Club nights are at Turnbull House, on the first unimpeded Monday of every month. New and prospective members are welcome. Usually, 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.

Josh cranking at Ship Rock and Payne’s Ford

Upcoming Section Nights: July!

On Monday evening, 5 July, Neil Hickman teams up with John Rhodes for a multi media presentation on New Zealand's top ten classic peaks.!

Photo Competition

It’s time to get your entries in for this year’s photo contest. There are some fantastic prizes to be won again and our esteemed Prez Nigel Roberts will again be judging the competition (I hear he likes a good South African white…)

Entries can be either slides or prints and should be in any of the following categories:

• Alpine activity
• Alpine general
• Alpine Nature
• Rock climbing
• Humour
• Photojournalism

To the photographers among us: fill out the form on the last page of this month's VertiGO, and get your prize shots in to Mainly Tramping by Friday 4 June. Judge and jury will once again be Nigel Roberts.

For further information, contact Tom Bowen (tb@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz) or Garth London (gl@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz)

Section trips news

Please send all your fantastic trip reports to newsletter @nzalpine.wellington.net.nz, so everyone can enjoy your stories.

The Banff Festival of Mountain Films!

What better way to end a Sunday of abseiling in good company at Waiohine Gorge than to enjoy an evening of inspiring mountain films at Wellington’s Paramount Theatre. On Sunday 2 May 2004 the Wellington section once again brought the thrill of the Banff Mountain Film Festival to New Zealand. Building on from last year’s inaugural success of the festival, this year the venue changed to the comfort and space of the Paramount and started its nationwide tour in Wellington.

The timing was perfect. With a season of alpine and rockclimbing behind us, most of us are now thinking about dusting off skis and snowboards and hitting the slopes. And after that Sunday night, all I for one wanted to do was feel the powder spraying up behind my board or skis!

The organisers again put together an eclectic yet hugely enjoyable bunch of films. The evening began on an extreme note with the aptly named “High Life”. This twenty minute short film featured a group of crazy American boarders and skiers racing down impossibly steep couloirs and gullies and triggering avalanches in their wake. Their skills were mind-boggling and enough to make any expert skier in the audience feel like they should be riding the beginners lift at Happy Valley again!

That was followed by another American film “French Fries to go” based in a Rockies mountain village where a sexy greenie who can do a mean rap has come up with the ingenious way of running his car on the left over grease from McDonalds restaurants. Some in the audience were asking why this movie was included, but for me it spoke volumes about the sort of person the mountains attract and why I prefer to hang out with climbers than any other people. If half the intellectual energy and creativity in the world went where this guy’s was going, we wouldn’t be bombing the bejesus out of Iraq for one thing. Fascinating clip.

The next film “Front Range Freaks” centred around the life of Derek Hersey, the solo British climber who spent his life (and death) scaling the rock of Yosemite and the Gunks in the US, rope and partner less. Solo climbing is always a controversial topic, and a pastime on which I myself have always poured scorn, but this sensitive film revealed a side to Hersey’s character, and a motive to his need to climb solo, to which many could relate.

Laughter was next on the menu with the absurd “Xtreme tramping” which I am sure the whole audience expected would consist of something far different than what it was (namely a spoof on films of the Banff genre featuring 3 mad trampoliners who professed to get their kicks from sneaking into suburban backyards for stints on the trampolines therein. Quirky and hilarious).

The last item before the break was a timely reminder of the statistics and horror of avalanches. After the break was “Edge Dancing – A Journey Across Siberia” made in honour of a now dead American photographer who with his Russian counterpart travelled across Siberia at the end of Communism in Russia, capturing scenes of life on the frozen tundra. The film was a poignant memorial by the American’s wife and captured perfectly both the culture of the land, and the dangerous task the two were undertaking.

The main film of the night, “Eiger North Face – In the Footsteps of its First Climbers” won best film in its category at Banff and this was unsurprising. Like Nigel Roberts, the first climbing book I ever read was ‘White Spider’ by Heinrich Harrer and the mountain has grasped me with morbid fascination ever since. In this film, two Swiss climbers trace the steps of Harrer et al’s first ascent in 1938, using replica gear of that ascent. Watching rattly front points kicked into the ice and flexing and wobbling, or seeing the hemp rope subjected to a Mammut simulated 80kg fall test and failing miserably, one was reminded of the skill and courage of early climbers (our own Sir Ed included). As one of the Swiss climbers bitterly reminded his companion, with that gear you just don’t fall. I do admit to feeling some irritation at first at the arrogance of the two Swiss men, until the moment when they openly confessed that with the cameraman and his partner climbing next to them on modern gear, and the route now known and climbed countless times before, there was no way they were under the same pressures as the men of 1938. Exactly.

