Chance and Choice by Sandie Legge  A death on the mountain puts life in perspective - how fragile and puny we are, our existence tenuous; how strong and enduring the mountains. A death on a mountain makes us examine our lives and reconsider our options; but self-imposed limitations lead not to life's discoveries. Mountain people know this - they come to the mountain on the mountain's terms that's the challenge. Life is for the choosing But death makes all the calls.

Click here to make a credit card donation

Click here to print a donation form to post with your cheque

Trust purpose
To establish a Charitable Trust to provide cash grants to help New Zealand mountain guides at the "Aspirant" level in their New Zealand Mountain Guides Association/IFMGA certification, who want to complete the final stages of their IFMGA qualification with the objective of further enhancing the high standard of NZ mountain guiding. 

The Hiddleston-Scaife Commemorative Trust has been registered as a Charitable Trust and aims to raise a minimum of $150,000 from contributors to enable sponsorship of at least two Aspirant guides each year.  A formal application and interview process will be undertaken by Aspirant guides who wish to apply. 

The Board of Trustees - Hugh Barnard, Jean Clairmonte, Nick Cradock and Grant Fyfe invite David and Paul’s friends, former clients, sponsors and people in the mountaineering fraternity to contribute to the Trust. We believe this is a worthy cause and your enthusiastic support is welcomed. 

Trust News 

10.04.08 
Mark Woodward of Queenstown successfully completed his second ski guides course and has been granted $500. "Woody" who is now guiding Mt Everest wrote just before he left NZ, "Thanks to the Trust for the grant of towards my ski guides course in September ’07. I’m sure both Scaife and Hip would be pleased to see guides getting that helping hand in finishing off their courses. I was happy to pass the course and enjoyed the time and great conditions that we had. I have many good memories of the guiding and climbing trips, especially the bivi’s! I had shared with Paul. I find that I think of the boys often when topping out on mountains they knew and loved. Cheers Scaify and Hip."

Here's a photo of Woody on Mt Everest May 2007

Here's Woody managing to look cool calm and collected during the guides ski course last September

 27.11.07: Lisa Auer of Albert Town, Wanaka, has today been donated $500 towards her final IFMGA guides examination early next month. She writes......."Thank you very much for the $500 donation to help towards my final summer guide course. I am honoured to receive this donation. Dave Hiddleston was a source of inspiration and great encouragement to me towards my guiding goals. I will carry his smile onto the upcoming course! This contribution will help me achieve my dream of becoming a fully certified international guide, that I have been working towards now for close to ten years. Thanks again." Lisa

1.08.07: James Hamilton (pictured below) has been accepted on the next Winter Guides Course scheduled late Sep 2007. A donation of $500 has been paid to James from the Trust - all of the best to you James for your Winter 2 ! (Congratulations  James ! yes he passed and is well on his way to the next stage of becoming fully qualified)

25.1.07: The Fun Run on Dec 31 2006 provided 26 entries. Only one person wore fancy dress. The weather was chilly in the morning and warmed up to a scorcher pretty soon afterwards. Some people showed up with competition numbers on their legs from a triathlon the day before! The sponsors were generous - almost every entry won a prize. The main prize of a day of local rock climbing for two with Aspiring Guides was won by local doctor Suzie Meyer. Thanks to Milo Gimour for organising and donating the proceeds to the TRUST.

21.12.06 : Jamie - pictured below, has successfully completed his guides assessment (assessors Gary Dickson, and Sam Bossard). The TRUST has paid him $500 towards this course. Well done Jamie !

13.12.06
Congratulations to Jamie Robertson who is employed mainly by Alpine Guides at Aoraki/Mt Cook village, who has been awarded $500 towards his guides course. The course is currently somewhere between Centennial and Pioneer huts on the West Coast. 

The Hiddleston-Scaife FUN RUN is scheduled for Dec 31st 2006. Participants to walk or run carrying an uncooked egg up Rocky Hill and back. The egg must remain intact, and is provided by sponsors. Fancy dress is optional. Pre-registration at Aspiring Guides office is a good idea, entry costs only $10.

11.10.06
Mountain Guides have been notifed of the Trust's aim. Aspirant status guides are to apply for funding for upcoming courses.

08.05.06
The TRUST has now setup up a credit card facility (Visa, Mastercard) to allow easier transfer of donation funds, especially for those residing internationally. A secure web credit card facility will be up and running shortly from this web-page. In the meantime, please use the donation form to manually post your cheque or credit card donation. Please click here or email us for a copy.

