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.

Stormy Pioneer Ridge : Taken by Gary Scott during the National Instructors course

National Instructors Course – Feb 25 – March 4th

There is something about taking off in a helicopter that never gets boring. We were lifting off from Chancellor Hut, and dropping down the sheer valley wall toward the terminal moraine of the Fox, when Lydia turned back from the front seat grinning like a monkey. She’s climbed Everest, she’s guided the great peaks, she must have been in dozens of choppers, but then I was grinning like an idiot too. It’s a sign of a great trip in the hills when no-one wants to leave, including the instructors.

One week earlier six ‘students’ and two leaders had landed at Pioneer for the second National Instructors Course. With two reps from Otago section, a couple from Canty, one for Auckland, and me. Damn it was good to be back at Pioneer. We landed in crystal blue skies to find an empty hut (bonus – there were eight of us) and first order of business for the afternoon was a re-acquaintance with snow, crampons and rope work. We spent a tremendously pleasant Sunday afternoon throwing ourselves into crevasses, prussiking back out, setting up hoists and generally having a good time. Or at least I was, after Paul had stopped giving me a hard time about my Aspiring Classic harness and tatty old prussik loops. Sure they look sad, but I was feeling pretty comfy while others were getting dead legs and having prussik knots jamming on them. Nice start to the week of instruction. Now how does that hoist system work again?
Day two forecast was bonza, so it was out of the hut at 3:30 to crash off to Lendenfeld. Chief instructor the indomitable Paul Rogers. Always good for a laff, Paul, but be warned he’s a scouser and his Uncle Bob’ll nut you soon as look at ya. Anyway, heading up to Lendendfeld Paul introduced a variety of roping techniques for crevasse travel and moving together. With very short coils and three on a rope, we gingerly stepped up the steep sections toward Marcel Col. Tied to two other people with no anchors a really good lesson in the issues of moving roped together. On the Col I gained further notoriety by dropping lunch for my rope (on the descent we found the bread and salami, no sign of the cheese). The final slopes of Lendenfeld a bit soft and sun affected, lots of soloing and a final pitch saw all eight of us on the top. Must admit, I was feeling a bit light headed, and playing it very cautiously. The return trip a classic mid afternoon, summer neve, dry throat, scorcher.

Weather turned to shit for day three. No one unhappy about a hut day and some rope tricks relearned and big fat climbing lies told. Day four forecast 50/50, but the team pact was ‘if it’s clear at 3am, we go’. At 1am the wind was howling, but by kickoff not a cloud. ‘Choice’ we said, heading out for Haidinger for some face climbing on great snow. But as we attacked the climb after dawn, the wind started howling over the Divide, and a frightening looking hogsback formed on Tasman, so the pitches became running belays. The summit was out, and there was more to be learned on the wind blasted descent (including the one about not leaving your axe behind on the final abseil, Lydia). The trudge home in the murk was very satisfying – a route finding challenge to add to a day that been well worth getting up for. Course it started snowing that evening, so another hut day loomed. They pass easily if you’ve been able to get out and climb.

The decision for Day Six was to walk it out. Clear skies but high winds around Pioneer, with lots of crevasses on the Explorer Glacier making for more excitement. I won the prize for sinking deepest through a bridge, and falling into a kamikaze roll. Knees un-injured thankfully. Taking turns leading and route finding we headed for Chancellor Dome, and finished the glacier travel unroped and leaping slots. By the time we reached the lower hut, on a superb Coast afternoon, there was some serious talk about setting up for the night and I was not alone in hoping the choppers would be busy for the next few hours. But alas, barely time for a brew and a lie in the tussock. At least the quick trip back to Porter Lodge offered a shower and beer. So not all bad, and only about to get better The final day was earmarked for a bit of drive-in ice climbing at the tourist end of the Franz. After placing some anchors, talking a lot about melt-out, constructing v threads, deftly tackling a nice overhang and putting in a confident lead pitch, I was basically bloody thrilled to have been on the course. I had a bloody great time (oh yeah, and some really useful lessons learned for AIC etc). Many thanks NZAC, SPARC, Paul Rogers and Lydia Bradey. And now a word from our sponsors….