The evening finished on a hilarious note and as the owner of a Labrador who has scaled problems at Baring Head which have defeated me, I found myself screaming with laughter at “Biscuit” the rock climbing Jack Russell Terrier. The human like expression on his face as he groped for his next move was priceless. An uplifting ending to a motivating evening. Thanks so much to Lynn Ayers and her committee (Michele Domaneschi and Garth London) and to the MC Nigel Roberts for once again bringing such a treasure to Wellington. If you missed out this year, make sure you don’t next year.

Rachael Schmidt

Alpine Instruction Course 2004

Every year the Wellington Section runs an Alpine Instruction Course for our members. This involves three theory nights in Wellington, plus two weekends on Mt Ruapehu, and one weekend on Mt Taranaki. This course is suitable for beginners to alpine climbing, or as a refresher for more experienced people.

Places are limited to 20 students, and the cost of $740 includes all food, transport and accommodation.

Unlike similar alpine courses, we maintain a 2:1 student-instructor ratio. This allows us greater flexibility to meet the individual needs and capabilities of our students, and ensures you will learn heaps.

This course only runs because of the dedication of our volunteer instructors, who donate their time to the club. They have a huge amount of experience and knowledge, and we always deliver a safe and fun experience.

So, if you want to be taught mountaineering by actual mountaineers who are also members of your club, you'll need to enrol very soon. Places are filling quickly for this popular course.

For more information please contact the Course Coordinator, Pete de Joux on 478 1017 home, 568 1478 work, 0274 421 779 mobile, or email him at pdj@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz

Workshop for Trip Leaders and Organisers

Coming soon... ...possibly in late June

A Workshop For Trip Leaders & Organisers. This will be run over two nights in Wellington.

Topics covered will include :

• Communications in the outdoors
• Researching an area to visit
• Legal liability, is it really a big problem?
• Planning for safety, planning for a successful trip
• Computer-based map products
• Templates for planning and documenting a trip, including what your family should do if you're late coming out
• Psychological factors in leadership
• Ideas for good trips - sharing information from all participants

This workshop will be informal, interactive, fun, and suitable for people participating in trips to alpine regions, tramping and rock-climbing.

Anyone will be welcome to attend. We'll have acknowleged experts, lawyers (BUT DON’T LET THAT PUT YOU OFF – ED), experienced leaders, and also bunch of ordinary people like you and I.

Cost will be no more than $10 (and might even be free)

For more information please email Peter de Joux (pdj@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz) or Rachel Depree (rd@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz)

If you already responded to our request for interest a couple of weeks ago, you're already on our contact list. As soon as details are finalised we’ll contact everyone on our list. We'll also advertise it again on the email discussion group.

Distahgil SAR Fund Awards

The Administrators of the Distaghil Sar Fund are pleased to announce the recipients of this years award:

Steve Hart $600 Ice Climbing Course
Merewyn Ellis $200 Pre-NZOIA Assessment Course
Caroline Duggan $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar
Craig Robinson $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar
Dave Shanks $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar
Garth London $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar
Merewyn Ellis $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar
Rachael Schmidt $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar
Sean Comber $95 Mountain Safety and Avalanche Seminar

All the recipients are committed Alpine Instructors for the club and will be using the awards towards training to enable them to be better instructors and mountaineers.

Keep you eyes on VertiGO for a report on how their various courses went!

It’s finally coming! Joe Simpson’s Touching the Void

Touching the Void, UK 2003, 106m, Director: Kevin MacDonald, Festivals: Toronto, London 2003

"'A very challenging day out' is how phlegmatic British climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates perceived their 1985 bid to climb 21,000-foot-high Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Getting to the top was no problem, but getting off the mountain was another matter. Halfway down, Simpson fell, atomized his left leg and had to be lowered by Yates on a 300-foot rope. Unbeknownst to a blizzard-blinded Yates, Simpson ended up dangling over a sheer precipice with no way to climb back up. Unable to hold on, Yates was forced into the climber's worst existential dilemma: to cut or not to cut the rope; to save himself or not to save himself, by letting his friend die. He cut it. Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void is a hugely stirring, appropriately vertiginous hybrid of documentary and docudrama footage based on Simpson's book, a key work in the literature of extremity, mixing the participants' accounts with frostbitten, snow-lashed re-creations of their ordeal: Simpson feared he would die alone, and with a horrible Boney M song stuck in his head, even as Yates was tormented by guilt. Breathtaking stuff that freezes the toes, harrows the soul and turns the viewer's seat into a foot-wide ledge over a yawning chasm." - John Patterson, LA WeeklyForget winter and indulge in 120 International and local feature, documentary, animated and short films made by from well renowned and first-time directors, that have been hand picked from all over the world to make up the 2004 New Zealand International Film Festivals' programme.