05.01.06
The Fun run organisd by Milo Gilmour on Dec 31st on Rocky Hill was enjoyed by 48 entries. A further cash donation of $20 was given by a friend. Best costume was EGGMAN of Wanaka who had a silver cape and dressed like an egg. Unfortunately the egg fastened to a dome on top of his head hit a branch and his egg broke. He won a battery-less torch as a prize for best costume. What was the point of the egg ? Each participant had to carry a raw egg (provided), to the summit and back, and the point was to do anything you like as long as you look after your egg. Andrew Town did the run top to bottom in 39.5 minutes. Spot prizes were plenty and extravagant. The Earth-Sea-Sky Traverse jacket was won by Jules Scaife. Simon Scaife won the family rock climbing day with Aspiring Guides. We were delighted by out of town guest appearances : Dave Hiddleston's cousin (Sam Morrah); Mark and Sally Dossor. Thanks to all sponsors and friends. The first donation to the Trust was made today $500 ! Photos of the Fun Run

23.12.05
The Hiddleston-Scaife Commemorative Trust has been registered and aims to raise a minimum of $150,000 from contributors to enable sponsorship of at least two Aspirant guides each year. A formal application and interview process will be undertaken by Aspirant guides who wish to apply. Details on how to apply for a grant will be advised shortly.

The Board of Trustees - John Hiddleston, Hugh Barnard, Jean Clairmonte, Nick Cradock and Grant Fyfe invite David and Paul's friends, former clients, sponsors and people in the mountaineering fraternity to contribute to the Trust. We believe this is a worthy cause and your enthusiastic support is welcomed.

To download the letter and donation form please click here or email us.

LOCAL news in Wanaka: A fundraising event for the Trust has been organised by Milo Gilmour of Aspiring Guides. A FUN RUN or WALK on Rocky Hill Dec 31st at 8am will bring locals and friends of Dave and Paul together for a fun event. Participants will carry an egg to the cairn at the summit and back, to be in the spot prize draw. Entry is $10 and can be made on the day or in advance from Aspiring Guides' office. For more details click here or email us.

About Dave Hiddleston by Dave Vass

The rain’s coming. Dark sheets move down the lake, building for a long time, coming at last.

The evening circus lights brighten as the gloom deepens. First fat warm drops pop dust into the air, soon beaten down and swamped. Summer smells, childish excitement; “ take your seats folks…”

Rain at last.

A long standing westerly brings this rain. It started the day they died. Long banners of storm cloud stretch from the mountains to us, for days, gold sunset lit, wind shaped. Always beautiful, always reminding.

Everything is a reminder. The circus acrobats – strong, confident, athletic. Kids; everyone with children has a ‘Hip’ story. The mountains, always there, the wind seethed lake. He seems everywhere. Perhaps he is.

We finish hacking out the bivvy site from a spectacular razor blade of snow. It turns out good – atmospheric and comfortable. The days climbing has gone well, no dramas, big grins.

The crux was Daves’. Unable to reach the holds above from a small ledge, he slapped and teetered up a blunt arête; powerful and off balance moves. I’d wondered if he was going to fall off.

Seconding, I just reach up, grab the flake and carry on. It drew some laughs.

After settling in Dave pulls out the phone. It’s party night in Wanaka; preparations in progress, small talk with lovers. Our little crest seems even more homely. We talk, relax, revel in the closeness. The west face of Tasman seems a long way from the dance floor. Winter stars, big universe.

The Hawea foreshore looks like a brochure for the tropics. The little yellow boat throws a fine curvy wake, cut across by the twisting lines of a surfer. Hip, in his street pants, hair dry, effortless.

Monty tries hard at taking off. Hip puts the time in, feeds him energy, enthusiasm, stoke. He gets up, he does it, he’s proud.

The sun bakes. Hip tries on my new sunglasses; “makes everything look like a movie”. He sits and watches it for a while, smiling as always. This is his home, as most places are. Life is contentment.

The rope lengths above the bivvy are absorbing and sustained, crampons scratching on solid rock, sun warmed early.

We savour the height gained, the fall- away below. Glacier becoming ocean.

The top of the buttress is a mini summit. We take photos. I become a poster pin-up. I recall we laughed some more.

Luck. Good luck, bad luck. Randomness. Violent death.

