‘NZ - Guiding’ Articles
Written by Mal Haskins on 05 May 2010
Thinking that you'd like to get out into the mountains but not sure how you'll go?
You've already been on a course or two and want to up skill yourself in a few particular areas?
The Private Instruction course may just be the thing for you. Alpine Guides runs a number of different courses aimed at different levels but the Private Instruction (PI) course allows you to adjust a program to suit your own level and needs.
Recently James and Linda came to Alpine Guides for a taste of Mountaineering and to see how they like to spend time in the big hills. We headed up to Kelman Hut at the head of the Tasman Glacier and spent 6 days wandering around, learning the essentials of staying safe on the glaciers and surrounding peaks as well as getting to the top of a few as well.
At the end of Day 6 we beat a hasty retreat out of the hills as some of the worst weather NZ has seen in many years was slowly making its way onto the South Island. As we flew out in the helicopter we were treated to a rare site – a full grown Bull Thar was for some reason hanging out on the glacier!
As the weather was threatening we made the move south to Wanaka where James and Linda got to grips with a little bit of sport climbing and abseiling. All in all a great trip with some spectacular weather and awesome glacial conditions meant that James and Linda were able to get a very good taste of what NZ mountaineering was all about. A great way to spend a Holiday – although the pair were thinking that next time they might have a holiday that didn't involve sleeping bags and cold temperatures!
Check out the trip Image Gallery!
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Written by Mal Haskins on 02 March 2010
I was up playing on the head of the Tasman Glacier last week with Tom Chew – an American climber, living in Hong Kong. We meet up in the Alpine Guides office – got a few things sorted and shot off to the airport to catch a ride to Tasman Saddle Hut.
The plan was to be up there for 6 days – do some climbing – learn a few skills and then walk out the Tasman Glacier with a bivy on the white ice to reduce the heat on the walk out over the moraine.
After getting into the Tasman we wandered over to the base of the rib leading up to Walter Peak. With the slushy conditions it meant that we had a good trail for the morning and were also able to get a good pathway through the open crevasse fields guarding the access onto the route. The sunset on cook that evening was simply spectacular!
The morning was cool with a good freeze for our climb. The actual climb itself was pretty straight forward although the bottom part of the rib has a few crevasses to negotiate. The upper mountain also has one or two LARGE shrunds to climb around but the main summit was airy and fun to walk up. Currently there is no snow on the peak – only old ice.
The surrounding peaks looked great – though bereft of any snow and with alot of rock coming down in places. The sky was clear and the ocean was visible – with a pair of good bino's I'm sure we could have seen surfers playing on the waves!
Our next few days were interuptted with a pretty good warm front that put down lots of rain. We did manage to get out of the hut however and go practice crevasses extraction and a few other skills. A visit over the Kelman hut was also part of the program!
On the second last day we went down and did some ice climbing in the lower Tasman Icefall before starting the walk out to the end of the White Ice. Along the way we found the old Snow Groomer that was deposited on the glacier way back when there were plenty of ski plan landings! Was a weird thing to see sitting on the glacier!
The walk out over the lower moraine was actually quite fast with pretty good going to be had by crossing to the tru right of the Tasman and walking across the Hochstetter before crossing near the end of the Mueller Glacier and onto Gully.
The access up and down Garbage Gulley (which is near the old Ball Shelter Site) isn't getting any better – it's probably getting steadily worse.
What was shaping up to be a long walk out was shortend considerably by a pick up by Sandra in the Alpine Guides vehicle!
Overall all a great trip with a wicked summit!
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Written by Mal Haskins on 02 February 2010
The weather could only be described as amazingly great! From the 20th of January to the 29th of January we only had 1 day of bad weather. This TMC was made up of pretty kewl crew of people
Chris
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Raphael
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Jenny
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Ashley
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The week covered a whole host of basic skills and which culminated in the crew taking themselves up and over Hochstetter Dome. We also climbed Able, Mabel and Alymer, topping it off with a mornings ice climbing in the icefall below the Tasman Neve.
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Self Arrest Practice
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Down Climbing into the Shrund on Hochstetter Dome
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The Crew waiting for a flight out.
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The Condition on the Glacier and access to routes (besides Eli De-Beaumont) seems suprisingly good. The recent hot weather did significantly open a a few more slots though.
