A Merry mountain Christmas

It's Christmas eve and the morning mist rolsl across the Mekong River from Laos into the mountainous Loei district of Thailand. I am spending another Christmas in the mountains.

The traditional northern hemisphere Christmas with snow and reindeer used to seem foreign to me as a child living in New Zealand in the middle of summer and going to the beach after a Christmas lunch. I suppose I have always associated Christmas with two things: the birth of Christ and adventure. As a child it was outdoors, beaches,  a swimming hole and later, I discovered mountaineering. When I was 19, I climbed Malte Brun, an impressive 3000 m rock peak, on Christmas Day, 1967, in the Mount Cook National Park. In the New Zealand mountains I had finally found snow in the middle of a NZ summer.

On the summit of Malte Brun in 1967 with Aoraki Mount Cook in the bcakground. Photo Keith nMcIvor

The following day, Boxing Day, we climbed the high peak of the twin summits of Minarets. I was fortunate to join a team of three crack Dunedin mountaineers, and together we climbed many of the 10,000 foot or 3000 metres peaks in the Mount Cook National Park, and also, Mt. Aspiring, over the years.
In 1967 we were labelled the 'Four Scots' McIvor, McLeod, Cowie and McKerrow. Together, or in pairs, we climbed many of the 3000 metre peaks in NZ, including Mt. Aspiring.

Aoraki Mount Cook on the right and the tasman Glacier between Rod McLeod on the left, and me in the centre. Jim Cowie is on the right. Photo: Keith McIvor

My first ascent of Aoraki Mount Cook, our highest mountain on Christmas Day, 1968. It was a 20 hour climb and probably the best Christmas present of my life, standing on the top on New Zealand.  Read the story of Keith's tragic death attempting to do the first winter ascent of the Caroline face of Mount Cookin 1973. . http://bobmckerrow.blogspot.com/2009/01/death-of-friend-keith-mcivor.html

Two years later on Christmas day 1970, I climbed Aoraki Mount Cook again, this time by the East Ridge with Chris Timms. Chris later went on to win an Olympic gold medal in sailing.

On Christmas eve 1970, I was working for the Mt. Cook National Park on mountain rescue team. We knocked off about 3 pm that afternoon and were celebrating in the Park workshop. About 7.30 pm a scruffy climber walked in and said, "I have a ski plane booked to fly into the Grand Plateau in a few minutes. My partner hasn’t turned up so I need someone to climb with."

Most of us were glowing with the effects of large quantities of beer and relishing the thought of a relaxing Christmas day the following day. I looked at Chris Timms, with his curly blond locks falling down over his shoulders, and an impish smile, and I was instantly attracted to this odd character, and I said "yes". That was the beginning of a long friendship.

My pack was always packed, ready for rescues so I grabbed it, stuffed a few cans of beer into it, and 30 minutes later we were on the Grand Plateau with Mt Tasman and Cook towering above us. It was 9.00 pm in the evening. We had the last two remaining cans of beer and grabbed 3 hours sleep. We woke shortly after midnight to a starry sky. We wolfed down some breakfast and hit the hard snow at 1 am. Chris Timms was hell bent on doing the East Ridge of Mount Cook. As I stood on the steep knife edge ridge, my feet were not steady. The effects of the beer were still there. I could think of no place better in New Zealand to quickly sober up. ( This is where I took the picture of Chris posted below) I looked at the Caroline Face of Mt.Cook and searched for my friends Mike Browne and Keith Woodford who I knew were attempting the face today.

Chris Timms on the East Ridge of  Aoraki Mount Cook on Christmas day 1970. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Near the top of the ridge where it comes out just below the middle peak, we struck gale force winds and blizzard conditions. The snow and ice stabbed like a driven nail into our faces. For survival, the only options were to dig a snow hole on the summit ridge, and wait until the weather abated, or drop down into the Hooker Valley to Empress Hut. Originally we had planned to zip over the middle and high peaks and back down the Linda Glacier to Plateau Hut.The descent was the most treacherous in my whole climbing career as neither of us had been on this side of the mountain, and we fell a number of times descending what we found out later, was part of the Hooker face. Visibility was almost zero and we fell, staggered, stumbled our way to safety.

I can remember both of us falling onto the bunks in Empress Hut and both rocking with laughter. " Shit Bob, that was close," said Chris. We had clearly diced with death and survived. Chris Timms and and I were to survive many other close shaves in the years ahead, but eventually in 2004, his luck ran out. We walked out down the Hooker Glacier and out to the Hermitage the next day. Chris was such fun to be with as he sang, joked and enjoyed everything around him. While descending the previous day, Chris had ripped the seat out of his long johns and his bum was showing in places, much to the amusement of tourists as we hit the track near the Hermitage. Chris never cared about what people thought and laughed with them. He had an admirable quality of being able to laugh at himself.
Above left, Chris Timms after winner a gold medal in the 1984 Olypmics for sailing.