Skill and intuition; the stuff of experience. Luck completes the triangle.

Today, the idea of my life hanging on the thread of luck seems unbearable. I’d convinced myself that luck is what you make it; be careful, be good at what you do, you’ll be ‘lucky’. Stop believing in your mastery and luck will fail too.

So what now? They were masters also. I need to know that they made a mistake, one I might not have made.

Or, I have to accept whatever share of ‘luck’ comes my way. Where to go from here?

The exit pitch climbs around a spectacular cleft in the ice of the North Shoulder, a dramatic finish to the route. The top is expansive, relaxing, a quiet buzz.

The ridge is firm, cold winter snow, ideal for the descent. We face in, front pointing down and across, the climbing simple enough but the exposure a constant force. Conditions are stable, the wind breathless.

Or maybe just holding its breath; we cross the place where, three years later, Daves life will be taken. But this day, this perfect day, we feel masters of our destinies.

The descent is a joy. There is no pressure, just concentration. No worry, only awareness. We soak it all up.

From the deck of the hut, we watch the sun sink into the sea, blood over water.

It was beautiful. Thanks Hip

A tribute by Guy Cotter

We in the New Zealand mountain guiding community are attempting to come to terms with the tragic events on Mt Tasman on New Years eve which saw a small avalanche take three mountain guides and their three clients 500m down the side of the mountain resulting in 4 fatalities.

As an industry, we have always been very aware of the risks involved in our professional activities as most of us have lost friends in the mountains. The training to become a mountain guide is rigorous and the qualifications difficult to achieve. It generally takes an aspirant guide about 7 years to achieve their full international qualification.

With 120 years of guiding history in this country there have been very few guiding casualties with the only fatality prior to 2003 being Dave McNulty in an avalanche in 1989 and one other earlier in the 1900s. Considering the perceived risks of the occupation this is a remarkable record and is a testament to the professionalism and risk management that is essential to any guide.

Paul Scaife and Dave Hiddleston were an integral part of the climbing and guiding community in Wanaka. Dave Gardner was new to the industry yet had a long history of climbing with significant ascents to his credit.
 
 
 
Paul Scaife

My guiding career started when I came to Wanaka in 1984 and met Paul Scaife. Paul had been running his fledgling business, Harris Mountains Heliskiing (HMH), for just a few years and was becoming established as the major heliskiing operation in New Zealand.

Paul was chief guide, chief administrator, marketing director, helicopter coordinator and just about everything else for the company in those days and it was a real family operation. His mother Marg, and Jules, his wife, made the heliski lunches and we drove the clients around in Paul’s fathers Landcruiser.

In the 10 years I worked with Paul and HMH, the company grew into an operation that employed up to 30 guides and had 2000 skier days in a season. Paul’s contribution to the skiing and guiding industry played a considerable part in the success of Wanaka and the Southern Lakes as a skiing destination. Promoting Harris Mountains internationally figured highly on Paul’s travel itinerary and the promotion resulted in HMH gaining good coverage overseas with the major film crews like Warren Millar Productions who came here specifically to film Paul at work in the hills.

A heliski holiday with HMH became the highlight of many a clients year and most seemed to really gravitate towards Paul and he became fast friends with many of the guests.

Paul was also instrumental in the professional development of many of us as guides and HMH became an icon in the snow industry worldwide and many of the guides who passed through his door have gone on to be industry leaders in this country and mountain ranges around the world.

Eventually though, Paul decided to release himself from the manacles of self employment as he recognized that his lifestyle had been compromised by the long hours and excessive stress which often comes hand in hand with establishing a new tourism venture. He sold HMH in 1997 and went back to working as a mountain guide in the New Zealand mountains and in Canada.

However, never one to sit still for long, Paul set up a mountain guiding company, Mt Aspiring guides, with Nick Cradock and myself in the late ‘80s. I eventually moved on to direct Adventure Consultants and Martin Hawes and Dave Hiddleston became directors at Aspiring guides.

Last year Paul embarked on a traverse of the Southern Alps along the tops of the highest peaks in the Mt Cook region to raise money for ‘Save the Children’ along with his old friend and business partner Martin Hawes. Martin was forced to pull out due to health problems but Paul carried on with the project in his usual tenacious manner, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends he could cajole into accompanying him for a short section of the journey.

