Natural pro required"As we threaded a pretty line up the buttress of the Great Pinnacle, an incredible landscape of lava runnels, volcanic
plateaux and high forest spread ever-wider below. The sun shone clearly. Where the ice ran out, we
scratched at rounded blobs of conglomerate for purchase, working weaknesses on the exposed right
side of the buttress crest. Atop the tooth on Pinnacles ridge, our smiles were wide. Greg, who runs
an outdoor centre down the road in Raurimu, suggested we name the line “The Rua-rimu Express”.
Despite the self-referencing, I am a complete sucker for bad puns, and abdicated helplessly. We
could have descended a nearby gully, but Greg suggested showing me the full Pinnacles traverse,
despite having climbed it numerous times. Wandering spire-spire through shifting whorls of cloud,
we savoured the severance of ties with planet Whakapapa below; all that existed were gargoyles of
rime, a comfortable fluidity in an alien world, and unhurried conversation as the terrain suggested it." - from 'Stirring Embers', NZAJ c. 2023
- P1
- Mixed M4
- Trad
