily made it a day to remember. Aoraki is the Maori name for Mt Cook and means ‘cloud piercer’

 

Mt Cook is one of the hardest mountains in the world, it has glaciers of Himalayan proportions and gets blasted by extreme weather even in summer. In the weeks before our expedition 9 people had been killed on Mt Cook and adjacent mountains. With this in mind the team had called on the local expertise of Alpine Guides Ltd to assist our expedition, our previous trips had been undertaken by us alone, however changes to Scout Authorisations, and the mountains fearsome reputation, made this a vital component. Our team of 10 was split into 2 teams of 5 with 1 team attempting Mt Cook and 1 team attempting the Hoechstetter Dome from the Tasman Glacier. We arrived at Alpine Guides at 8.00am and started our gear checks, met our guides and practiced crevasse rescue and avalanche transceiver location. Due to adverse weather we were unable to fly into the huts that day. Next day we assembled in anticipation fully kitted out at 8.00am and waited we then ‘hurried up and waited’ at the airport, after one false start we flew up the Tasman Glacier and landed at Plateau Hut below Mt Cook, our home for the next 6 days. Our second team was grounded by weather and didn’t get into their hut until later the next day.

 

Both teams settled into the huts and planned their next move; unseasonably warm weather had made the mountains very unstable so an attempt on Mt Dixon, via a ridge route, was seen as safest. We left at 3.00am and climbed the first 700ft in darkness before sunrise brought a bit of warmth to our frozen hands! On reaching the Dixon ridge we had 1000ft of rock climbing until we got to the upper snow field which was 1000ft of Grade 2+ ice /snow climbing. At 1.00pm we stood on the summit with views of Mt Cook and Tasman and over to the Hochstetter Dome where our other team was looking back at us! We arrived back in the huts and found out on the radio that very high winds (90-150km/h) and blizzards were going to hit us that night.

 

The next 60 hours were spent in the hut waiting for the wind to abate, we were kept busy working out snow falls further up the mountain, and it became obvious to us all that an attempt on Cook was out of the question. Our day to day problems were illustrated by the 30 minute escapade that was the toilet trip! The toilet was about 50m from the hut and during the worst of the storms we had to be fully kitted out, crampons, axe, harness, snow goggles and then clip onto a fixed rope between the hut and the loo! The serious side of this was that climbers, making the same loo run had fallen from the mountain in previous years after slipping on the slopes outside the hut.

We had an 18 hour window in the weather to get off the mountain and in worsening snow conditions we started over the Grand Plateau, traversed the crevassed top of the Hochstetter icefall to Cinerama Col and down the Caroline Glacier to the Boys Glacier then down to the moraine. As we reached the moraine an avalanche let go above us missing us by about 50m, any earlier and it could have been tricky. A grueling 4-hour walk took us down to safety and a well-deserved rest. While this was going on our second team was successfully climbing the Hochstetter Dome and then walking out down the Tasman Glacier stopping off at the De La Buche Hut after encountering similar weather conditions.

 

After a long shower and a few cokes(!) the team traveled to Wanaka to sample mountain biking, kayaking, tandem parachuting jumping, and jet boating. We returned to Christchuch via the West coast visiting the Fox Glacier, Hokitika, and Arthurs Pass. We met up with our NZ hosts, visited the NZ scout museum, and held a barbeque with local Venturers, commissioners and the Vice President of the NZ Scout Association. A memorable trip to a beautiful and awe inspiring country-if you get the chance don’t hesitate to go.

 

Kev Mitchell Climbing Leader

 

The Seven Summits Team would like to thank the NZ Venturers for their hospitality, Noel Herman for all his work on our behalf and the following companies for their support; Keela Scotland, Tiso Ltd, Alttitude Ltd, Morgan Law, Summits Ltd. All at SHQ and Fordell Firs especially Bob Broderick and James Allan. Alpine Guides and Mick Tighe of Nevis Guides ( Fort William)

 

 

 

Kevin Lloyd, Kev Mitchell, Dave Tibbs,

Andrew Brougham, Paul Deans, Chris Hopwood, Alister Kyle, John Mill, Peter Thorn, Kevin Wood.