Whitney Thurlow
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Into thick air
Whitney Thurlow is a professional mountain guide with more than 50 ascents of Tititea Mount Aspiring. But it was a boredom-induced walk up the road that nearly did him in. It was the kind of mood where a bad idea could take root and flourish. I had just returned from an aborted guiding job in…
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The terrible catastrophe of 1863
Whitney Thurlow revisits a notorious avalanche. In Avalanche Accidents in Aotearoa, the only scholarly history of avalanches in New Zealand, one event stands out. It was August of 1963, and 50 prospectors were camped at the head of the Serpentine Gully, near Dunstan, when a “very heavy snowfall” hit the Main Divide of the Southern…
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Decisions, decisions
Your whisky awaits you at the Bad Decision Shelter. Sounds good to us. Ideas arise when mates are passing whisky around late at night in a mountain hut. Some can lead to bad decisions. This is the story of an alcohol-fuelled bad decision that is also a good idea. The bad decision belonged to Will…