Our story begins after you have been magically transported to the top of the peak identified (hopefully) in Clue #4…
It’s late afternoon and you have no headlamp, compass or topo map, but, pffft – who needs ‘em? Use the force Luke and just start skiing.
Stepping into your bindings, you cruise along a ridgeline with gobsmacking exposure on all sides. Glancing to the left and right, you come to what looks like a skiable line and turn off.
Gut-wrenching steep, exposed turns lead down a face. The sun is setting and there is mot much time. Sticking to the fall-line, you weave around seracs, icefalls and huck a few fifty-footers with blue ice landings all bathed in brilliant alpenglow. Where’s the photographer when you need him?
Then, shazaam! Stokage! You have made it through the crux of a suspected first descent! Relieved, you make big sweeping turns across a bit of a plateau, and then come to a glacier.
At the glacier, you take a skier’s left.
By now, it is pitch black and you are dodging crevasses by Braille for hours while staying on the glacier. This is misery…. when will it end?
Exhausted, you eventually see the outlines of some structures in the moonlight. Ahhhh, praise Allah…
Staggering up to the structures, you meet a climber geared up for an early alpine start and ask “Where am I?”
Instead of smiling and giving you a Vegamite sandwich like those infernal, AC/DC loving Aussies do, he fixes you with a steely gaze and reveals a BRAND NEW PAIR OF K2 TELE/AT SKIS.
Oh My God…!! Your knees tremble in eager anticipation of shredding Planet Earth. Tears of joy spring from your eyes.
Within one meter, where are you?
Winning format:
Continent: (your answer here)
Country: (your answer here)
Mountain Range: (your answer here)
Specific Peak: (your answer here)
Exact location: (your answer here… now!)
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Clue #1 – Continent: Oceania/Australasia
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mount Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Stocking Stream Shelter
Clue #1 – Continent: Australasia (Australia/NZ/Oceania)
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Mt Cook (Aoraki)
Clue #5 – tasman saddle hut ski storage area
Nice work. Can we do this again every week Andrew. I desperately need new skis too!!
Clue #1 – Continent: Australia/Oceania (Australia/NZ)
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mt Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Plateau hut toilet
Marcin
Clue #1 – Continent: Oceania/Australasia
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mount Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Next to the Snowcat parked by the Hermitage
Update…i read more carefully and changed my last location.
Clue #1 – Continent: Australia-New Guinea continent (Oceania)
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Mount Cook (Aoraki)
Clue #5 – Exact location: Tractor on Tasman Glacier
Clue #1 – Continent: Oceania
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mt Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Kelman Hut Toilet
Clue #1 – Continent: Oceania/Australasia
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mt Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Kelman Hut (2450m)
I’m sticking with Kelman…
Nice work ShZo!
Clue #1 – Continent: Oceania
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Mt Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Leaning by the door to the wardens house next door to Unwin Lodge.
Clue #1 – Continent: Australia/Oceania/Australasia/Zealandia (though technically I don’t think New Zealand is part of any “continent”…
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mount Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: info/exhibit structure at end of Tasman Valley road
I had already guessed again before I noticed that the Hillary statue was the right guess…. And yes, I do love to ski!
Nice work. Can we do this again every week Andrew? I desperately need new skis too!!
Clue #1 – Continent: Oceanea
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Mt. Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: tasman hut outhouse
hut outhouse
Australia
New Zealand
Southern Alps
Mt. Cook
Godley Hut
Of course! The steely gaze…
Congratulations ShZo!
Clue #1 – Continent: Oceania/Australasia
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mt Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Plateau Hut — Steel-plate Cable anchor
“The huts are anchored to the rock with beefy cables which tie into steel plates which in turn form the frame of the hut.”
Excellent, ShZo. :). Many happy and safe turns!
1. Continent = Australasia, or Oceania
2. Country = New Zealand
3. Mountain Range = Southern Alps
4. Peak = Aoraki – Cook
5. Specific location = Mt Cook village, 754 meters
wow. that was intense! good job ShZo!
Photo by randosteve, I believe.
Nice work Shzo…..good find.
Thanks for the contest….fun times.
Nice job ShZo
I’m bitter
Nice Work ShZo!!
Thanks for a great contest Andrew, it was tons of fun!!!
Clue #1 – Continent: Australasia
Clue #2 – Country: New Zealand
Clue #3 – Mountain Range: Southern Alps
Clue #4 – Peak: Aoraki/Mt Cook
Clue #5 – Exact location: Mt. Cook Village DOC office
awesome contest. How about a runner up prize for guessing the elevation of Mt Cook Village ? haha. Well done, shozo
Thanks. Randomly grasping at straws after the “educated” guesses ran out – in retrospect, Andrew mentioned Hillary several times in the other clues.
Thanks for playing everyone! The details of the final descent from the top of Aoraki can be found by updating the home page of straightchuter.com
Any contest feedback is more than welcome and I suspect there will be many more contests for skis, boots, bindings, etc..
ShZo – send me an email at amclean@xmission.com and we can work out the details.
Thank you Andrew for giving me a weekly distraction while at work. Looking forward to more contests in the future.
thought it would take maybe 5 min. for this to suss out…I easily just wasted 40 min.! Luckily my manager never saw me pouring ove rmultiple tabs, googling “Geoff Wayatt,” “Aoraki/Mt. Cook,” “Tasman Hut,” etc…
40 min. spent here is better than 40 min. spent working ;)
Thanks for the contest, it was awersome! Oh yeah, and I learned a buttload about Mt. Cook.
Fun! To win required more than speed so it stayed entertaining for quite awhile. Congrats, shZo!
And thanks for yesterday’s links to photos, which led to trip reports, and probably inspired many of us to think more about these awesome travels.
Wow, got pulled into some BS meeting and missed my chance. Oh well, I’m sure I would’ve been one of the people guessing Tasman Hut after Andrew had already said it was the wrong answer.
Very Cool, lets do this every week!