Moving chronicle of life in the mountains and what followed

• Published date: 27 May 2023
• Publication title: Mix, The

Dave Vass

Potton & Burton

It is not surprising that Dave Vass was one of New Zealand’s leading climbers.

From an early age, his outdoor adventures went beyond what many of his peers would do. A teenage winter ascent of Mt Ruapehu was his first climb, but not content with reaching the crater lake, he then circumnavigated it via the crown of peaks that surround it.

He dabbled in caving (multi-day trips under Mt Arthur) and rafting (descending the grade 4-5 Karamea River on a raft made of tyre tubes) before settling into mountaineering in Arthurs Pass National Park with the Canterbury University Tramping Club.

This book tracks his climbing career as it moved south, from the big peaks of Aoraki Mt Cook to more elegant climbs around Mt Aspiring/Tititea before settling into alpine rock routes in Fiordland’s Darran Mountains.

There were new routes and first ascents and, along the way, New Zealand’s first commercial canyoning business.

In a bitterly ironic twist, it was a broken tree root that brought all that to a halt.

A tumble down a bank ended in a neck fracture, tetraplegia and life in a wheelchair.

Most of the book recounts the pre-accident adventures. It is much, much more than a mountaineering show and tell. Something about each trip gives an insight into the psyche, the motivation, of a driven climber, and the reader can see an evolving relationship with the mountains and the landscapes. The writing is beautifully lyrical, and anyone who has spent...