Overall we were up in the hills for 7 nights and 8 days – we were out on most days and the team dug themselves into the snow one night. Of course the Laser show and Ashley's laser beam won't be forgotten. And to top it off we enjoyed a great bottle of Whiskey that turned up in the most mysterious circumstances …
TMC 10 IMAGE GALLERY
This particular course is called a TMC and is run through – ALPINE GUIDES – click through to check out what is on offer.
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Written by Mal Haskins on 07 January 2010
5th January 2010
Prior to the 5th Mt Cook took a good NW storm in the face. The Storm was strong with a Freezing Level sitting about 3000m.
Jake Childs says "The Storm came through on the 3rd with a high freezing level – it rained hard … The freezing level dropped on the 4th and we had a window to climb on the evening of the 4th and 5th"
The Summit Rocks and Summit slopes had been plastered by ice and rimming. Good polystyrene snow and ice screws gave protection but all the Summit Rock cables had to be dug out. – Cheers Marty!
A number of guided parties were also going to make an attempt as well. Jake Childs and Aaron Whitehead reached the False Summit, as the cloud above Aoraki and wind started to increase they backed off at this point. A guided party also turned back here with the rest of the climbers on the mountain turning back lower on the climb. The False summit is about 150m lower than the true summit.
Jake and Aaron walked out on the morning of the 6th – the next front caught them on the moraine wall below the Boyse Glacier – the violent winds gave them a good bashing – they also walked in on New Years Day via the Haast Ridge.
Image Gallery
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Written by Mal Haskins on 07 January 2010
A big Congratulations to Toshsi and Yoko Matsuroba of Japan for summiting on the Nun's Veil (2700m) on Tuesday. We had a perfect little weather window and a perfect little camp site up high on the snow.
Conditions on the Nun were fairly firm with a large Shrund across the lower face forcing us to move into the rock gully on the right of the upper mountain and onto the rocky ridge above.
Nun's Veil is a pretty awesome little mountain to summit – the upper mountain has about 200m of steepish climbing leading to either a short rock face, a rock glley and ridge or exposed face depending on your final choice of route. The summit is broad with easy shallow slopes leading up to it.
Snow exists most of the way down to the Bottom of Gorrilla Stream and travel down the lower gulley should be fast – however watchout for rock fall!
Click here to view the fully gallery
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Written by Mal Haskins on 09 December 2009
There's a been a flurry of activity in Mt Cook
The 4th of December saw Mt Cook being hammered from all sides by 6 different climbing parties.
- northwest coloir
- hooker face
- north ridge-
- the linda glacier
- zubriggans ridge
- east ridge
There were also 2 rescues carried out recently – one with a broken ankle on the Terminator Butress and another due to exhaustion and being overdue on the Footstool.
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Written by Mal Haskins on 07 December 2009
Snow Conditions It is generally good cramponing early in the am with good freezes occuring on most clear nights. Access onto routes seem generally good with shrunds still well bridged and strong. Routes them selves vary and nearly all steep ice routes are now probably well out of condition.
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 Mt Cook / Tasman
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Access
- The Hooker valley is in great shapr right now. Over the last week there have been trips up the north ridge / solo missions on Dampier and a rescue on Nazomi.
- Mt Cook has some funky crevasses at the base of the Linda Glacier which makes you need to put yourself under the ice cliffs on Silberhorn etc.
- Eli Debeaumont still looks accessable and Walter/Green both look amazing.
Avalanche
A relativley large amount of snow still exists on steep faces that are normally rock in summer. Be quite aware of large wet slides on North facing aspects over the next few weeks of the season
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 Sunrise – Murchison Headwall
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 The Upper Tasman glacier
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Right now it seems like good overall conditions for general mountaineering – have fun
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Written by Mal Haskins on 20 November 2009
Spring has sprung here in New Zealand and it’s windy – very very very windy. I have to ask myself some times just why the hell I came back from Nepal to play in NZ when it is so windy?
Anyway – am heading into the hills from the 23rd to run a Technical Mountaineering Course (TMC) for Alpine Guides. AGL is based out of Mt Cook village – lovely place to come and hang out, sift and watch the weather for a window of opportunity to go play in the hills.
In general the conditions in the mountains is pretty good. We’ve had heaps of snow this spring which should set access up well into the summer.
I’ll put up some image of conditions when I get back out.
CIAO
MAL
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Thinking that you'd like to get out into the mountains but not sure how you'll go?
