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.

Looking down the Staircase valley with the Hodder in the distance

Te Herenga

A new winter climbing area has been developed on Ruapehu, and has become known as ‘Te Herenga’ after the now extinct and largely eroded volcanic cone that produced the prominent rock features in the area. The area is located on the north eastern side of the pinnicle ridge, and is best accessed by the low saddle just above ‘Pink Floyd Buttress’. The rock in the area is mostly good quality and many of the routes make use of natural rock protection. At the south end of the area lie the spectacular ‘Te Herenga Towers’ which look a bit like a miniature version of the Towers of Paine, they range in height from 50m to 80m. The volcanic dyke of which the towers are part continues north forming a number of larger though slightly less spectacular outcrops. Some of these outcrops have also been named; The Gnome, The Spear, Arrowhead Buttress, King Kong and The Shield.

Mike Peat spotted the potential while ski touring last year but had to wait until late May this year to return with Chris Newton to scope the area properly. Mike and Chris attempted a couple routes but were forced back by difficult mixed climbing with an uncomfortable combination of an inadequate rock rack and lack of nerve!

Mike returned for a lightening day trip with Yibai He on 4 June to claim two new routes:

On the Gnome, ‘Moonage Daydream’ M2 (45m) starts up a corner which leads to a short steep wall (crux 13) then an easy ridge and a final steep pinch to the summit. There is a straight forward down climb to the west.

On the Central Tower, ‘Cosmic Jive’ grade M4 (45m) from the right gully traverse in above the easier ground to the start of the route head up and right around the corner, up a steep wall with sustained moves (crux 16) which leads into a corner system that provides interesting climbing to the summit, a 20m abseil to the north gets you off.

On the weekend of 1st / 2nd July Mike returned with Tom Wilson to claim another two new routes:

On the South Tower, ‘Wave of Phase’ grade M3 (25m, 35m) starting from the toe of the tower climb trickier-than-it-looks rather loose rock to belay on the large ledge in the middle of the face, pitch 2 continues up the obvious wall above on very nice rock (crux 15), abseil (15m) down the north side.

On the Arrowhead Buttress, ‘Vaseline Tigers’ grade M4 (50m, 25m, 40m) from north side of the lower buttress climb through a small overhang (crux 15) and up easier but interesting climbing to the nose of the buttress where it steepens again (crux 13) to an airy belay Pitch 2 continues along the blocky level portion of the ridge across a cheval to belay on the small saddle at the toe of the upper buttress. Pitch 3 continues up steep ice / mixed ground (crux WI3) to the left of the rock buttress leading to easier ground, and finishing up a short ice gully with a loose rock wall at its head. The summit is very loose and exposed, it’s better to belay on the small saddle to the north of the summit from where a 25m abseil down the west side gets you off.

Mike and Tom returned for more on 11th / 12th August:

On the Shield, ‘Leper Messiah’ grade WI3 (50m, 50m). From the centre of the face tend left toward the snow arête up 50deg ice to belay. Pitch 2 heads up the short steep ice wall (crux) onto the ice shield (60deg relenting to 50deg) above tending right, and up the final steep gully to the summit. A 10m abseil gets you down the west side or alternatively a steepish down climb also west from the south end of the summit block is possible.

On the Arrowhead Buttress, ‘Snow White Tan’ grade WI2 (approx 120m – route was soloed). From the left side of the lower buttress ascend the obvious ice flow then up a broad snow gully tending left into a narrow couloir where it is necessary to alternatively climb the ice or bridge up the rock walls, having joined the snow ridge above, pop over this and up an easy gully to the very loose summit. Continue traversing over the summit to get off.

Grand Pinnacle Debacle

Mike Peat and Yibai He survived soloing ‘Chiming Bells’ in July to be nearly killed on descent by the ski patrol deliberately conducting avalanche control work near us. The patroller responsible was cleared by an internal investigation into the incident. However it was later revealed that the investigator and the accused patroller were one and the same person, so draw your own conclusions!

In mid August Tom Wilson and Mike Peat soloed ‘Gorilla’ then had an enforced stay on top due to the ski field lahar warning sirens activating. Tom suggest we use our time productively by designing a raft that we could use to ‘lahar surf’ to safety. I thought this sounded risky and suggested he try it on his own while I offered encouragement from the safety of the ridge top.

Mt Cook / Wanaka

Mike Peat spent a few days ski-touring in the Sealy Range in early August. The skiing was brilliant but doing it solo is not much fun, so it was a relief to hook up with friends in Wanaka for a social injection of skifield skiing, boating and boozing shortly afterward.

A post-AIC trip to Tappy: A letter from an AIC student to his instructor

Hi Pete

Well after expecting some average weather, we were rapped to hear on the mountain radio weather report at 6.30pm Saturday night that our region was going to have some nice weather on the Sunday...our planned climbing day!.... as it turned our we couldn’t have asked for better.

