Where does fast and light fit in Aotearoa?

Originally published in print in the Autumn 2024 New Zealand Alpine Journal

From Hillary to Snell and Lovelock, Aotearoa has a storied history of endurance activities. We revere sporting heroes with knighthoods and faces on banknotes. In the mainstream, taking advantage of our world class trails and huts has become a national pastime. Hunting, fishing, and mountaineering, draw people off the beaten path further into our wilderness, yet they’re still generally done in multi-day tramping style.

Looking further afield, trail running has boomed worldwide since the early 2000s. However New Zealand has seemed somewhat immune to the growing European and North American trends for buzzwords like Fastest Known Times, ‘light and fast’ and ‘enchainment’. There have been early pioneers like Malcolm Law, James Harcombe, Geoff Spearpoint, and races like the Kepler Challenge, but the idea of fast movement in the mountains remains far less popular than tramping. 

This seems to be changing though, with running the Great Walks becoming popular, the Tararua S-K rising as a local Wellington test-piece, and the Fiordland Endurance and Adventure Racing Society (FEAR) organising single push efforts on the Dusky Trail, Takitimu Mountains, and Gifford’s Crack. 

While global trends provide inspiration, gear and forecasting has made the growth of fast and light possible in NZ. Our routes are usually remote and prone to severe weather, so innovations in satellite communication and ultralight kit help counteract these dangers. The same warmth in clothing may now weigh half what it did 30 years ago. 

Historically mountain expeditions were ‘siege’ style, meaning bring the kitchen sink, a big crew of climbers and support, and throw time and gear at an objective for as long as possible. In Kelly Cordes’ iconic climbing literature ‘The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerre Torre’ he analyses the changing style of movement in the Patagonian mountains - concluding that significant improvements to weather forecasts (and internet allowing people to access them) in the early 2000s were revolutionary. This new information meant alpinists could time clear weather windows to climb faster and lighter on more technical objectives. For these climbers speed brought increased safety, getting them up and down before a storm rolled in and reducing time exposed to overhead hazard.

Whether their inspiration comes from running or alpinism, Aotearoa’s locals have the desire for a challenge, incredible trails and alpine environment, and now can move faster than ever before. With this growth comes positives and negatives. 

On the inspirational side are incredible efforts in the mountains - people are annually running Mt Aspiring in a day, and in late 2021 Alistair McDowell and Hamish Fleming were able to enchain all of our 3000m peaks in a month-long effort. These feats shouldn’t be taken trivially, fast single push efforts bring added levels of required skill, equipment, and acceptance of risk. 

That brings us to the negatives - higher levels of risk, litter left behind by ‘racers’, and a lack of originality. However none of those are out of the ordinary when looking at mountain sports, if we consider going faster, longer, single push, a progression in style then it can be compared to the act of climbing or skiing increasingly more difficult routes in the mountains - both of which also come with higher objective danger, need greater technical proficiency, and may ‘necessitate’ leaving food waste or fixed gear. 

This is not an exercise in pointing fingers, simply to say that how we view everything in life is a matter of perspective. In all of our outdoor pastimes we should be the best possible stewards for people and our environment, while seeking meaningful experiences for ourselves and our partners.

My personal mountain experiences trend both ways - I enjoy challenging myself skiing and whitewater kayaking, while also finding satisfaction in hard days covering lots of ground. I first found joy in running when I was living in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. I’d spent six months ski touring all through the range and come summer I didn’t want to stop. Running allowed me to move at a similar pace to ski touring, so after work I could get up high peaks and explore quiet corners. Back in Aotearoa this progressed to adventure racing in Fiordland, running routes like the Young-Wilkin, culminating in a big day up Tititea Mt Aspiring with local route aficionado Chris Dunn. 

Our perfect summer day on Tititea reinforced the skills, gear, and homework required for the style of movement. I’d only climbed Tititea in winter, so was relying on Chris’ extensive knowledge of the summer route. We’d timed impeccable conditions, had confidence in our gear and ourselves, and knew our limits. Chris was well within his - after two route recces the previous year he’d optimised movement to pare time down to just 9 hours 24 minutes for a journey from Raspberry Flat to the summit, and back. That effort had a flow-on effort to inspire me at the very least (and Alistair who recently tweaked the route to take 10 minutes off Chris’ time - the friendly competition is on).

Now in a stint living in Canada I once again wanted to keep exploring the mountains over summer. A little known fact is that shoe skiing is almost as fun as ski skiing, so with lightweight running shoes, ice axe, and crampons/micro spikes (depending on the day) we kept heading high. ‘Runs’ onto the Mamquam Icefield, Nch’kay, and the local classic Sky Pilot followed. 

Regular partner in crime Gabe Jacobs Corban and I wrapped up our 2024 summer season with the Garibaldi Neve Traverse. Off the glacier having navigated the crevasse field crux, but still with 20km to go to the trailhead, Gabe’s shoes exploded. That seems like hyperbole when talking about shoes, but in this case the entire sole peeled off one shoe and was starting to go on the other. He’d have been better off in socks, so I think the term is warranted. Taking a break to fix the shoes as best we could with voile straps and tape we got chatting - where could this style of movement take us in Aotearoa? While single pushing the Aoraki Grand Traverse like members of the NZ Alpine Team might be far-fetched for my climbing abilities, could we travel over the Gardens of Eden and Allah like Geoff Spearpoint, or get into the Snowdrift Range and Olivine Ice Plateau? 

To me moving fast in the mountains gives space for creative expression over larger expanses of terrain. To Gabe moving in the most efficient way possible, maximising your gear and skills, is how he experiences a feeling of flowing through the mountains. It’s a niche within an already niche sport, yet one that offers huge untapped potential in New Zealand. In Europe and North America athletes are making careers out of Fastest Known Times and races like UTMB and Hardrock, but most impressive efforts in NZ are only found in hidden corners of the internet or social media. 

I don’t mean to advocate for louder spraying or more Strava posts, but I would like to see more people exploring our mountains under their own human power. How can people apply skill, creativity, and teamwork to go further, open fresh routes, and innovate how we approach old classics? Check your gear, test your safety systems, find great partners - then go explore what’s possible. It’s my belief that whatever style a person chooses, spending time outdoors increases appreciation of our environment and the need to protect it. Right now our mountains need as much love as they can get, and I’d love to see what kiwis can achieve going fast, light, and safely.