Have been meaning to write this up for a while....Basically got myself wrapped up in a little storm in a teacup a few months ago when walking into Barker Hut we found a few dudes who had tried to call a helicopter....the full story can be found on the great website softrock.co.nz run by Graeme Kates. The facts on this site are all good, except that the climbing party, which I was a part of failed to climb Murchison cause I was too wussy.
You can read about Graeme's issues but the one that has really stuck in my mind is how the situation illustrated the disconnection between the mainstream news media and the outdoors community in Canterbury. The Press just didn't have a clue. As most people who have been around for a while know, there will always be punters in the bush, but you don't go putting them on the front page.
Seeing these guys described as top mountaineers, really hit home to me how little the general public knows of the exploits of some of the fantastic outdoors people from this province. In fact the only time they hear about them is when they die, or when they are rescued. Its a pretty sad state of affairs.
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