Death. And also, life.

Comment Share Posted on Wednesday September 16th at 10:16 a.m. Tweet

Ups and downs.

Mt Rolleston as seen from Temple Basin

On Saturday the 12th of September a young Canterbury University student named Edward Louie died on Mt Rolleston in Arthur's Pass when some snow collapsed and he fell into a bergschrund (a crevasse like gap between the edge of a snowfield and a rock face). I didn't know Edward but the ski mountaineering community is small enough that I knew I would know someone that did. Sure enough a friend of mine who had been borrowing my backcountry skis came to give them back to me the next day and told me that he had known Ed, that he had been a first year Engineering Student planning on studying Natural Resource Engineering.

I found this very close to home because of how similar Ed was to me, at the same university, studying the same degree, a mountaineer and a backcountry skier. Mt Rolleston dominates the view from Temple Basin, my home field, and I climbed and skied it myself a few months ago, taking almost exactly the same route that Ed was on. I felt very intrepid, skiing down with the ice-axe and crampons I used to get up strapped to my bag. The snow was great and I even managed to 180 off a drop into some pow. I felt intrepid, like I was a courageous explorer, like I was having the greatest day ever. I hope that this is how Ed was feeling about his last day in the hills too. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. 

On a completely unrelated note some friends and I organised a fund raiser for World Vision last week. We gathered a group of fire spinners, breathers, dancers and throwers and put on a free performance at the Dux de Lux in Christchurch. Patrons could choose to add $2 to the price of each drink they bought, or donate however much money they wanted to. In the end we made $310, which the Dux matched dollar for dollar, then the government added $8 for each $2. So it ended up being multiplied up to a total of $3100, which went towards water and sanitation projects in the Soloman Islands. This may seem like an odd thing to add to this blog but my point is this; if there is one thing we can learn from death it is to celebrate life. Be good to one another and live life to the fullest, everyday.