Alan, Chitty & Nicky en route to Mt Pollux, April 2003

Section trips news: Growing and sowing

Please send all your fantastic trip reports to newsletter@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz, so everyone can enjoy your stories, tall or short, fat or thin, sharp or dim. We love to know what you're up to!

And this just off the wires… Mt Tappy Trip report - Her Majesty's Birthday Weekend 2003

This was a "medium" 3-day trip with the intention of having a leisurely adventure climbing Mt Tappy over QB weekend. Our group of 8 were mixed with most having done the AIC or an equivalent course and some other climbs in the past 2-3 years. We even let a token rock climber come along! We weren't anywhere near Olympic class level but we were all adventurers.

Access was pretty good, and we spent the 1st and 3rd days going up/down the Hodder River to stay in the Hodder Huts. Even though we had to cross the river 66 times on the way up it was never more than knee deep, and the sun was shining on a windless day. Paul was the 1st to slip over and got to wear the Alpine woolly jersey award. But not for long as yours truly had a spectacular face plant (well I wanted to keep my pack dry). It took us 6 hours to get to the huts.

Sunday dawned clear but breezy with a 30-40 km/h westerly and we were on our way with a leisurely 7.30am start at sunrise. Two others from Wellington/Blenheim (Geoff and Quentin) joined us under their own steam. Paul returned early on after deciding it probably wasn't a good idea to damage the pristine environment with a dose of his 'flu. There was little snow to be seen so that the trail was easy to follow up Staircase stream and around and between the bluffs and semi-frozen waterfalls. In the upper valley the trail petered out in steep, slippery scree at the halfway point. But that was OK as we had a great time (NOT!) getting bluffed out and backtracking down 30-50m! One of our 2 rookies (Chris) decided at that point that was quite enough experience for one-day and returned.

At 2300m we finally came upon some snow and out came the crampons, only to be stripped off when the snow ran out at 2600m as we acquired the main ridge. Yes folks, between us we carried 20kg of ice axes and crampons over 45km, to use them for less than 1 hour on 300m of snow where we could find it! 20% cover at best.

It was now 12.45pm, we had climbed over 1100m from the huts and we still had an hour to go. The wind on the ridge was strong, 60-80km/h, difficult to stand in let alone climb. It seemed likely darkness would overtake us on the descent. At this point the climb changed from an adventure to a mission, all but one of us (Kate) dropped our packs and raced to the summit, bagging it in a 35-minute rush.

The trip down was quick and uneventful, what took 6 hours to ascend was just 3 hours to return. A pretty cool day.

Knocking back a few beers over dinner in Blenheim on Monday night was pretty good too.

Stats: age range 30-50, 38% female, 63% parents, minimum T = 5.6C (summit). Team Members = Kevin Patterson (leader), Maria Cunningham, Kevin Martin, Tom Zink, Sean Kelly, Chris Kroger, Kate Smith, and Paul Clark. In addition Geoff Keey, and Quentin. 7 out of 10 summitted.

New Zealand Alpine Journal 2003: Contributions please!

Contributions sought… Yup - it's that time of the year again; time to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard and start sorting out those slides.

We want your words and photos. Principally we seek reports of this year's most note-worthy climbs (either new climbs or repeats), articles or essays from any aspect of the greater sphere of climbing, local area reports, and yes… obituaries. As always photographs and artwork are welcomed.

If you have an idea you wish to discuss or any questions, or a submission, don't hesitate to contact the editor:

Mark Watson - NZAJ Editor
(day) 03 377 7595,
(eve) 03 942 3312
editor@alpineclub.org.nz
PO Box 786, Christchurch.

CLOSING DATE 1st SEPT 2003

Our website

• Check out our web site: nzalpine.wellington.net.nz !
• Join the email discussion group!
• New photos and trip reports up!

Congratulations to the budding Cartier-Bresson's, or Section photo comp results

The Wellington section's annual photo competition was held on Monday, 9 June, and contained a veritable feast of eye-smacking photographs. Eighty-two pictures were entered in the competition, and the winning photographers were:

• STEVE EASTWOOD in the Alpine General category (for a stunning early morning shot of a golden Mt Rolleston)
  
• DAVE MORGAN in the Alpine Activity category (for a hauntingly evocative silhouette of four climbers during a drink stop on a glacier
• TONY GATES in the Alpine Nature category (for a remarkable close-up of beady-eyed kea)
• PETE McGREGOR in the Rock Climbing category for an action shot of a boulderer losing his grip)
• TONY GATES in the Photo Journalism category (for a candid shot of two exhausted participants - including our own Eric Duggan - in this year's Tararua mountain race)
• PETE McGREGOR in the Humour category (for a picture entitled "I told you bum sliding was a bad idea!")

In addition, Honours photos were submitted by Karen Domaneschi, Michele Domaneschi, Merewyn Ellis, Garth London, Pete McGregor, Dave Morgan, and Bruce Roberts, while Andy Maloney won an honourable mention for a trio of good-humoured slides.

