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 Backbencher public bar 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.

Garth London, Caroline Duggan and Craig Robinson (lying down). See below for the full story

Southern Crossing the easy way...

The cover photo has Craig Robinson being helicoptered from the Tararuas after injuring himself (suspected broken leg) on a Labour Weekend Southern Main Range trip. Fellow Wellington Section members Caroline Duggan, Angie London, Garth London and Catriona Robinson were in assistance during the 6 hour wait for the chopper to arrive after Mike Judd tramped(rather quickly) to the Otaki Forks roadend. For those who know the area the accident happened near the bottom of the spur off Shoulder Knob to Waitewaewae, about 15 minutes up river from the hut. As Craig was administered morphine the smile was seen to return to his face.

Crack induced Delirium

Scott Taylor, Mike O'Brien et al were reportedly seen scoping the rock climbing on Mt Taranaki. “Lots of smooth long cracks” was the feed back. A trip report may be forth coming in the near future.

BMC International Summer Rock Climbing Meet

7 - 14 May 2006

Plas y Brenin, North Wales

The British Mountaineering Council is pleased to announce it will be holding an International Summer Rock Climbing Meet from 7 - 14 May 2006. We invite your federation to nominate two climbers from your country to take part. The event will take place at Plas y Brenin in North Wales.
Please Contact Richard Wesley at national office for more details.

Short Roping in Depth

Gottlieb Braun-Elwert has published a paper on short-roping on his website. He has already presented this recently to the NZMGA. This paper my be viewed at www.alpinerecreation.com/shortroping.pdf.
Other material may be viewed at www.alpinerecreation.com/research.htm

Cheap Climbing Equipment

I have begun importing Simond mountaineering equipmet into NZ. It gets sold to climbers directly and hence is way less expensive than buying through shops in NZ, and from what I've been told shops in Australia too.

In these early stages climbers need to order in advance as I won't hold stock until later in the year. This is a bit difficult for anyone in Aus wanting to buy in NZ when they come over for their climbing - but if you let me know I can see what I can do in letting you have one of the stock I keep to display to climbers.

The website to look at is www.iclimb.co.nz

Thanks
Glenn Pennycook

Quiz Number 23

Chairperson Nigel Roberts pointed out that the original Monopoly board game was set in New Jersey and that its red properties were Kentucky Avenue, Indiana Avenue, and Illinois Avenue. The Monopoly set most of us probably grew up with was based in London and its red properties are Trafalgar Square, Fleet Street, and the Strand.

Quiz number 23 wants to know what are the red properties on the Mountaineering Monopoly board?
The correct answers are Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and the Eiger. The winner of a bottle of wine - appropriately red! - was Caroline Duggan

Quiz Number 24

This is my last Chairperson's quiz, so is centred on New Zealand.

Most of us know that Aoraki/Mt Cook and Taranaki/Mt Egmont are mountains with both English and Maori names, but what are the Maori names for Mt Earnslaw; Mt Aspiring; the Westland National Park; the Franz Josef glacier; and the Fox glacier?

Email your answers by no later than 12 noon on Sunday, 5 March 2006, to chairperson@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz . Be sure to include the words QUIZ NUMBER 24 in the subject line of your email or else it will probably be destroyed as spam. The first correct entry randomly drawn at the Monday, 6 March, section night meeting will win a bottle of fine wine that, appropriately, has a Maori name!

Wellington Section Trips

Trips are a key part of the section, so if anyone has an idea about a trip, no matter how vague, come and chat to Merewyn Ellis (trips @nzalpine.wellington.net.nz). Trips can be of any length, any level of difficulty, and any size. Simply email us, or approach us at the monthly meeting, and we can help you get going.

China Trip

The idea of a climbing trip to China in October/November this year is taking shape. Pat Deavoll, who told us about her first ascent of a mountain in Western China at our last section night, has made some very useful recommendations about climbing objectives. For those not interested in bagging a peak, there will also be rock-climbing and trekking options.Some section members have said they're interested, and a meeting is proposed:

Wednesday 15 February, 7.30 pm
4A MacDonald Crescent, City

An email group has also been set up. To suscribe, send an email to china-subscribe@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz. To post messages, email china@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz. The group is restricted to subscribers to prevent spam.

Rotary Hammer

The Wellington Section has just purchased a brand new Hilti TE-6A Rotary Hammer, a top of the line tool for making holes in rock. It is expected that this will provide a much needed resource for members putting up new rock climbing routes and replacing old/worn gear on exsisting routes. The drill will be available for use by club members for non-commercial
purposes. With two batteries the drill will have plenty of juice.

If you wish to borrow the drill, you must have completed a bolting course with the club, and agree to follow the national bolting guidelines. (Yes we will run another bolting course soon!) The drill will be held by Kristen Foley (Wellington Section Committee member and National Rock Climbing Committee convenor). Many thanks to the Lion Foundation for asisting with the funding for the drill, and to Hilti New Zealand for giving us a great price on an expensive bit of kit. To arrange to borrow the drill email Kristen at kf@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz If you have any questions about the drill please contact Kristen or Merewyn Ellis. No Beer was harmed photographing this drill.

Rock Hop 2006

Yes its that time of year again. Dust off your rock shoes grab your lyrca tights and come out to Baring Head for a day of bouldering fun! The famous "Baring Head Rock Hop" is not an event to be missed! Staunch Wellintonian boulderers have organised and attended this event since the dawn of bouldering in Aoatearoa. If its raining on competition day,
postponement details will be posted on www.nbs.org.nz before 9am. If its called off the comp will be held on Sunday (don't be fooled by the weather, notice the emphasis on 'staunch' above, in other words the weather has to be really bad to postpone the comp!).

Registration: 9.30am Cost: $10 (NZAC members $5)
Start: 10am Finish: 3pm
Prize giving and BBQ: 3.30pm (at the Catchpool, Rimutaka Forest Park)

Where: Baring Head (Don't know where Baring Head is? Pick up a copy of
Wellington Rock from your local outdoor shop)

More information: Check out www.nbs.org.nz or phone the organiser
Kristen on 021 257294