Alpine Guides Ski Mountaineering Course

Hey all,

Well after a nice rest day yesterday i figure i can give you a bit of an update on how the course went! The SMC is aimed at covering glacier travel, snow anchors, snow safety, navigations etc. and is run by Alpine Guides out of Mount Cook Village. Our Guide for the week was Scott Walker.

Day 1:

The day dawned fine and sunny, with a heavy frost covering the valley floor around Unwin Hut. Me and Joel (fellow course participant i had meet the previous night at unwin hut) cooked up a brew, and some tasty poridge for breaky before getting the final bits of gear sorted and packed for an 8:30 departure. We were picked up and ferried to Alpine Guides Ltd (AGL) under the hermitage in Mt cook village. We had a gear check and grabbed any hire gear we required such as snow stakes, ice screws, crampons etc. We also meet our guide Scott for the week. He immeadiately began giving my crap for being a telemark skier! After getting all the gear sorted we headed down to Mt cook airport for the flight in on a Pilatus Porter ski plane. After weighing all out gear, and gearing up for the cold temps up high we were looking pretty silly, and all sorted with ski boots, jackets, and harness on!

The ski plane departed at around 12:30, and we were quickly in the air and heading up the tasman glacier. The view was amazing to say the least as Mt Cook cruised by the window, and the Malte Brune range stretched out on the left side with the tasman glacier running along below us! The plane touched down on tasman saddle landing site and we quickly unloaded out gear and food, and re-loaded a pile of waste to be flown back to Mt Cook. The plane departed and an eerie silence fell over us as the engine slowly droned out of sight. We started the short slog up to kelman hut, over loaded with food for the week. The skin up took around 10mins and we quickly made ourselves comfy, grabbed some lunch and headed on up to the col above kelman hut for a 500m Vert ski down to the rest of the food. The view from the coll was awesome, with a gnarly 1000m+ drop down to the murchison glacier! The ski down was possibly gnarlier with a killer breakable crust from an extended warm period for the last few weeks. Their was a good surface haw formed on the shady slopes.

We skied down avoiding the small slots below Kelman hut, and picked up the last of the food and headed on up to the hut for the night! Day one was good, hot and sunny, we had a brew, cooked some dinner and headed in for the night!

Loading up at Mt Cook Airport (Cam foreground, Joel Behind)

Mt Cook on the ski plane ride in.

The Tasman Glacier stretching out below.

Skinning up from the landing site to Kelman Hut

View down from col abvoe Kelamn hut.
 Photo does not do the drop justice.

Day 2:
Well its been a long time in the mnaking so i thought i would let ya know about day 2. Day dawned nice and sunny, with a low of around -10 over night. The sky was thick with horse tail clouds indicating some nasty weather on the way soon. We got some breaky and made our way out for an into to glacier travel and a bit of skiing. We skinned up to the col above kelman hut and had a good run down to just below tasman saddle. We put the skins on and started up, checking out the murchison glacier headwall on the way, their were still some big slots down the headwall, but a definately skiable line. We skinned up to the berschrund below mount alymer and exchanged the skis for crampons and rope and made out way up Alymers arete ridgeline. As we toped out the wind was building and rime was forming on everything, beards, eyebrowns, jackets. We made a quick descent practicing some down climbing, and a neat belay technique the kiwi stomp! Once at the skis we got the skins off, and had a nice decent in some nasty breable crust down to cornice wall where a group of 10 british amry guys were dug in in snow caves, not the brightest tools in the shed as they were camping on a known avalanche path with a big storm approaching, trust the army! We checked their caves out and heades down to the serac's below tasman saddle hut and had a good stuff around their. The weather at this stage was pushing over the main divide so we made a b line back to kelman hut and got in at around 6pm as the wind started getting well above 80kph and the cloud closed in.

Ping, summit of Mt Alymer, nice and easy.

The team getting rime building up on them already.

Self potrait, jungle cloud pushing through behind

Seracs below tasman saddle hut.

