Not every trip ends with a trophy on the wall or a big yarn to tell. Sometimes it ends with a 2 am northerly, a gale force walk out, and a very dusty tent pack-up. And sometimes that's enough.
Dave Greig is a New Zealand outdoor photographer who knows the hills as well as he knows his camera. This one was a short mission — a window carved out between work and young kids at home — and he shot it straight.
"Unfortunately, there's no big yarn to be had here. It was a punchy overnight mission, making the most of an opening with work for Ryan and I, after being stiffed with the weather a few times before. Since both of us are young dads to a couple of little kids, time in the hills is a little less available compared to the golden days of old. But that's all good, though.
A quick flick in with the chopper to make best use of time had us up in the tussock on the binos for a short while before the fog swung in and held there for the better part of the day. Not ideal.
A few cups of tea passed the time waiting for things to clear before making a beeline up a steep ridge, followed by a sidle of a head basin in the direction we had planned to go. We bumped into a family group of chamois as the fog was still coming and going. A nanny perched on a rock gave a cool photo opportunity, followed by a strange encounter with a young buck, which saw him run in close and then duck away a few times — we could only assume he was catching the scent of the family group he was detached from and getting a bit confused in a swirly wind.
The evening was really nice and still as we looked down into the basin we had planned to get to, where we found another small group of chamois. We quickly got the spotter on all of them, one at a time, ruling out any big sets of hooks. Just nannies and a few young bucks there.
We then made the short plod back up to the camp site we had picked out a little way back up the ridge to set the tent up and turn in for the night.
At 2am the rain started — which was expected — followed closely by a pretty grunty Northerly. Expected, but maybe not this strong. This made for a shit sleep and a dusty tent pack up at first light. Off the hill we went in what was a gale wind. We wobbled down off the exposed tussock faces, into the scrubby mid band vegetation, then eventually into the bush which offered a bit of cover from the wind. We had a small creek to cross a few times that I was mindful of coming down off the hill, but it turned out to not be too bad in the end.
That 7-hour walk down and out to the truck turned what had been a pretty gentlemanly trip into a bit of a slog, which was actually bloody good fun.
Short stints like this are going to be the new norm for us for the next few years, so the focus is on how we can pack as much into a trip as possible. Looking forward to a few more walks that are in the pipeline. Maybe a winter stag or a chamois buck would be good."
No kill. No trophy. Just two young dads making the most of a small window in the hills. Dave will be back out with Swazi this season.
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