A Beloved Guide and an Acclaimed American Attorney Die on Aoraki, New Zealand

On November 25, two climbers, a guide and his client, fell to their deaths while climbing Aoraki (3,724m/12,218ft), New Zealand’s highest mountain, also known as Mt. Cook. The victims were New Zealand-based French IFMGA guide Thomas Vialletet and his client, an American attorney named Kellam Conover.

Vialletet and Conover, along with another two-person team also made up of one client and one guide, had left Empress Hut (2,498m/8,195ft), at the head of the Hooker Glacier, shortly before midnight and were ascending Aoraki’s west ridge. At approximately 11:50 p.m. Vialletet and Conover—who were climbing ahead of the other pair, as a rope team of two—fell from the ridge, according to a release published by the NZ Mountain Safety Council. The other two climbers were uninjured, and were evacuated by helicopter at roughly 2:15 a.m. The bodies of Vialletet and Conover were recovered around midday.

It’s unclear exactly what caused the fall. The New Zealand Mountain Guides Association—of which Vialletet was an executive committee member—has not published a report or commented on the mechanics of the accident. While unconfirmed, scenarios like this on ridge terrain often involve short-roping, a technique which entails both individuals moving, roped together, with no fixed protection between them. If one of the two slipped, the other would have to arrest the fall or both would be pulled off the ridge together.

The NZMGA’s president, Anna Keeling, explained to New Zealand news outlet Stuff that an evening start on the mountain was common, to ensure firm, secure snow. “It’s customary to leave at around midnight to summit Aoraki when we’re guiding, and we usually can expect to have something between a 13- to even 20-hour day,” she said.

Keeling also told Radio New Zealand that Vialletet was “careful and diligent,” and very experienced on Aoraki. “He was very qualified to be up there and knew the route well and knew the conditions well this year,” she said. “So it’s very shocking.” Just a few weeks prior to his death, Vialletet posted about guiding a client up Aoraki via its difficult east ridge, calling the experience “a professional dream that came true.”

Keeling explained that although, to her knowledge, the conditions on the mountain were good, there’s always risk, adding that Aoraki is perhaps the most difficult peak to guide in the country. “We make our clients aware also that we are risk managers, that we cannot entirely eliminate risk,” she said.

Aoraki is a heavily-glaciated peak consisting of three summits (High, Middle, and Low), arranged roughly from north to south in descending elevation. It was first climbed in 1894 by a team of New Zealanders, and is both the country’s highest peak and its deadliest. Aoraki is extremely topographically isolated—in fact it is the tenth most isolated peak on Earth—and stands in the path of the “Roaring Forties”—strong winds that often occur in the Southern Hemisphere, between the 40th and 50th parallel. This means the peak is frequently hit by moisture-laden storms sweeping off the Tasman Sea, often with little warning. Compounding the danger is Aoraki’s penchant for avalanches and poor rock quality—the mountain is composed of brittle greywacke, a type of sedimentary rock, that is prone to sloughing off. (The entire top of Mt. Cook fell off in 1991, amid an earthquake).

According to New Zealand Geographic, as of 2016, nearly 80 people had died while climbing Aoraki. At least one fatality occurs on the peak each year, and the death count is likely close to 100 by now. Just last December, a trio of climbers vanished during an ascent via the Zubriggen Ridge. Their bodies have never been found.

The victims: an acclaimed academic and attorney, and a beloved guide and family man

The deceased client, 44-year-old attorney Kellam Conover, was remarkably gifted and accomplished. He attended Swarthmore College, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Greek and Latin, and then earned a Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University. Conover’s dissertation at Princeton, which explored the ideology of bribery in ancient Athens, earned him the Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, the university’s most prestigious honor, described as given only to students “whose work has displayed the highest scholarly excellence.”

Conover went on to attend and graduate from Stanford Law School (currently ranked as the best law school in the nation according to the U.S. News & World Report). At the time of his death, he was living in Washington D.C. working for an international firm called King & Spalding. In 2023, “Best Lawyers in America” included him in their prized “Ones To Watch” list.

In an interview with Stuff, his mother, Pam Conover, said her son was “the kindest possible man who always took care of other people.” She recalled how, when she married her wife eight years ago, her son—who was also gay—got himself certified so he could conduct the marriage ceremony for his mother.

She described her son as, “as close as you come to a modern Renaissance man,” noting that he could read and write both Greek and Latin and spoke four languages: French, German, Italian, and English. Conover was also a talented violinist and pianist, and performed in the D.C. area. He became interested in climbing four years ago, and had partnered with Vialletet on at least two other occasions, in Europe and New Zealand. “He knew and respected Thomas, and valued him highly as a guide,” Pam Conover said.

Vialletet, who was born and raised in France, was a member of the French National Young Alpinism Team from 2009 to 2012, and worked as a climbing and ski guide in the French Alps before relocating to New Zealand. At the time of his death, he lived in the small lakeside town of Wānaka with his wife, Danielle—also the co-founder of his guiding company, Summit Explorers—and two children, Layla and Ethan. A fundraiser aims to provide support for his young family in the wake of his passing.

In a public statement, the NZMGA called him “an integral part of the Wānaka and New Zealand guiding whānau (family)” and said he “embodied the professionalism, humility, and passion that define our community.”

Numerous friends and colleagues also posted tributes to Vialletet on social media.  “Thomas, I’ll miss your endless stoke, your big smile and enthusiasm for the mountains,” wrote fellow NZMGA guide Petrouchka Steiner-Grierson on Instagram. “I’ll miss your random hour-long phone calls brainstorming how to improve the NZMGA training and certification program, which I’ve fielded from all corners of the world at all times of day. I’ll even miss bumping into you at New World and getting trapped in conversation inevitably when I’m in a hurry. It’s so difficult to wrap my head around.”

Photographer Camilla Rutherford said Vialletet was her “go-to guide” for any mountain photoshoot, highlighting his focus on safety, and a “bright lust for life.” Guiding company Alpine Recreation called him “an outstanding guide, a trusted colleague, and someone who brought warmth, humour, and deep professionalism into the mountains every day.” They added that his loss was “acutely felt across the New Zealand and French mountain guiding communities.”

Another NZMGA guide and Alpine Recreation co-director, Elke Braun-Elwert, shared a poem in tribute:

Mountains keep your footsteps now,

Your laughter on the wind,

Your courage written in the snow,

Where rock and ice begin.

 

Gone from sight, but never far,

Your spirit rides the crest —

In every climb, in every turn,

In every heart you blessed.

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