Olivia Hickey

Climber

Olivia has been working in the outdoors over the last 14 years after completing a degree in outdoor education. She is currently based in the Blue Mountains teaching outdoor recreation and TAFE Lithgow and wilderness first aid for the Wilderness Medicine Institute, Casual outdoor education as a rock instructor and the odd bit of guiding work in the blue mountains. She has also previously taught environmental education in South Africa, worked as a walking guide in New Zealand and an abseiling guide in Malawi.

When not working she is often off having adventures. Currently her passions are walking, mountaineering, telemark skiing, canyoning, she’s spent five months living in a canoe in Canada, several season's skiing and mountaineering in new Zealand, and a lot of solo extended walking journeys in forest, mountain, costal and desert environments.

Olivia has just completed a mostly solo 110 day traverse of the South Island of New Zealand, from Farewell Spit in the north to Te Wauwau bay in the south, the route mainly followed the main divide, tending east when the mountains got very steep with lots of snow. The walk was pretty remote, staying in national parks and tracks used only occasionally. It was a rugged and beautiful journey through karst landscapes, temperate rainforest, alpine grasslands, thick scrub, scree slopes, slippery river boulders, steep snow tussock country, lots and lots of river crossings, glaciers and permanent snow fields. More information can be found at www.oliviasoutherntraverse.blogspot.com

Currently she is dreaming of her next adventure.