Day 3, 4,  5, 6:
Ah right so the next 4 days were not so exciting. We had planned to do a ski decent of hocsetter dome and elle de beaumont however a good old mountain storm had different ideas. Instead we were effectively hut bound for 4 days. We did get enough of a break in the weather to do lots and lots of beacon practice for multiple burials, which was good. We also snuck 3 or 4 mint runs down the small bowl next to Kelman hut in some nice pow pow. Lessons covered veried topics including high mountain navigation, crevass rescue, weather forcasting, snow science, snow anchors and snow shelter. Me and Joel made the biggest demon of a snow bollard in light powder snow that held 4 people reefing on it, we played around with ice screw placement and made many a v thread. Finally, out of shear bodermon me and scott decided to try and cut a massive cornice over hanging a 300m cliff next to the hut. We failed unfortunately after about 2 hours of slog....

Anyways suffice to  say Kelman hut was bloody cold, and we were well sick of it by day 6.

Day 7:
As if on que the weather started breaking up at around 4pm on day 6. By day 7 it was bluebird with nice pow pow left from the previous torm. Stability was ok on slopes <30ish degrees. So we made some sweet tracks after packing up and headed down to the Darwin icefall to learn some ice climbing techniques. We put in a bunch of screw placements, and did some bouldering on <5m ice blocks. I learnt about how shit telemark boots are for front pointing....and how hard it is to place and ice screw while trying to stand on you 1/4 inch front points from the tele boots....After this we skied down past the darwin glacier almost to de la beche hut and got picked up by a chopper on a backload, and whisked away to reality once again....

Sunrise day 7

Chopper ride out day 7. 5 people, and packs in a squirrel!

Sunrise day 7. Tasman sea in the distance.

Kelman hut, sunrise day 7.

Storm clearing day 6

Queenstown to Mt cook

View on the way down to QT
just north of Tekapo

So have returned from my first stint in the the hills. Have broken the trip report in to two parts. First is the breif visit i made down to queenstown with loz and her mate kelly from wa. We left on the 14th and headed on down to qt, the weather was absolutely mint, with bluebird skies due to the large anti-cyclonic high sitting over NZ and the tasman sea. We headed into the dux delux for a pint of ginger tom and formulated a plan of attach for the 15th. Unfortunately anti cyclones are good for sun, and bad for snow. Remarakables was less than remarable from all acounts with lots of stone in the snow surface. We choose to spend up big a cardrona as it had the best of a bad bunch. The days skiing was good with the run of the day being the fresh groomers under captains chair early in the morning. The rest of the day was spent skiing chopped up man made, or killer breakable crust! I think the highlight of the day was when we were walking into town that night seeing a young mad, obviously off his face on some substance running around in a bright pink morph suit, struggling to stay up right. Just as ran/stumbled by us a nice new 4WD went by and beeped, and yelled something at him. We continued on to piuc kelly up from Nomads backpackers. While waiting in the reception low and behold morph suit man came storming through and was quickly ushered back to his dorm. A minute or so later morph suit mans dad, who was driving the 4WD and just happened to be heading through town with the family stormed in. Kelly rocked up to reception, it turned out morph suit man had made a good job of re-painting the walls and ceiling with projectile vomit. All class. We left the idiots to their own devices.

Loz and Kelly skiing at cardrona.

The following day on the 16th we arose early for a mission to the un-remarkables. We we amped up and early, being the 3rd car in the parking lot. We spent 10 mins looking and decided out $70NZD would be better spent else where (luckily they got saome more snow since). We headed on down and packed some food and headed to wanaka. Spent the day crusing and checked out puzzle world which was quite cool. We headed on back to qt. This being kelly's pseudo birthday we headed out to winnies for dinner. The lamb and mexican pizza was tops!

View from Unwin Hut, Mt cook is hidden behind the centre mountain.

The next day dawned fine and sunny, and it was time to leave qt and head to Mt cook. I can say i was happy to see the back of qt, good skiing (with snow) average town. We trucked along and got a bite to eat in Twizel before crusing down to Mt cook village where i rapidly sorted bits and pieces and made ready for the hills. Loz dropped me off at Unwin hut NZAC Member $15, Non $25 per night) and i fluffed around read some mags and sorted my gear. Two fellas one my mountaineering course were also their Joel, and Cam. Me and joel made the demon pasta meal for dinner while cam headed to town for a beer. Chile bean pig dog pasta, what a delight! Anyways suffice to say unwin hut is tip top, goot beds, shower, awesome kitchen, laundry and internet for $15 a night. Tip Top! Right so i will finish up their as i have to disapear into chch and pick some rope, ice screws, and crampons up and will fill you in about 7 days at Kelman hut soon! Hope everyone is well and good!

