Nathan Longhurst of the U.S. has been summiting and paragliding New Zealand’s 100 greatest peaks since last November. So far, he has finished 78. Longhurst, 25, hopes his frantic pace will allow him to notch all 100 before the end of the Southern Hemisphere’s climbing season. He would then become the second climber ever to complete the list and the first to do so in one season.
How the challenge began
The New Zealand Alpine Club launched the New Zealand 100 Peaks Challenge in 1991 to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The Club challenged its members to attempt what it designated as the country’s 100 main peaks. All but five lie on the South Island. It included some easier peaks (so everyone could attempt at least part of the challenge), but also many difficult climbs. The harder ones featured technical sections, rough weather, and significant prominence. Many soared to 3,000m from almost sea level and lay in isolated locations. Check the complete list here.
New Zealand Alpine Club
The original goal was to bag as many summits as possible during the anniversary year, but even the most active climbers summited only nine peaks.
That year, Don French did seven, but he kept at it. Thirty years later, in 2021, French became the only climber to complete all 100 peaks. The last of them, the Unicorn, took him six attempts.
Don French and partner on the top of the Unicorn. Photo: New Zealand Alpine Club
The hardest peaks first
The list gave Longhurst an idea. He was an expert alpine climber, endurance athlete, and paraglider. He felt these varied skills could help him minimize the time for each peak and give him a shot at finishing all of them in a single season.
He began on November 17, 2024. Just one hour after stepping off the plane, he climbed the first peak, the Double Cone.
In the first month, Longhurst ticked off some of the hardest peaks on the list, including Mt. Aspiring, Aoraki/Mt. Cook, Mt. Hicks, and even the Unicorn, which he summited on his first attempt on November 26.
About that difficult peak, Longhurst wrote that its summit point had collapsed in 2013, leaving two new, lower summits. Unsure which was higher, he traversed from the western to the eastern summits across an “incredibly sketchy” ridge.
He paraglided down and also cycled from one point to the next. Sometimes, he paraglided from the summit of one peak to the base of the next. Other times, he seems to have landed high on a subsequent peak, raising questions about whether it counts as a climb. On November 27, for instance, he linked Mount Burns, Mount Sealy, and Mount Annette — three peaks in the Mueller Glacier area — in a single eight-hour day and wrote, “[I] top-landed very near the summit of Mount Annette.”
He did cover 19km on foot and made four flights that day.
Live tracking
Longhurst has not given details of his climbs, only short posts and videos. But you can track his progress live on New Zealand’s 100 Peaks website. The climbs are also on Strava and it shows that he has summited more than one peak on most climbing days.
Nathan Longhurst’s tracker locates him on the way to Mt. Jack. Map: NZ 100 Peaks
Longhurst specializes in connecting the main summits of certain ranges or geographical areas. Back home in the U.S., he became the youngest to complete Bulger’s List — the highest peaks in Washington State — and the Sierra Peaks Section list, in which he chain-climbed 247 peaks in 138 days.
He started paragliding in 2023.
