Looking through the branch's of an apple tree.

Five months have past since my last post and a rather eventful time that has been. Unfortunately the said eventfulness and the current situation both here and world wide has meant a serious revision downwards in potential plans and goals - certainly for this year and maybe for years to come. Our remote Pacific location here in New Zealand has once more kept us “safe” if that word can be used without some skepticism attached but has also turned us into basically a prison island with no immediate prospects otherwise. Plans to head once more into Asia have been shelved in the meantime and with the economic situation being what it it is I headed out and got a job in the fields apple picking - which has now turned into apple tree pruning for the winter. It seems at least for this year it will be a catch up year on many things for me and hopefully time to get out into the local mountains a little more seriously. A brief photo resume of the best of the last 5 months below.

Early season snow observed whilst looking through apple tree branch’s in the valley at dawn. I’m on the ladder picking apples. April and May were crisp, dry and clear.

Our group below the North Twin after completing the Twins traverse - this mountaineering route is almost outside the backdoor so to speak and is a great day out.

Clair looking down one of the massive drops that lead to vast underground caverns that constitute the largest cave system known in the Southern Hemisphere underneath the Arthur range where the Twins are located.

Trekking through the Karst country below the Twins - huge crevasses and caves everywhere.

Looking for a belay point on the South Twin.

summit of North Twin looking to the South twin

Local hike with Leo on the Motueka estuary.

Nothing like a camp fire with Carl and boys

On the flanks of Mt Cupola with Mt Hopeless in the back ground.

Mt Hopeless from above Cupola hut. this rugged peak is one of the more spectacular in the Nelson lakes.

Looking up the Traver’s valley in the Nelson lakes.

Another view further downstream - Traver’s valley.

On the flanks of 2169m in the Raglan ranges with Jake

Walking out of Coldwater creek flanked by loose rocky spires on either side.

Climbing up Mt Chittenden - unusually firm rock for this region makes it fun.

Brad negotiates the final rock before the summit of Chittenden

The ride up the Rainbow - fastest way in and out he Nelson lakes.

Hiking toward’s a pass - one of the many alpine tarns that dot the local ranges behind - this is in the Raglan ranges.

Jake rues about the loose nature of 2169!! a scary scramble indeed.

Familiar pose with Jake, translating the outside World into paper map form.

one of the Water falls heading up the Hukere stream.

Ben and I scratch our head’s as we try and figure out a route plan for getting into the Tangula mountains on the Tibetan plateau - a trip we have now had to delay so as to give us additional time for head scratching.

With family down at the beach on a stormy day.

With a dearth of mammal and reptilian life in New Zealand , native endemic birds are the prime animals and on most trips in the Kahurangi NP one will meet the naughty Kea’s at some stage.

The Tahake - recently reintroduced to the region is somewhat rarer - there is still much debate on when and how birds such as the Kea and Tahake actually ended up on these islands.

Dawn view on Arthur range - the mountain in the distance is Mount Tarnaki a couple of hundred Km’s away in the North Island. unusually clear conditions left it in plain view in the early morning light.

Nathan DahlbergMay 27, 2020 Comments

Return to Middle Earth

The return is the hardest part - as I found out long ago back in 1984 when I first returned from Europe and found readjustment to being back down under extremely difficult.. Over the years I have managed the adjustment to returning a little better - usually by spending my time wishfully planning my next foray to foreign lands . New Zealand’s best point is that its along way from anywhere and its worst is also that its along way from anywhere meaning of course each trip does have to be planned. Often I do wonder how I came to end up spending most of the last 15 years here in the antipodes and if that is something that will continue indefinitely now only broken by the odd adventure somewhere.

Having said that locally here in New Zealand I can have an easy life and get outdoors often enough on bike or hiking or mountaineering to keep retain my sanity. These things are so easily accessible from where I live and as Eric Shiption said about the Alps in Europe ‘ a wonderful variety of scenery small enough in scale to be easily appreciated and large enough to be wholly satisfying”

This spring has been cool with higher than normal amounts of snow locally , perfect for mountaineering but regretfully I have not made the most of it for various reasons . Sometimes this has been out of my control and sometimes due to lack of morale . This lack of mental energy is no doubt due to the toll the build up and trip to Pakistan took out of me and as I am learning the skill of making a movie, the energy it is still requiring. This is in its own way the positive outcome of the years mission - a new skill learnt and also hopefully the making of some useful movies in the future.

Below a few pictures of the small trips I’ve done locally on the Old Ghost Road mountain biking and hiking in the Kahurangi national park and Nelson lakes national park.

Happy new year.

old ghost road - sub-alpine forest , middle earth style

Kahurangi national park with Sergio and Mei

Nelson lakes National park - with Isabelle and Leo

Nelson lakes National park with Micheal and Jake

Nathan DahlbergJanuary 1, 2020Comment

The Balti's

Porter Abbas rests after crossing the Gonogoro pass early that morning.

The Balti - people of the Karakorum mountains.

“ I have borne respect because of their intense devotion to what they believed to be their duty …..And for Wali I entertain a regard such as I do for few other men - No one could have more loyally carried out his compact and but for him we should never have crossed the Mustagh pass. He went to work in a steady, self reliant way which gave everyone confidence, the men looked up to him and obeyed him implicitly. The more I see men like him the more convinced I am that if once these Baltis are given responsibility shown trust, and left to work out their own salvation, they may develop latent qualities which probably neither they nor anybody else believed to be in them”

Sir Francis Younghusband wrote these words in 1887 at the end of one of the most daring explorations of the 19th century across Asia starting in Easternmost China and finally crossing the Mustagh pass near K2 into Baltistan. Younghusband was one of the first foreigners (meaning Westerner at the time) to experience the good services of the Baltis in early explorations in the Karakorum range and most lavished praise on them. Not all though - a few notably the famous woman explorer Fanny Workman, notorious all over the Himalaya for the mismanaging and contempt of her laborers poured scorn and derision all over Balti porters and even resorted to hurling stones at them when she felt it was needed!