Finally in NZ

Well have finally made it to NZ, flew over the Southern alps and they were plastered in snow, looking very nice! Have spent the last day or so sorting stuff out over here. Did some food shopping, made some muesli bars, did the final gear sort before heading south! Going to try a few new things this trip food wise. I have purchased a selection of dried beans, quinoa, chia seeds, lentils and rice. Will brew up a large load of bean for a coupole of days, and stew them in my insulated cooker. Flavour them up with some taco seasoning, paprika, and cumin. Also have some pasta packs, and extra pasta, and some uncle bens rissoto packs. Have been trying to keep weight to a minimum as i will be carrying everything, with no gear split between a group as usual! I have had to ditch the tent for this trip as it just wont fit. When i set up base out on the craigieburns the tent will some into its own! However for now the bivy bag will suffice! As i said before i cooked up some muesli/energy bars, Loz got a reciepe for them from one of her work mates, and it goes a bit like this... Tararua Biscuits

• 250gram Butter
• 0.5 Can of condensed milk
• 1.5 Cups of Brown Sugar

Melt together over low heat until a nice smooth brown syrup is made. Stir while heating. Add to the following dry ingredients.

• 2 Cups of rolled oats 2 Cups of flour
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 0.5 cup of coconut

Spread on a flat greased try until about 0.5 inches thick. A sharp tapping motion with the back of a desert spoon works great. Wack into a preheted over (160 deg) for 20mins or until a golden colour. Cut into squares while still warm! Enjoy.

Alright then, this will be me signing off for a bit. The next post should be a trip report of my adventures in Queenstown and Mt Cook area. I will leave you with some parting shots of the final gear sort in Christchurch!

Food for a week...mmmm carbs!

Some Backcountry tours...

Well the best i can do while i get increasingly toey for a ski is read up on it... Have been reading the NZAC club book on ski touring in NZ by James Broadbent. Tip top book. Has some awesome looking trips. Just to throw some ideas down about what i have been marking off...

• Lewis Pass tops - Set a base camp for the night (or two) Perhaps a trip to the hotsprings down the valley afterwards...
• Craigieburn Range - Full traverse over 4-5 days. Setting a base camp up and just enjoying some good bowls. Doesnt really matter if dont make the whole traverse.
• Black peak tour - Looks awesome 3-4 days out of treble cone.
• Mt Hutt back basins - Set a base camp up for a couple of days.
• Dumbell Lake - Ski for a day at Ohau skifield then set up camp just out of ski field. Head into Dumbell lake and set up a nice base camp for a couple of days.
• Remarkables bakc basin - Once again set out from remarables ski area and set up base camp over the ridge 2-3 days would be good.
• Mt cook area - Really keen to get up their so if anyone is doing anything i would be keen!

Right, so thats some of the news. In other news training has taken a bad blow this week. I had a bit of a fall and smashed my head pretty bad on monday, concusion etc. Head is still tender and does not like jogging. Hopefully it will be better tommorow. Have still been keeping up the lunges and doing some aerobic on my bike. Up to around 300 lunges in 3 sets of 100. My achilles seems to be ok now. It was tight after a 14km run the other day, but after two days rest its back to normal, and was fine doing hill climbing with the pack on, so fingers crossed is bye bye to tendonitis!

Got my gear packed the other day. Holly cow. Have ditched my old set of G3 Baron skis, and my second set of poles. Only taking my Synergy ski boots. Leave the energys at home i think. Still i have 20kg in my ski bag (all my climbing gear, crampons, ice axes, and tent etc.) and 15kg in my check in pack. And 7kg in my carry on. Total of 42kg. Hoping they wont mind me taking a ski boot on as carry on. Will have to see i suppose! Anyways suppose i better go do something constructive now...