Report by Gary Scott.

Aspiring Documentary on TVNZ – Queen’s Birthday.

An evocative new documentary filmed on and around Mt Aspiring will screen on TV One on Sunday June 4th.

Including extremely rare footage of the Matukituki Valley and Aspiring Hut, the documentary tells the story of four of NZ’s greatest artists and their attempt to make a highly creative film about an ascent of the SW Ridge. Producer is Wellington section member, Gary Scott, from local company The Gibson Group.

It is a real tale of forgotten silver. Not only are the four artists legends in their own right – poet James K Baxter, composer Douglas Lilburn, photographer Brian Brake and painter John Drawbridge – but the climbing team they worked with included George Lowe, Ed Cotter and Harry Stevenson.

They were young men in 1949. Their ideal was to make a new kind of film - not the standard news reel but a poetic tribute to New Zealand and the iconography of the mountains. Famously, Baxter wrote Poem In The Matukituki Valley while he was there. Island Bay artist John Drawbridge returned to the valley during filming.

Typically, the weather didn’t help and the trip seemed to end in disaster, although the climbing team did sneak up for one of the earliest ascents of the SW Ridge.

“But then the footage disappeared” says Scott, “and that’s the intrigue behind the documentary. It has a pretty dramatic ending.”

Aspiring will screen on TV One, in Artsville, Sunday June 4th at approx 10:30pm. Send any queries to aspiring@gibson.co.nz.

Photo Competition

Monday, 12 June: The Wellington Section's Annual Photographic Competition. This year there's a new judge, Shaun Barnett, who we are sure everyone will be familiar with. Shaun is well know for his outdoor photography and as a previous editor of Wilderness Magazine. Entries are accepted in 6 categories: Alpine actvity; Alpine general; Alpine Nature; Rockclimbing; Humour and photo journalism. This year there is also a digital section. More information on the rules can be found on www.alpineclub.org.nz. Entries can be dropped off at Mainly Tramping in the Grand Arcade, Willis St up until 2 June. We're looking forward to seeing lots of good entries in this year's competition so start sorting your slides and digital photographs now.

For Sale

The Section has copies of the Wellington Rock Guide which are for sale to members only. This is a superb guide to the region's best and in some cases most secret climbing gems. Available on Section Nights at the special price of $25.

Free money to pay for your fun...

I am writing to advise you that SPARC is once again running the Hillary
Expedition grant scheme.

We have made some changes to the Expedition this year in that we will fund up to six inspiring and cutting edge adventures between $15,000 and $30,000 each, rather than one large expedition. As before, the adventures will involve an outdoors expedition that can take place either in New Zealand or offshore.

Another change this year is that SPARC will not be running a classroom or online component alongside the Expedition/s. There may be some media coverage around the successful applicants and their Expeditions, but this will be decided in consultation with the winners.

Josephine Gilpin
Information Advisor, Active Communities
Participation Division
SPARC ihi Aotearoa
DDI : (04) 4965012

AIC 2006 - Students Wanted!

The planning and organising for the Alpine Instruction Course 2006 is well underway.

Dates are:

Theory 1: Tuesday July 4 (evening) Wellington
Weekend 1: 8-9 July Mt. Ruapehu

Theory 2: Tuesday July 18 (evening) Wellington
Weekend 2: 22-23 July Mt. Ruapehu

Theory 3: Tuesday August 1 (evening) Wellington
Weekend 3: 5-6 August Mt. Taranaki

The cost is $760 and participants will need to be members of the New Zealand Alpine Club (See www.alpineclub.org.nz for info). The cost includes instruction, accommodation, food and transport for the weekends away and course manual. Participants will need to provide their own personal clothing, boots, crampons, harness, helmet and ice axe. A limited amount of gear is available free of charge from the section.

