Jenny Cossey is well known in Wellington outdoor circles as a competent, resourceful, resilient and experienced tramper, climber, rogainer and tango dancer. When she is not looking after her sons she can be found undertaking epic trips to remote places in the South Island or educating kids in classrooms.
Accidents that happen in the hills tend to get lots of publicity but I think this is because they are rare relative to accidents closer to home. Recently, on her way to Whakapapa for an avalanche awareness course Jenny was hit by a motorbike while crossing the road. Aunty Rata used the opportunity to catch up with Jenny, finding her in excellent spirits despite the extent of her injuries and the fact that it was the start of the school holidays. If it had been Aunty Rata she would be feeling a bit sorry for herself and complaining about life’s unfairness.
This is not Jenny’s style. I found her busy managing her rehabilitation, planning her next trips and relishing the opportunity for an evening stroll on the Seatoun foreshore on a rare night when Wellington wasn’t windy.
If Mike Phethean’s adventures on Everest are an example of living ones dreams then Jenny’s approach to life stands out as an example of how resilience and choosing your attitude can help immensely with coping with the curve balls circumstance can throw up. I’m sure you will join with me in wishing Jenny a speedy and complete recovery.
You invented the FE (faffing excluded) trip, how did that come about, and is the initiative working?
Faffing is a wonderful, old, English word which is slowly spreading into everyday New Zealand language. Its precise meaning is to explain someone who takes a long time to do not a lot and makes a lot of noise about it. Note FE trips can be of any length or severity.
I have a policy on no f words in my classroom (faffing, fussing or fidgeting) and encourage s words (style, stillness, shape, and silence). This policy can be applied in the outdoors. Stylish packing, stylish gear, stylish menus, stylish bodies and people who enjoy moments of stillness to admire the shapes of the hills (rather than rummaging in their packs )and the silence at night from the banning of white supermarket bags to silent reusable ones!
Do you have any advice for people faced with a challenging problem while out in the hills?
Collect knowledge about where you are going before you go, assess the potential risks involved and then think fast and clearly when disasters strike. Reflect later on near misses to learn from them. Most accidents occur due to complacency, often mid to late afternoon on the way home.
Sometimes bad luck occurs in the mountains and elsewhere, where the real risk of an event occurring is very small, but you or a team member happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
If in doubt go on a trip with a mother, they know how put on a band aid, sew things up, remember to pack things for others, picking things up after people leave them lying around, counsel them when the boyfriend does not love them any more, and deal with most other day to day crises.
You have a reputation for being an excellent person to have around in a crisis. Can you tell us about the time you had to stitch up someone’s knee so they could hobble to the nearest hut to be flown out?
Bad luck moments occur and being able to think clearly when trauma occurs is useful.
Tony and I walked uphill on the western side of a stream for three hours late one afternoon under a hot sun, before camping in the hebes in an alpine basin. Although the previous day had been long, the travel up the stream day was not arduous and we had an early camp for the night. The next morning was refreshingly cool and we had the same stream to follow out of the hebes and over the pass, and with only two more days to walk south to Mt Cook in good weather.
On our first stream crossing of the day Tony slipped and a razor sharp rock slit his knee open to the bone, a bad luck moment. We both had a look at it and knew it had to be stitched before the knee would go anywhere. Knowing I had needle and grey sewing thread, Tony calmly sat on a rock and held the two sides of his knee together while I flushed the wound out with water and used my darning needle to put in 15 stitches, dipping the thread into my antiseptic solution and having to use a small rock to push the needle through Tony’s rather tough knee skin. Tony uttered no sound as the sewing was done without any local anaesthetic, a real man! Once stitched, a few sutures were placed over the 10cm wound, (for aesthetic purposes) and a crepe bandage wrapped around it.
Being old timers and knowing people have to make up their own minds about when to stop, and being in a safe place, we walked for five hours up and over the mountain pass and down to the next valley for lunch at Mistake Flat Hut. Total bleeding was the size of a 50cent piece and the leg was mobile until we stopped, when it swelled up.
At this point, with a new fast approaching front in the sky, (later discovered it was a cyclone hitting South Island), we knew it was time to set off the emergency beacon and call for a helicopter. Ninety minutes later the helicopter appeared from Christchurch with three paramedics. They were very happy to see the tell-tale wind indicator outside the safety of a hut, as well as two trampers in good spirits, with appropriate gear and experience for the terrain. We were also thanked for being a tidy rescue, ie calling them in daylight hours to a genuine accident and inviting them to this beautiful valley as none had been there before.
The paramedics complimented my needlepoint and left good alone until we got to the hospital when the shocked house surgeon face recovered a more graceful composure when he removed the stitches and saw the bone. The consultant seemed happy with my
Himalayan style stitching, complimenting me on my neatness and evenness before giving me a sterile needle and thread as a gift for next time.
The shock did not really set in until later that day. Debriefing with friends after an incident is important, as is the need to accept what has happened and move on.
You have been with the WTMC for some time, do you think today’s punters are different to those of say 10 years ago?
Many punters today like a few more creature comforts than previous generations when gear, accommodation, travel was not as easy or accessible. The element of risk taking has also been reduced and softened by GPS, emergency beacons and ease of access by aircraft into the hills, which has reduced self sufficiency, encouraged punters to rely on electronic gadgets rather than to take time and learn skills from those more experienced. Also many punters choose to take numerous short holidays in New Zealand, saving their annual leave for long overseas trips, rather than taking long leave in the southern mountains.