Over Christmas time of 1970, I spent time with Jim Cowie, Bill Denz and Chris Frazer at Pioneer Hut at the head of the Fox Glacier and the four of us climbed Glacier Peak and Mt. Douglas together. Bill Denz went on to be one of the country's top mountaineers.

Our Christmas playground as young mountaineers. Haast, Lendenfeld, Tasman and Aoraki Mt. Cook.  Photo: Bob McKerrow

For nearly a decade I spent my Christmases in the New Zealand mountains interspersed with climbs in Ethiopia, Antarctica, Kenya, Borneo and the Himalya.

On the summit of Mt. Kilimananjaro, 1978 ; "As high as the sky" wrote Hemmingway.


 In 1978, when living in Ethiopa, I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro on Christmas Day. In 1969  Christmas was spent in the Antartcic, and in 1986, preparing for  a trip to the North Pole in Ely Minnesota.

Yesterday I flew  from Bangkok to Loei where I will spend Christmas in the mountainous Phu Kradueng national park, not far from the mighty Mekong River.

 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

Being in the mountains at Christmas time reminds me of the birth of Christ and how glorious mountains are.




On Christmas day in the mountains I like to find a quiet spot and think of all those mountaineers who died doing what they loved, especially those who I were close to and still grieve. Keith McIvor, Howard Laing, Kevin Carrol, Mike Cooper, Bill Hauk, John Hume, Richard Tilley, Dave McNulty, Rob Hall, Gary Ball, Vicky Thompson, Bruce Jenkinson, Dave McNulty, Anatoli Boukreev, Chris Jillet, Erica Beuzenberg and Faye Kerr.
 
The last two photos of Phu Kradueng National Park are  courtesy of TripAdvisor

Bill Denz - the coffee jar and Vern Leader.

Bill Denz - Bold Beyond Belief - the biography.

BILL DENZ (1951-1983)

So here we are twenty eight years after the original hard man of New Zealand climbing was killed in the Himalayas at the age of just 32, the story of this legendary mountaineer has been recorded in a book titled: Bold Beyond Belief: Bill Denz New Zealand’s Mountain Warrior. The book was released in Wellington on 5 December 2011 and is published by Maxim Books.

I was fortunate having tramped and climbed with Bill Denz. The first trip I did with him must have been late 1966 or early 1967 when we were on an Otago Tramping and mountaineering Club trip up the Rees and Dart, and Ketth McIvor took Bill under our wing. But Keith and I were more interested in Bill's sister Abigail and her friend that made up the larger party.

On Boxing Day 1970 when Jim Cowie and I were in Pioneer Hut, we teamed up with Chris Fraser and Bill Denz and climbed Glacier Peak, and then we headed for Douglas with Bill roping up with Jim Cowie, and I with Chris Fraser. I am quoted in the 1991 NZ Alpine Journal and in the book as writing,

" He wasn't a pretty climber but what he lacked in technique he more than compenstaed for with sheer drive and raw guts. We climbed Glacier Peak (3002m( and Mt. Douglas (3007) on Boxing Day, and the next day Bill traversed Mt Tasman with a sixty-pound pack to Plateau Hut, on the east side of the main divide."

I wrote in my climbing diary at that time"that Bill would either kill himself in the next year or go on to be a great climber."

When I lived at Mt Cook from late 71 to mid 1973, I got to know Bill quite well.and was a frequent visitor at the Parks Board House 1 where Kevin Carroll, Dick Whitley, Faye Kerr and I lived. In fact he invited me on some of his outrageous first ascents, but being on standby for mountain rescue I felt guilty taking time off, and sub consciously I wanted to live. I knew Bill was pushing the limits with very basic gear, and I felt his number could come up at any time and I didn't want to go with him. I think that is how many climbers felt about Bill in his first few years.

However on one ocassion he took a large coffee jar from the house which he used as a water bottle on his new route on Mt. Cook. Some weeks later when I did a Grand Traverse with Aat Vervoorn, when we guided 64 year old Vern Leader, we discovered the infamous coffee jar on the ridge. You had to admire Bill for the sheer audacity and guts of this young emerging mountaineer. I enjoyed a number of good evenings with Bill and paying for all the beer, as he loudly told all assembled what he was going to do next.

