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General Climbing Discussion

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Christchurch to Mount Cook Village 25-Oct-2006 At 11:03:29 AM Andrew_M

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There are some small shuttle services that seem to only advertise through brochures in backpacker accom etc who run cheap non-stop services to Cook Village. The sightseeing service is good to do once...and only once...after that you'll grimace every time you hear about McKenzie and his bloody sheepdog :)

The DoC office should be open on a Sunday arvo since the vistors never stop coming, but it should be easy enough to find their contact details on the web to confirm.

The upper Tasman is a good plan if your'e checking out Cook NP for the first time. You can do the walk out in one longish day (8-12+ hours depending on conditions etc...) or you can break it at either de la Beche hut or bivy in the Beetham Valley. If you know you've got stable weather a bivy in the Beetham is fantastic. Great place. There are a couple of good bivy rocks (though a couple of years ago the best one was inhabited by a dead and rather smelly goat...should be a bit less smelly now...). On the lower Tasman the moraine is pretty horrible so get beta either from the DoC office, alpine guides or the guides in Kelman hut (there will almost certainly be instructional groups there). If it hasn't changed in the last couple of years make sure you find the feature known as the 'Magic V' which is an easy path through the lower tasman moraine...well worth finding.

Oh yeah, make sure you watch Vertical Limit and see if you can match up the sites with the peaks around Kelman...good for a laugh.

Have a blast!

ANdrew