Clear Skies and Sunburned Eyes: From the Field with Nathan Longhurst
BY TAYLOR MCKENZIE GERLACH
Every trip has its ups and downs. Asking a partner’s “peach and pit”—their sweet highs and tough lows—while tucked into sleeping bags, full of Jetboiled dinner, is my favorite way to assess them.
Nathan Longhurst is in the middle of a massive solo project, aiming to summit the 100 Great Peaks of New Zealand as fast as possible by hiking, alpine climbing, and paragliding. With 87 peaks logged since starting in November, he shared his highs and lows from the northernmost tip of the South Island, en route to the Kaikoura Ranges.
One five-day stretch easily took the cake as his low point: He got a late start to hike into a particularly remote group of eight peaks, which saw him bushwacking up a river valley in the dark. In the morning light, his sunglasses were gone, a casualty to the Hopkins River foliage. The next few days of climbing and flying over glaciers left him with sunburnt eyeballs that felt like they were full of sand. Barely able to see, he made the difficult decision to bail on the final two peaks of the planned linkup, meaning he’d have to spend the time and energy to hike back in later—plus, he’d have to climb an unplanned peak in order to bail to his van and recover.
“That last climb on the fifth day, just feeling really haggard, and mostly blind, was really challenging, really emotionally difficult, because I felt like I had sort of failed, even though it had been mostly a success.”
His sweet, sweet peach? A three-day weather window in late November brought low winds and cloudless skies, great climbing and flying conditions that enabled Nathan to check off 10 peaks in the Mount Cook region. Beyond the logistical win, the backcountry travel was stunning, the flights were aesthetic, and his nights were spent in picturesque mountain huts between summit pushes.
When the challenge is complete, Nathan is stoked for a couple days of good sleep and great food (beyond the dehydrated meals, tuna packets, and gummy bears he’s been eating so far) before getting right back into flying. But “maybe a little more type one fun.”