Paul had done the traverse in the 1980’s with his old friend and climbing partner Dave McNulty and Paul felt that even though he’d turned 50, that he was as fit as he’d ever been and really content to be spending a lot of time guiding clients in the mountains.

Paul will always be remembered for his infectious enthusiasm and the passion that he put into his mountaineering and his life; he taught us all a lot and will be surely missed.

Dave Hiddleston

Dave moved to Wanaka in 1992 after traveling the world to work at Treble Cone on ski patrol over winter. The following summer he began his career as a mountain guide at Mt Cook. Soon Dave too was employed by Paul Scaife at Harris Mountain Heliskiing.

It soon became apparent that Dave, or Hip as we called him once we knew him better, was a climber of the highest caliber. Once he’d set his sights on becoming a guide, and a better climber, he trained and practiced religiously until he was performing acts on the rock faces around Wanaka at as high a level as anyone in the country was achieving at the time.

In 1996 Dave joined myself and Chris Jillet on an expedition to Nepal to guide a group up a peak called Pumori near Mt Everest. We had not long been there when Rob Hall and Andy Harris were beset by a storm high on Mt Everest and we stepped up to assist with the rescue. Selflessly Dave and Chris abandoned their own attempt on Pumori so they could help with the rescue of people from Everest. Both Dave and Chris were both assisting the beleaguered climbers Beck Weathers and Makalu Gau down from the mountain when we managed to organize the helicopter rescue from the top of the Khumbu icefall.

In 1997 Dave joined me to guide the worlds sixth highest mountain, a peak called Mt Cho Oyu in Tibet. It was immediately obvious to me that Dave had a huge amount of strength at high altitude and he was a lot of fun to share a tent with. Dave had that curious mix that is required in a high altitude climber of being very good at relaxing when beset by weather or just acclimatizing, yet he could get out of his tent at 2.00am the following morning at –40 degrees Celsius and be completely ready to give it his all.

Dave went on to guide another 7 expeditions in the Himalayas for us at Adventure Consultants over the next five years and at 30 years of age he was leading expeditions himself. That he could accept the responsibility was testament to his focused drive and maturity at a young age and after every trip we would get glowing reports from Dave’s clients who emphasized his caring yet direct way of caring for them. The Sherpas also really gravitated towards Dave and he made many firm friends on his travels there. He was always helping them in any way he could and when we traveled together he was always stopping to talk to some of the children we met along the way. Dave always had a soft spot for kids and he spent hours playing with his friend’s kids who all thought he was marvelous.

When we went to Everest in 2000 Dave decided to turn back at the South Summit, only 100m vertically from the very top but, due to recent snow, it was potentially some hours there and back. For Dave to turn back even though he was so close must have been hard, but it was a tough decision he made for the right reasons. He refused to be seduced by the summit being so close.

Two years later, Dave was on Everest again guiding a group of clients and this time he went all the way to the top. What was remarkable about the ascent was that Dave had had reconstructive surgery to the ACL ligaments in both of his knees five months prior to the climb. Dave devoted every moment of the day to his recovery and astounded everybody by the speed of his recovery and the diligent way he went about his rehabilitation.

In the last few years Dave had started running expeditions to the mountains of Peru in South America, heliskiing in India and focusing on business and his house back home at Lake Hawea with his partner Anna. He also gained a lot of pleasure from surfing and kite surfing, sports which he quickly picked up and performed to a high level in a short time which was typical of Hip.

I will always remember Dave as a ‘human dynamo’. He was ball of focused energy with a twinkle in his eye, always positive and loyal to his friends.

Both Paul and Dave leave a huge void in our lives and in the guiding community that will never be filled but we will always remember them and feel privileged to have known them.

I was watching the news on New Years Eve 2003 when I heard of the tragedy on Mt Tasman. My heart jumped as I tried to remember what Dave had said he would be doing after Xmas, during the days I spent with him only a few weeks before on our unsuccessful Tasman attempt. But with three guides involved I feared the worst as I raced to my computer and checked the internet. Dawn next morning found me sitting alone on top of Mt Taylor in Canberra recalling the wonderful view when Dave had taken me to the top of Diamond Hill near Wanaka on a beautiful, balmy afternoon. As we walked down he told me how much the hill and its beautiful surroundings meant to him and that he wanted his ashes spread on that hill.
I am an occasional, guided, mountain climber. After twenty years away from it, I went to Nepal and attempted a trekking peak and my appetite reactivated did a technical course in New Zealand. To try these new skills I signed up to do Mt Cook, along with several others, and there met Dave for the first time.