Vern Leader, 44 years older than Bill at the time, probably identified with Bill Denz better than most, despite the age gap. Vern who did a number of large first ascent solo climbs in the Earnslaw group, had written up his climbs in the NZAJ, and was publicly criticised in NZAC publications for dangerous practices. So when we found Bill Denz's abandoned coffee jar, Vern understood better than most, what solo climbing was about, and the flak you get for being bold.

Aoraki Mt. Cook. The south face, the Hillary ridge, the Caroline face and the east ridge, route well-known to Bill. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Paul Maxim has spent the last three years painstakingly researching and writing this biography. Complete with the full co-operation of Bill’s family, the biography traces Denz’s life from his formative years through to that final expedition to Makalu, the world’s fifth highest mountain. The book covers, in Denz’s own words and from recollections from friends and associates and climbers throughout the world, his ground breaking years in the Southern Alps, the rock walls of the Darrans and Yosemite and his epic mountain adventures in Alaska, Patagonia, Nepal and Tibet.

At 328 pages, with over 100 pictures (including 16 full colour plates) and a Foreword from renowned international mountaineer Greg Child, BOLD BEYOND BELIEF is the story about a kiwi climber whose attitude, passion, drive and vision is unique in the 150 year history of New Zealand mountaineering. For further information go to: http://www.billdenzmountaineer.com/

Bill Denz country: The Balfour. Photo: Bob McKerrow

About Bill Denz

Bill Denz (1951-1983) was a New Zealand mountaineer who enjoyed a short but stellar climbing career that was terminated by an avalanche on Makalu in October 1983. Denz grew up in Dunedin where he displayed a precocious interest in the outdoors. He began rock climbing as a teenager and started climbing big peaks in the Aoraki/Mt Cook area in December 1970. During the next five years Denz completed many new routes, winter firsts and solo ascents in the region, including the first ascent (with Bryan Pooley) of Mt Tasman’s Balfour Face and soloing two extraordinarily bold lines on the South Face and Caroline Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook.

The south face of Hicks: Photo: Bob McKerrow

Winter first ascents include the South Face of Douglas, the Sheila Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook and the North and South Faces of Hicks (all via new routes). In 1973 Denz turned his attention to the Darran Mountains where he was involved in the first ascent of the formidable Adelaide Face of Marian, which was the first climb in New Zealand to involve ‘big wall’ climbing techniques. During the next five years Denz put up over 20 new routes in the Darrans. In July 1983 Denz returned to the area to complete (with Kim Logan in epic circumstances) the first winter ascent of the severe South Face of Sabre.

Much of Denz’s final years of climbing were spent abroad. From bases in North America he completed ascents of 15 big walls in Yosemite and Alaska, including early repeats of Tis-sa-ack, Excalibur and Pacific Ocean Wall and the first ascent of Kichatna Spire’s East Face. He also made several first ascents of peaks in the Chugach Range. As a soloist he completed two expeditions to Patagonia (where he came within a whisker of claiming the first solo ascent of Cerro Torre) and in Nepal completed a four day traverse over Kusum Kanguru (6369m), making the first ascent of the high peak along the way. Denz also ventured into Tibet (illegally) to attempt Menlungtse (7181m). His inclusion on Peter Hillary’s Makalu expedition was the first of a series of planned expeditions to attempt 8,000 metre peaks.

Never a top free climber, Denz’s forte was climbing bold ice routes (often solo), difficult big walls and severe mixed alpine climbs. Early in his career Denz was quick to associate himself with climbers such as Bryan Pooley and Murray Judge whose alpine and rock skills were superior to his and from whom he could build his skills. Once considered brash and aggressive, Denz, by the time of his death, had matured into an immensely experienced and extremely capable mountaineer. His death at the age of 32 robbed New Zealand mountaineering of one of its greatest ever climbers.

Each person remembers Bill in his or her own way. Over the Christmas - New year in NZ 2011-12, we had a BBQ with Kim Logan and his charming wife Glennys, and 13 year old boy Inia. While our boys played cricket on the golf course in front of Kim's house, we talked about climbing and especially Bill Denz. Bill and Kim did some great climbs together and the more Kim talked about Bill, I could see his eyes misting a little and the emotion coming through. Kim fetched a small memorial to Bill, a photo of a mountain, a photo of Bill, and Bill's favourite poem alongside written by Thomas Babington which I quote below. I took a quick picture on my mobile and whilst a little blurred and only snaps part of the poem, it says something powerful.

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
`To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods?'”



Thomas Babington

Glacier Peak, Mt. Douglas, Haidinger and Haast was where I first climbed with bill and his partner Chris Fraser in December 1970. Photo: Bob McKerrow

This is the best biography I have read on a NZ mountaineer and the world of mountaineering is more richer, more colourful for the outstanding writing of Paul Maxim.