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Summitting Aoraki/Mount Cook - 9th December 2011 15-Dec-2011 At 10:34:06 PM PThomson

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G'day cruze,

Simul climbing would suffice except for the fact that there was no gear between the parties (or at least, very rarely) it merely came down to if one of them fell, the other had a chance to arrest it. They were on a very short (say, sub-five metres) length of rope between each other. Though I know at least two of the guides did explicitely refer to the term like you did "when a guide wraps a rope around his/her hand and keeps a client on a short rope with no running belay/anchor", it seems that it may (unless I've misinterpreted it) have been used to refer to merely being roped up on a short leash between one another, with self-arrest the only possibly modus of survival in the instance of a fall from either one. Obviously alpine climbers are (almost) always roped together, I'd just made the assumption that short roping as a generalisation for only having a short-length between two climbers moving with no gear.

Interestingly, of the Aussie brothers, Patrick is the only name I remembered as well. I even asked their last name for the purpose of dragging them out to Frog Buttress next time I'm up in the area (apparently they'd never been... Something I considered a crime against climbing) but naturally have managed to forget it. They were a pair of funny bastards, with an awesome attitude to climbing, and a great skills base. The brothers told me that there were going to spend a few days around the village, hook up with someone-or-other, and head back to one of the other huts for another "week-or-so" in the mountains. So odds are good you might run into them again.

Lydia did mention she'd been on Everest twice. Once "for herself" and once via another (not-standard) route. Talking to her, her list of accolades was quite impressive. And you're right about the Kiwi talent.