A few things stand out from that first trip as a mark of Dave's attributes. First, on looking back at it he was remarkably calm when after crossing The Plateau and about to start up the Linda Glacier at about 1am. I said I would have to stop and attend to a blister on my heel - boots, crampons off, medical bag at bottom of my pack etc!!! Then going up the Linda, despite being very fit, in the dark I surreptitiously pulled back on the rope as Dave strode out ahead. I only told him a few years later when we knew each other better. Then, and this really sticks in my mind when I think of the tragedy on Tasman, as we were crossing the slope below the Gun Barrel Dave obviously sensed from a sudden scrape of my crampon that I was feeling a bit insecure as it was very hard ice. He stopped and, I remember his words to this day, said "We are going to pitch this, I have never bloody come off a mountain yet and I don't intend to now". At the time I felt a little put out as none of the other pairs were pitching but later I thought here is someone I feel very confident with. On our last time together I mentioned this incident to him and I thought how right he had been as he said that two years or so ago in separate incidents guides had been pulled off by clients in that area. Another point I remember is that the Summit Rocks were very icy after a recent snow fall and I had never climbed in crampons on rock/ice before. Dave had taken a different line to the others which required getting over a nose which overhung the Caroline Face. Dave was bringing me up and I was finding it near impossible to make the move. This went on for ages it seems with attempt after attempt unsuccessful. I was trying to say above the wind that I couldn't do it, and thinking why doesn't he do something, but Dave just sat there smiling and in the end I knew I just had to!!

The next time with Dave was on Mt Aspiring, along with Sean Norman and my friend Mike Curtain. After summiting we got back to Bevan's Col and tent-hut) before a huge storm came on. We stayed there for 36 hours and I fully expected the hut to be blown away. It nearly did but we survived only to walk out in heavy rain and experience two of the most frightening water crossings I can imagine. Dave told me years later he was very apprehensive but at the time nothing showed nothing of this. After these two crossings and having exhausted my emotions I asked Dave if there were any more. He said no that is it and strode off down the valley leaving me in his wake. Later I came across him sitting on the other side of a raging torrent with all his gear around him (which at the time I didn't understand why) and signalling me to cross. I was ropable because it was 20m wide and as soon as I moved in I felt I would be swept away. I started cursing and swearing at him that he had told me there were no more to cross and started to go upstream and things seemed to get worse which brought on more expletives to myself, but the lo and behold a bridge, saved! On reaching Dave I found out that he had gone in the drink!

On that trip we talked of other ventures Mt Tasman, Alpamayo etc. Dave, Anna and myself tried Tasman from Plateau Hut but it was late Spring with heavy snowfalls when we were first into the hut after several weeks. We got onto Silberhorn Ridge but then encountered horrendous snow conditions and retreated to sunbathe on the roof of the hut and watch two guides from Chamonix who had managed to climb Syme Ridge then ski the Syme Face - amazing!!

So, after some other false starts, we met up again in November 2003 to get at Tasman from the North Ridge. Well, we got to the bivouac site at Marcel Col in the early afternoon in beautiful clear weather. But we were unable to get out of the tent until 9am the next morning as huge gusts of wind kept blowing from nowhere which at one point in the evening like a rifle shot in our ears ripped the tent apart. So we were too late to go for it and climbed almost to the top of Mt Ledenfeld and then came back having seen the rather steep and committing climb which would be required out of Engineer Col. Even here Dave did not go the summit of Ledenfeld because of the very hard ice conditions.

What I really remember about the week with Dave, waiting for the weather to clear, climbing, back at Wanaka on the rock, is how close a relationship we had. We discussed everything - family, relationships, ambitions, business development - which was the mark of someone who had a real zest for his life. While we had talked of a future trip to South America, as we parted I said that this might be the last time we meet up as age was beginning to suggest that my climbing days were numbered. And although I had not thought of Dave as an emotional person, I did mention to my partner when I got back home, that as we parted I felt that Dave had shown some sadness.

I was just one of his many clients but it was the measure of the man that when I was with him it was as though I was the only one. I am sure that many others experienced the same feeling and the great comradeship, high level of expertise, safety first approach,and of course that irrepressible energy.

I had four great trips with Dave, how fortunate I was. I will always remember him. A friend.

Eric Hodge
Canberra
Australia