The trip went well from the start. We arrived at the farmers land about 10pm on Friday and set up camp, we woke early to the sound of falling rain. After a quick breakfast we headed off up the farmers track and met the river which we followed up to the hut. From car to hut took us 5.5 hour at a relaxed pace with heavy loads. While it wasn’t raining we were in cloud so the surprise of where we were going was to come later.

When we reached the hut we ditched our packs and headed up in to Staircase valley to see what we would be in for the next day. We couldn’t see any of the peaks due to the cloud, so we got back to the hut 1.5 hours later in time for our 6.30 radio sked, which caused us to jumping up and down with joy after he gave us the regions weather forecast.

The next morning we were out the door of the hut walking by 6.30am heading towards Staircase Valley. The peaks were hidden by cloud but there was a lot of clear sky. I was hoping the sun would burn of the cloud as it rose... and as it turned out this is what happened. The snow had a nice frozen crust so it was crampons on pretty early which were left on for the rest of the day.

We reached the summit of Mount Tapuenuku at 11am, after a four and half hours, and climbing 1500 meters. We were lucky as there was little to no wind on the Sunday so we had lunch on the top looking over towards Mount Alarm and the top of the Southern Alps.

At the AIC Dinner Garth had mentioned to me that Mount Alarm would also be a great climb for the three of us. And as we were three fit young guys with six hours left of day light and one of the most beautifully days I’ve ever had in the mountains we headed off to climb Mount Alarm (Yes we had written it in our intentions form in the hut book that morning after hearing the weather forecast) Garth had told me that the last twenty five meters might require a pitch, well we were carrying rope with us, so the odds were our way and we headed off toward the goal. The climb across to Mt Alarm was pretty strait forward, and at around 2.30pm we reached the crux of Mount Alarm (the last 25 meter) which actually didn’t look nearly as bad as it did from a distance. So we front pointed up, one at a time to the summit, it was really exposed at the top and no place to stop and have a snack, also there was only room for two at the top so as I was reaching Paul at the top he started heading down after Edwyn had got above the crux. It was a slow time consuming process to safely down climb the crux from the summit, as it was too much snow falling down if someone was above the climber who was in the tricky area.

After we were safely all below the crux we had a well deserved chocolate break, and mate did it taste nice!

We made good time down to the hut, after an 11 hour epic it felt great to sit down and have some hot chocolate in the hut. We then did the radio sked again at 6.30pm to say were we were back in the hut after a safe day climbing, dinner was cooked, which tasted even better than the chocolate below Mt Alarm! Bed time was early at about 8pm.

The next morning we were up at 5.30am and walking down the river at 6.10am and made it out to the car at 10.30, 4.5hour down the river, which I didn’t think was to bad after two solid days. We made it to the ferry to get on an early sailing and a flat crossing.

Well what a trip..... Three fit guys full of ambition! It was a wicked adventure with amazing weather.

So what’s next???? (was our last question before we left....... Mount Aspiring was put as a goal to have done by the end of 2007)

Scott Taylor [not THE Scott Taylor, but the other one..Ed]

Ruapehu Trip 1-3 Sept

The Ruapehu ice climbing and summit camping weekend lead by Paul Grimwood was a success despite gale force winds forcing the bad weather option into play.

Paul Grimwood, Shane Harrison, Stewart Dempsey and Andrew McKinlay (the ice climbing party), and Gwen Rashbrook, Weibke Heise, Louse Thornley, Paul Mason, Edwyn Bryant and Alison Stevenson (the peak baggers), headed up to Delta hut under a starry sky, arriving around 1am Saturday morning. After a short and interrupted sleep - due to a bunch of Auckland University climbers arriving at 4.50 am (why?) - we all walked up to towards the crater. Wind conditions made it clear that the decision to return to the hut for the Saturday night was a sage one. The summits of Pare, Tahurangi, Tukino and Te Heu Heu were summitted by the peak baggers despite the wind. Meanwhile, the ice climbing contingent was having less success. We had quickly decided that climbing on the thin ice on Cathedral Rocks in the wind conditions was not a good idea and headed optimistically back across the crater in the hope that the Tukino side would be sheltered. It wasn’t, but we had a go at one of the lines to the left of Tukino anyway because we were there. I lead the pitch but down-climbed after a couple of meters as things didn’t seem quite right – a mixture of inexperience and aerated fragile rime ice. Sunday saw a slight reversal of fortune with the ice climbing party having a successful climb of Gorilla - in very good condition - whilst the others practiced snow anchors and played cards. Everyone it seemed had a good weekend.

Paul Grimwood [Paragraphs are your friend – Ed.]

Taranaki Trip

In the few days after Christmas in 2005 Mike, Scotty and Tracey (later joined by John and Jo) headed up to Taranaki, and a long held plan to climb the crags on Taranaki came to fruition. The Taranaki crags are heralded as holding some of the best rock climbing in the North Island by those who climb there frequently. Yet the lengthy drive, the changeable weather conditions, and the long walk in have always consigned the Taranaki trip to the end of the list.

