Vertical Life #43

FEATURE

On Thin Ice

MOUNTAINEERING IN A WARMING WORLD BY DR HEATHER PURDIE

New Zealand mountaineer and glaciologist Dr Heather Purdie has been researching and teaching students about snow, ice, glaciers, and climate change for more than 15 years. An Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury / Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, Heather draws upon both her climbing and her research to explore how mountains are changing as the planet warms in this edited extract of her story “Revisiting the Nun’s Veil”. The full story appears in the anthology Adventures in Climate Science: Scientists’ Tales From the Frontiers of Climate Change, 2023, Woodslane Press. 42 WINTER 2023

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Vertical Life #43

Published on Jun 30, 2023

Adventure Entertainment

Vertical Life #43 is here to take readers deep into the alpine world for winter. NZ’s Gavin Lang provides an action-packed cover shot, and a story about photography on a multi-day alpine traverse, summiting a series of 3000ers. Tim Macartney-Snape relives his first alpine adventure, and Allie Pepper shares deeply personal insights into how and why she decided to set out on her current attempt to break the speed record for summiting all 14 of the 8000m+ peaks without oxygen. We chat to young gun mountaineer and filmmaker Maddie Whittaker, get some tips on honing your alpine mental game from Kate Baecher, and hear from Cassie Davies on how she went from ice climbing at Blue Lake to Canada’s Weeping Wall. Glaciologist and mountaineer Dr Heather Purdie writes about how NZ’s mountains are changing as the world warms. In honour of Fathers Day, three of our favourite crag dads talk about the joys of taking their kids climbing.