Coming to the Wellington Film Festival July 16 - August 1 – Don’t Miss Out!

National Instruction Courses

This winter, the National Office is running the following courses in the North Island. The cost is $199, and each course has eight places available on it:

Sat 10 Jul - Sun 11 Jul 2004, Ruapehu Intermediate Alpine Climbing, Ian Ruthven.

Sat 31 Jul - Sun 1 Aug 2004, Ruapehu Intermediate Alpine Climbing, Ian Ruthven.

Sat 14 Aug - Sun 15 Aug 2004, Ruapehu Intermediate Alpine Climbing, Ian Ruthven.

Potential section instructors are encouraged to attend these courses, to give them confidence in their skills and to gain experience from fully qualified instructors. The idea of the courses is to ensure that each section of the club has access to high quality and affordable instructor training. Please contact the National Office for more information on these courses.

Arthurs Pass Celebrations

As you may probably be aware Arthur's Pass National Park turns 75 this year. The park was actually gazetted on the 30th of July 1929, and the first park board appointed in September of that year. Arthur's Park National Park was the first national park to be created in the South Island.

Te Department is coordinating the organisation of a celebration event to be held 11-12 September of this year.

Alpine clubs have had a rich and influential history associated with Arthur's Pass National Park and any 75th celebration should acknowledge this.

Any Alpine club members who may want to take the opportunity to recognise and celebrate the history of Arthur's Pass National Park, and its importance to them, can participate.

Wayne Costello
Programme Manager
Community Relations
Department of Conservation
Waimakariri Area Office
PO Box 8
Arthur's Pass.
Ph: 03 318 9121 VPN: 5543
wcostello@doc.govt.nz

Chairperson's 10th Quiz

Nigel Roberts is delighted to report that he's finally posed a question all you Google addicts couldn't answer: last month's quiz didn't produced a winner. As a result, the question remains open for one more month. It is "One of the people often called 'the father of Canadian mountaineering' has a peak named after him in New Zealand. What's its name?"

Email your answers – with the words "Quiz number 10"in the subject line if you don't want your email to be destroyed as spam! -
to chairperson @nzalpine.wellington.net.nz by no later than 12 noon on Sunday, 13 June 2004, to go into the draw to win a bottle of wine.

Wanted to Buy

85 litre mountaineering pack, down jacket to fit woman size 14, crampons, ice axe and ice hammer. All good condition please. Contact newsletter@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz

Ice axe issues

I bought a new ice axe the other day. Because I wanted the longest one available, 850 mm, they had to send away for it. With a shiny blue painted metal shaft it was not much like the hickory one I bought from Oscar Coberger in 1946. Now I'm looking for a friendly mountain. My old axe had no holes in the head; the new one has two. Maybe it is trying to tell me something.

Brian Wilkins

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 Michele Domaneschi or Rachel Depree (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.

See you in the hills!

Note: A trip organiser is responsible for coordinating the logistics of the trip including:

• Compiling a Trip Plan (contact coordinator for a sample and guidance on this) including possible objectives and alternatives
• Organising cars/transport
• Organising accommodation

A trip organiser is not responsible for:

• The safety of individuals participating in a club trip
• Providing any technical guidance, instruction or leadership

Check out the proposed new list for 2004. We need trip organisers to put their hands up for what are bound to be outstanding adventures. There’s something for everyone in here with a mix of snow, rock and even a spot of ski touring.

National News

Caroline Duggan and Nigel Roberts spent the weekend of May 7-9th in Christchurch representing the Wellington Section at the Club Committee Meeting. On the Friday night they attended the NZAC AGM. While no way near reaching the lofty heights of the Wellington Section AGM’s the meeting itself ran smoothly and was followed by an excellent presentation from Dave Ellis and Ed Cotter on Himalayan climbing in the 1950’s.

On Sunday club matters were discussed at the CCM and we were delighted to elect our very own Judy Reid as President Elect and Nigel Roberts as Vice President (North Island).

Keep an eye on VertiGO and The Climber for more National news. You can also access information at the national website www.alpineclub.org.nz

New Additions to the Library

Derek is always adding to the section library. Keep an eye out on upcoming editions of VertiGO and on the web for details