Well, it was worth the wait. The rock (once it has been released from the icy clutches of the winter snow and ice) offers the best crack climbing on the North Island. We found that the lower crags tended to have vegetation on the easy angled climbs, but locals assured us this disappears with increased traffic as the summer progresses. The upper crags had snow around them (we started climbing below the snowline) and the rock was ideal (but cold!).

The climbing is best from grade 18 – 22ish. There are loads of good 15m – 30m single pitch routes. There are heaps of gear placements, and lots of lovely cracks to jam your way up! And for a climber who has climbed everything they can at the Bay and Wharepapa, the highlight was having new routes to onsight!

Access to the crags was lengthy (from a cragrat’s perspective). Each day we warmed up with a minimum hour or so hike to the crags. But the spectacular views and fresh air made these tolerable, along with the fact we knew we had hot showers, comfortable beds, a fully functional kitchen, wine and refrigerated beer, and even a pool table to return to at the end of the day.

It was the four star accommodation in the ski club lodge that made the trip. We were able to drive to within ten minutes walk of the lodge, and then load our plentiful supplies onto a cable car to be carried to the lodge. Unfortunately for the ski club (but fortunately for us!) the lodge has a long history of being burnt down and reconstructed. Consequently, the current facilities are modern and luxurious (by a climbers standards), and quite economical. It was the perfect base for an extended post Christmas relaxing climbing trip with all the trimmings.

The climbing was great, and the trip as a whole was fantastic. So, as summer draws closer, do yourself a favour and put together a plan for a trip to one of the North Islands top crags.

[Thanks to Mike “slow hand” O'Brien for this submission. Obviously a slow writer – Ed]

Summer Rock is Back

Once again the Rock instruction course will be run again this year, lead again by Scott Taylor.
It will cover the basics of outdoor climbing on rock. By the end of the course you will have the skills to climb with style and grace, abseil, lead belay, lead climb on bolted routes and set up a slack line.

Approximate cost will be about $400. The course will be limited to 10 people. It will run from the end of Feb through to early April (dates to be confirmed)

Contact Blair Hiscoke (bh@ nzalpine.wellington.net.nz) or if you are really keen send your $50 deposit (with your name) to seal your place to :
'Summer Rock'
16 Manley Terrace
Newtown

VertiGO Via Email

Shortly (this month or next) national office will take over mailing VeritGO. “So what?” you say? Well this means that if you are a member, then nothing will change. If you are not a member, then you will no longer get VertiGo delivered to your InBox, but will instead need to go and get it off the NZAC Wellington Section website (www.nzalpine.wellington.net.nz)

Please send any feedback or issues to me at newsletter[at]nzalpine.wellington.net.nz

Your views are welcome

The Department of Conservation is currently reviewing Mount Aspiring National Park’s Management Plan. In order to gain as wide a range of views as possible, DOC would like to hear from park users about what they think makes the park special for mountaineering and tramping.

Your response to the following questions would be valued:

1.How valuable is the experience of climbing Mount Aspiring/Tititea and its neighbouring peaks?
2. Do you think that experience is sustainable over the next decade?
3.How does the value of climbing and tramping experiences in Mount Aspiring National Park differ from other national parks?
4.Is Mount Aspiring National Park still the home of what many describe as ‘the big trip?’

Your comments would be appreciated by 14 February 2007
Department of Conservation,
PO Box 5244
Dunedin
or aspiringreview@ doc.govt.nz

Mt Franklin : 11-15 October

The objective of the trip is to summit Mt Franklin, peak in the Nelson Lakes National Park.
Contact : themarshallz@ xtra.co.nz

Mueller Hut : 13-22 October - Mount Cook National Park.

We plan to walk up to Mueller Hut and use that as a base from which people can identify their own objectives and explore the surrounding peaks at a level appropriate to their experience. Trip leaders Dave Shanks and Amanda Redvers can offer advice about routes once at Mueller however rope teams should be able to climb autonomously. We hope to bivvy out at least one night, weather permitting.

Could anyone interested please organise their rope buddy + own gear as well as transport to Unwin Hut, Mount Cook Village where we will meet on the evening of 13th. We will leave for Mueller on Saturday 14th, weather permitting. You should also have snow shoes as the snow may be waist deep in places.
Contact: amanda.redvers@ ccdhb.org.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

There are still 2 places available on this trip, so hurry if you are keen.

China Trip: November

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 : 2007

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

For Sale

Koflach Boots Size 8 1/2
Approx 5 years old, $90
Contact Garth London, gl@nzalpine.wellington.net.nz

Lost

A very nice milti-blade pocket knife has been found near Blue Range Hut in the northern Tararua Ranges. It has the name BRIAN EVANS on it. Would the owner please call (06) 3049720 any evening except Monday.