Participants do not need to have any prior alpine experience. The course is an introductory one but can be tailored to each participants skill level depending on instructors available and is suitable for beginners to alpine climbing, or as a refresher for more experienced people. It covers moving on snow, use of ice axe and crampons, snow safety and rope and anchor systems.

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.

Please contact: Caroline Duggan, cd @nzalpine.wellington.net.nz OR Matthew Stevens, ms @nzalpine.wellington.net.nz
for more information.

[NB: There is still space for section members who are interested in being instructors on the course. Training and support is given to new instructors. Contact Caro/Matthew as well....]

Distaghil Sar

In 2006 it will be 10 years since Wellington Section set up the Distaghil Sar Fund, and the story behind it needs to be told again.

Distaghil Sar is a 7885m peak in the Karakoram, north of the Hispar glacier, and between K2 in the east and the Karakoram highway in the west. It has been climbed twice, but doesn't get a lot of traffic. In 1996, six Wellington-based NZAC members looking for something remote and challenging were directed towards this mountain by the Pakistani authorities. They hadn't heard of it, but soon established that they could either put up a new route on it, or try for its yet unclimbed middle peak, at 7760m. These six were Andy Boas, Tom Davies, Dominic Hammond, Chris Hoare, Chazz (Peter) Marriott and Steve Thornley, All were in their 20s or early 30s, and between them they had had considerable climbing experience

After the usual struggles with overweight luggage, Pakistani officials, porters and the rest, the party reached their Base Camp at 3700m in early July 1996, but didn't see the mountain until 24 days later, after toiling through icefalls to set up Camp 2. (5500m). Soon after they split into two groups, pursuing two different new routes to the summit: Dominic, Chazz and Tom wanted to climb a technically more difficult ridge route, Steve, Chris and Andy a more direct route up a snow face. The second group also decided to do an acclimatisation climb of Malangutti Sar (7025m), to the northwest of Distaghil Sar. This group returned to Camp 2 three days later, on 5
August, having reached the summit in marginal weather. This was the last time all six climbers were together. On the next day Dominic, Chazz and Tom left to set up Camp 3 on the ridge route, and the other three went down to Base Camp for a rest.

Dominic, Chazz and Tom found the ridge route more difficult than they had expected, but set up Camp 3 at 6200m and a gear dump at 6500m before retreating to Camp 2 in bad weather. All returned to Camp 3, and Dominic and Chazz left again for the ridge on 10 August, but Tom was ill, and took another rest day. From Camp 3 he saw Steve, Chris and Andy moving quickly up their chosen route, and Dominic and Chazz also saw them from the ridge. On the next day, in worsening weather, Tom went down to Camp 2.

Dominic and Chazz went on to set up their Camp 4 but, faced with extremely bad weather, rejoined Tom at Camp 2 on 18 August. The storms continued for three more days. On the first fine day, when Steve, Chris and Andy could have been expected to descend, there was no sign of them. At this point, they had been on the avalanching snow face for 9 days with little food or
shelter. Dominic and the others searched the avalanche debris as well as they could, but found nothing. In all these circumstances they were forced to conclude that their friends were dead, and left Camp 2. The trip down to Base Camp was very difficult, with big loads and terrain that had become more crevassed and broken, often necessitating new routes. There was no possibility of mounting a rescue from Base Camp, or even of recovering bodies. When the three survivors finally reached Gilgit, at the end of August, they had the harrowing job of phoning the families of their three dead friends.

Chris Hoare	Steve Thornley	Andy Boas

The deaths of Chris, Steve and Andy caused much grief, not only to their families, but also to the Wellington climbing community. Chris in particular was a key part of Wellington section instruction and NZAC administration, and was greatly loved by his ex-students and fellow climbers. He was a generous man, without malice, who unobtrusively followed his Catholic faith. The section held a memorial service for all three, and then decided to try and set up a fund which each year would provide financial help for section members to go to courses useful for their instructing. The families agreed that there should be an emphasis on alpine climbing and safety. More than $10,000 was raised: there were substantial donations from the families, but Wellington Section and many section members also contributed. Later the section organised a dinner at Turnbull House to launch the fund, and this was a great opportunity for friends and family to celebrate the lives of Andy, Chris and Steve.