New edition of the Whanganui Bay guide by Len Gillman - A review

So the new Whanganui Bay guide's out. Great! I need it! First thought - fantastic new colour photo on the cover. I want it, I buy it! It's going to be great! I open the covers. A huge disappointment strikes. Inside remains the same old functionalist Bay guide minimally updated with a modicum of new climbs where necessary. The few new topos seem lower in quality than the old ones.

If you don't have a guide to the Bay, this one, like the old out of print edition, will do the basics okay. Buy it and use it. It'll get you to the bottom of the climb and ensure you'll take up the right number of quick draws up with you.

The insides remain a drab set of notes. The quality of guides has moved up a notch since last century (think Mentz and Tempest's Arapiles or Grampians guides for state of the art) and this new edition ain't kept pace. It hasn't even tried. Where's the richness of climbing, and in particular the richness of climbing at the Bay? I would have liked a bit of social history of the major characters, events, and climbs, and stories behind the names of the climbs. I would have liked some relevant history of the community of people who live at the Bay. I would have liked to know about the changing nature of the relationships between locals and climbing community over the years. What's the future for new climbing at the Bay?

If you do already have the old edition, ask the question: is it worth coughing up thirty five bucks for to find the location of a few new climbs that you didn't know about?

Maybe next time the guide might move beyond what is virtually a re-print.

Editor

CHAIRPERSON'S QUIZ No. 2

After the interest shown in the 5 May section-night quiz question (which was "Where was Ed Hillary on 5 May 1953?"), the section's new chairperson, Nigel Roberts, posed another quiz question at the June section-night meeting.

Inspired by a book he's recently bought about the 50 USA state summits (which range from a 345 feet / 105 metre pimple in Florida to the 20,320 feet / 6,194 metre Denali in Alaska), Nigel is now offering another bottle of wine. (In May it was Shingle Peak, this time it's Jackman Ridge!) The prize will go to the person who submits the first correct answer that's opened after the 5 July 2003 closing date of the competition.

The question is: What are the six Australian state summits? (Name the peaks and the states).

Either email your answers to nr@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz or send them by snail mail to Nigel Roberts, 2 Gloucester Street, Wilton, Wellington 6005. Remember, your answers must reach Nigel by noon on Saturday, 5 July 2003.

The winner will be announced and the wine handed over at the 7 July section-night meeting.

NZAC National instruction programme

Course Numbers are limited so book early! Fully qualified alpine guides or rock instructors will be used to lead all courses and there will be an instructor - student ration of 1:4 ensuring an excellent learning environment.

Intermediate Alpine Instruction (Two Days) $130
12-13 July The Remarkables, Otago
16-17 July Fox Glacier, Westland
19-20 July Mt Ruapehu
2-3 August Mt Ruapehu

Intermediate Rock Instruction (Two Days) $99
23-24 October Otago
1-2 November, Canterbury
23-24 October Auckland
1-2 November , Wellington

Intermediate- Advanced Mountaineering (Five Days) $750
3-7 January 2004 , Unwin Hut Mt Cook
10-14 January 2004 Unwin Hut Mt Cook

Richard Wesley
National Administrator
phone 03 377 7595
email richard@alpineclub.org.nz

And here are the club trips ....

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 either Jenny Henshaw or Mike Williams.

Jenny (alpinetrips@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz) is the person to contact about alpine trips and Mike (rocktrips@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz) can help you out with planning rock climbing trips.

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 on a safe and enjoyable trip.

See you in the hills!

Weekend July 19-20

Weekend August 2-3

Weekend August 30-31

Weekend September 13-14

Weekend September 20-21

Weekend September 27 - 28

Weekend October 4-5

Long Weekend October 25-26-27

Weekend November 8-9

Week November 29- December 7

Week January 3 - 11, 2004 

Long weekend January 17-18-19

OTHER TRIPS

Dates to be confirmed…

Thanks to Garth for organising the Photo Competition entries and prizes and Nigel for judging!!! The substitute Sub-Editor.

for sale

Open to offers on all items
· Fischer Cornice Skis, 195cm, with Salomon 555 bindings. Learner to intermediate grade ski's, not bad condition. $40
· Atomic Pro 140cm skis with Salomon 447 bindings $50 - good for kids
· Rossignol Atoll ski's, 175cm, with Look GT bindings $30
· Fischer Futura Super skis with old plate bindings, 160cm. $20
· Fischer ceramics, Sl4 Mirage ski's, 175 cm. Good looking ski's.$50
· San Marco touring ski boots. Size 8.5>9 $10.
· Climbing boot gaiters, fleece lined, wire attachment around boot sole. $15
· Assorted flippers and wetsuit bits
· Homemade showshoes based on American bear claw model. 2 pairs, one not finished but all parts there $30 ea.
· 4 assorted rock climbing chocks and wedges and 3 solid galv-iron ice screws $10 each. Not used.
· Ice hammer, Stubai, wooden shaft. $30.

Nick Miller Tel 04 5687943 1/50 Udy St, Petone