Until the 1930’s most explorers went lightweight and were on intimate terms with their mountain crews and even the few larger expeditions rarely had problems. The European explorers of the time were of the well educated middle class who would go to great lengths to treat the “natives” civilly and many regarded their physical powers in the high mountains as a virtue to be preserved - much like the 18th century Liberals had painted the idea of the noble savage these mountain peoples , Sherpa’s, Bhotia’s and Balti’s were the noble mountaineer races.

Rising national aspirations in the great mountains of the world during the 1930’s saw a big change in the values bought to the great peaks - that of national conquest. To the despair of purest like Shipton - who had done some of the best exploration in the Karakorum in the 1930’s that spirit of conquest bought massive expeditions to the highest mountains and consequently a loss of intimacy with many of the locals in the Himalayan regions. . After the Second World War new armies were raised - these to climb the big peaks and the largest of all, an Italian expedition went to K2 in 1954 with almost 700 porters carrying many tons of food and equipment. Obviously the age of intimacy was over - well not quite , once the fervor of climbing the highest peaks especially the 8000 meter peaks had passed most expeditions became smaller again. In the last 30 years the rise of commercial mountaineering has seen in the Karakorum as elsewhere in the Himalaya the scene of large scale commercial expeditions much in the mold of the national expeditions of the past but these are tempered with generally much smaller trekking and lightweight mountaineering groups.

The Balti’s like the other mountain peoples of the great ranges have seen their lives change immensely with the presence of first the explorers , than the mountaineers and nowadays the tourists to their regions. Isolated in remote valleys for centuries the Balti’s descended from the Tibetans had little or no contact with the outside world. Their value to the early explorer’s saw the introduction of money and ever since the main cash in the economy has been from expeditions in the mountains. In recent years , much like their distant cousins far to the east the Sherpa’s , the Balti’s have developed their own company’s too deliver tourism packages to their mountains and the qualities Younghusband observed almost 140 years ago in them is borne out in the excellent services they provide.

The Sirdar of our group or porter chief sings to the mountains (K2 and Broad Peak)

Porters relaxing with a fire on the moraines of the Baltoro after a day of heavy carrying but they remain still full of laughter and life.

Leaving Concordia it’s hard work where the glaciers meet turning them into hilly country - porters (on left) are in a jumbled world.

Abbass, Ali Cautiva (cook) Hassan Balama and Sher Muhammed - the core of the pass group.

Ali caught with chapatti in midair . This local flat bread is a staple of the local diet.

Guide Ejaz in orange surrounded by jovial porters.

Karim , our chef at Bondit peak has amazing capabilities of putting together great food every day from limited supplies always with a smile!!

The Gonogoro pass at 5650 m and high point of trek is just hours away. These are the young guys - 17 to 20 years in age. For some this will be their first crossing of the pass - an initiation into the really tough side of the job. Most aspire to other things in life, becoming teachers, doctor’s, lawyer’s or joining the army and portering is a summer job to raise money for schooling.

Watching the porters climb the pass in the night with their heavy loads was the highlight of the trek.

We offered but the porters wanted nothing of our boots and jackets - only they asked for socks which they put over their shoes and called Balti crampons.

Abbass taking a break on a flat spot on the long upwards grind.

Sher Muhammad,27 years old was the strong man of the porters and a role model for the younger ones carrying over 40 kilos on his back with ease. He hopes to be a Sirdar one day.

With the appearance of green the trip is drawing to an end.

Part of the porters job is to set up camp which they do with remarkable speed and efficiency.

Hurrahs from the porters at Bondit base camp.

Kandi village at just over 3000 m in the Hushe valley.

High above Kandi during the summer many women, children and older men will come up to these type of small stone hut’s to tend the flocks of goats and herd’s of cows and yak’s In Autumn they will be used as the storage for firewood before transportin… — High above Kandi during the summer many women, children and older men will come up to these type of small stone hut’s to tend the flocks of goats and herd’s of cows and yak’s In Autumn they will be used as the storage for firewood before transporting it over 1000 meters down valley to the village.

A female shepherdess in the mountains. In summer whilst the men are away earning cash the women folk do all the hard work maintaining the village and also pastoral work like this high in the mountains. They are incredibly fit and we watched them fro… — A female shepherdess in the mountains. In summer whilst the men are away earning cash the women folk do all the hard work maintaining the village and also pastoral work like this high in the mountains. They are incredibly fit and we watched them from Bondit Base Camp running after flock’s and herd’s for sometimes over 10 hours at altitudes above 4500 m in all weathers with a diet of consisting of little more than chapattis!!

A crowd of boys formed up as I was flying the drone.

Interviewing Nalia , headmistress of the local privately funded local primary school in Kandi. With the Government schools only providing a budget education that covers about half the primary school children in Pakistan schools like this one are the… — Interviewing Nalia , headmistress of the local privately funded local primary school in Kandi. With the Government schools only providing a budget education that covers about half the primary school children in Pakistan schools like this one are the only way for the other half to get a basic education. Kandi has hundred per cent of it’s primary age children in school.

Resources are meager but the local’s are happy all the same.

Abbas , 55 years old and oldest porter we meet plans to march on till 70. Here he rest’s (see first photo) after crossing the Gonogoro pass for the 4th time in that season.

Nathan DahlbergOctober 31, 2019 Comment