In 2000 Wellington Section organised another trip to the Karakoram, this time to Snow Lake. On the way out down the Hispar Glacier some of us stopped at the point nearest to Distaghil Sar to talk for a while about our three friends, still high up on the unseen peak. This was the most we could manage in the way of a memorial at the time. But now it would be good to recapture the feeling of the 1996 dinner, and planning is underway by the section for another event in August/September 2006. It will mark the 10th anniversary of the Fund. More details will be available in the next issues of vertiGO.

Judy Reid

Distaghil Sar Fund Changes

The original purpose of the DSF was to assist members to become better qualified to instruct on our alpine courses. The rules have been now amended so that the fund allows for grants to assist members to become better qualified to instruct on both our alpine and rock courses.

The DSF will also now act as a memorial to all Wellington Section climbers who have lost their lives while mountaineering and the Section has added the names of Vanessa Johnson and Kris Persson, who lost their lives while on a climbing trip in Bolivia in 2005, to the memorial. The families and friends of Vanessa and Kris have made a generous donation to the Section and this amount has been added to the DSF to allow more grants to be made each year.

Distaghil Sar Fund Grant Applications Open

Applications for awards from the DSF are now open. This year the amount of the award is in the region of $500-$750. Any member of the section may apply for an award. The closing date for applications this year is Monday 05 June. Decisions about grants are made by the fund administrators (the section's chairperson, instruction committee convener and treasurer).

Applications should be in writing, and should specify the courses or qualifications for which financial assistance is sought; the need for such assistance; and the availability of the applicant to instruct on the section's alpine and rock courses.

Appropriate courses are NZAC or FMC instructor courses; NZOIA assessments or pre-assessments; risk assessment and outdoor first aid courses; or any other courses or qualifications that the fund administrators approve. Awards will be used to pay for expenses actually incurred, rather than given as a lump sum.

The decision about awards will take into account the applicants' climbing skills and judgement, ability to communicate with students, commitment to safety, previous contributions to the section's instruction programmes, and availability to instruct on the section's courses in future. The available funding may be given to one applicant, or split between two or more.

Applications should be sent to:
Distaghil Sar Fund
NZAC Wellington Section
PO Box 1628
Wellington
BY 05 June 2006. The awards will be recognized at the Anniversary Dinner in August/September.

Update of Section Website

The Wellington Section website will be getting a face lift and an update of content over the next few months. We are looking for volunteers with suitable web expertise to assist the project team with this task. The website is a key point of contact for people wanting to know more about the club and about current activities. The update will ensure that the most up to date information is available and easy to find, and also appealing to look at. Any assitance that can be provided will be very gratefully received. Please contact Jen Brown (jb2 @nzalpine.wellington.net.nz)

China Trip

The next meeting about the China trip in October/November is:

7.30 pm, Thursday 4 May
4A MacDonald Cres. City

We have a likely venue to consider, and also some quotes from local agents. Including air fares, the cost for a 3-week climbing trip looks as if it will be somewhere between $5000 and $6000. If you're interested and want to hear more, we look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Contacts: Alistair Betts (betts@paradise.net.nz) or Judy Reid (j-reid@paradise.net.nz)

Have you got your ticket yet?

The dates for this years Banff Film festival are approaching. Tickets are selling fast so get in quick if you don't want to miss out like many did last year.

Starting at 1815 at the Paramount theatre on Sunday April 30th and Tuesday May 2nd.

This year there are TWO sessions. Each session costs $15 and has a distinct program meaning that if you want to see all the movies, you will have to go to both sessions. Tickets are on sale from Bivouac, Mainly Tramping and Mountain Designs in the wellington CBD.