Club nights are at Turnbull House, on the first unimpeded Monday of every month. New and prospective members are welcome. Meet for dinner at the Astoria Cafe, Lambton Quay at 6.30 and on to Turnbull House at 7.30 pm for a catch up. Meetings and talks start at 8.00 pm with club business and tea and coffee afterwards.

Scotty on 'Miracle or Fluid Dynamics' - a reminder that the sun will shine again one day....

September Short Talks

Paul Grimwood is organising a series of short talks for the September 4th meeting of the Wellington Section of the Alpine club. Talks should be 10 minutes in length and can be on any topic of interest to club members, typically bouldering, rock/ice climbing and mountaineering. Included in the session will be a talk on the Summer Rock course and one on the AIC, so if
you were on either of these please step forward.

Email pg@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz with a brief description of your presentation.

Aspiring National Park Management Plan Review

The NZAC will be making a submission on the Mount Aspiring Natinal Park Management Plan however inividuals who have views on issues in the plan are encouraged to make their own submissions. Some of the more contentious issues include air access, for example to Bevan Col and management of overcrowding in some areas that are of interest to climbers. More information can be found at www.doc.govt.nz

The deadline for submissions is 28 August.
Garth London

Distaghil Sar Dinner

The Distaghil Sar dinner will be at 7pm on 24 August in the upstairs room of Turnbull House.

Tickets will be available at the next section night, or order them from Judy on
j-reid@paradise.net.nz. They are $30 per person, BYO, and any profit goes to the Distaghil Sar Fund.

The dinner will be a get-together for all section members and for AIC students, as well as a way of remembering friends who have died in the mountains. It will be a good night!

CNI Instruction Course

The Central North Island Section's new Chairman, Steve Burrows would like
to advise CNI and other members that information on their Beginners and Intermediate
Alpine Instruction Courses have just been posted on the NZAC website. (Sections Heading)

http://www.alpineclub.org.nz/default.aspx?p=243

Steve is looking forward to keeping section members informed of upcoming events
via monthly updates on this page and hopes that CNI members will check in regularly.

Home of Mountaineering Opening

The New Zealand Alpine Club would like to invite you to the opening day of the new ‘Home of Mountaineering’. This exciting project has taken three years of planning and fundraising and the finished result is a real asset to the climbing community.

Sir Edmond Hillary and Lady June Hillary will be special guests for the opening morning of the Home of Mountaineering. Sir Ed will be cutting the ribbon at 10am and then everyone is welcome to check out the new library and research room on the top floor, as well the other new office areas of the Club’s National Office.

Morning tea will be provided and we welcome NZAC club members, their family and friends and anyone interested in this exciting development.

Unit 6, 6 Raycroft Street, Opawa, Christchurch
10am Sunday 6 August 2006

MSC Offers New Backcountry Avalanche Course

New Zealand Mountain Safety Council (MSC) has offered avalanche awareness
training for over 25 years. Now for the first time an advanced course is available to the public.

The course came about after MSC recognised there are good courses available
for professionals, but limited opportunities for recreational travellers whether skiing, snowboarding or climbing.

The new Backcountry Avalanche Course focuses on personal risk management and includes a strong focus on travelling in avalanche terrain. Participants will develop their observation and route finding skills, learn to evaluate the snowpack for stability, will spend time on mastering avalanche transceivers, and conduct a small party rescue.

The course is held over two weekends in Whakapapa, Methven, Wanaka, and Queenstown. MSC's Avalanche Awareness course is a pre-requisite for the Backcountry Avalanche course. Information on both courses is available at www.mountainsafety.org.nz.

Angela Emslie
Publications Manager
TEL 04-385-7162 Ext 217

Wye Creek Ice Climbing:August

Toby Johnston is organising a general alpine trip with ice climbing and ski touring options in August. The trip will be to Wye Creek in the Remarkables or to Black Creek as a second option. For further details contact toby@basecampwanaka.co.nz

Centennial Hut

For those of you with glacier travel and route finding experience, there is a trip planned for approx 9 days (5-7 days climbing, 2 days travel down/back) to Centennial hut in November (exact date to be confirmed). The plan is for helicopter access and egress with a max of 8 people on this trip.
Contact Garth London for more details. GL@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz or 04 479 2984

Tongariro Crossing/Ngauruhoe
August 12th-13th

Just done AIC and wanting to go on a club trip, or keen to do a winter Tongariro crossing and side trip up Ngauruhoe? A trip is being organised to do just that. I'm happy to organise all the logistics so if anyone out there is willing to assist/lead this trip, be good to hear from you.
If you're interested to either join in or assist with this trip, contact Caroline Hart at CH@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz

Tongariro September Climbing Trip
September 1st -3rd

I will be leading an ice climbing trip to Ruapehu. The objective is to head to Delta ridge hut on Friday night and continue on to the crater on Saturday morning to climb ice routes on Cathedral rocks early in the day. If the wx holds we will dig a snow cave for the night and climb again on Sunday. In the event of inclement wx we will remain based at delta ridge and explore the Pinnacles. There is scope for people more interested in snow caving and alpine tramping to join in the weekend so long as they are independent enough to organise their own activities around the crater (or from the hut in the case of bad wx).
Contact Paul Grimwood on PG@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz

China Trip

Wellington Section has been planning a climbing trip to NW China for early November this year. But we don't have enough takers to make this trip worthwhile, and wonder if members of other sections would be interested.
The mountaineering objective is Jarjinjabo, 5725m and so far as we know unclimbed. Pat Deavoll and Karen McNeill tried it last year, after they summitted on Xiashe, but were driven off by bad weather and lack of time.You can find Pat's account of this trip on www.nzalpine.wellington.net.nz, along with some pictures of the area.
There are good rock climbing peaks in this same area, and we're also planning some high trekking options for people who don't want to climb. China also has great tourism opportunities, if you've got more time, and flying to Lhasa is easy from Chengdu.

The climbing part of the trip will be for 3 weeks, at an estimated cost of $5000-$6000, including return air fare. Contact Judy, j-reid@paradise.net.nz, if you want to know more.

Aconcagua expedition

The highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere and outside Asia is the perfect choice to take your high altitude trekking to the next level. I'm organizing an Aconcagua expedition between 11/2006 and 02/2007 or 11/2007 and 02/2008 and I'm looking for people to join the core group to work out the details during the next few months. Once the exact budget, date, route and timetable have been set the expedition will be open for any club members to join at a later phase. Aconcagua does not necessarily require technical climbing skills but experience in high altitude trekking and fitness is required. For those who aim on taking eight-thousanders later Aconcagua is extremely good practice. I am also considering combining an acclimatisation trip to the Cotopaxi (and possibly the other volcanos there) in Equador just before the expedition.
Please contact me through e-mail at jsarkila@gmail.com for more information and visit www.aconcagua.com for general information about the mountain.

Juho Sarkila, Wellington

For Sale

A pair of Koflach Artic plastics - size Eu size 6.5 US 7 - they are still in good condition. $100
Diane Drayton - 0211019781