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mountaineering courses in NZ

rodeo

10-Aug-2006
11:38:40 AM

just wondering what people reccommend as the most comprehensive mountaineering course in NZ, everyone talks about alpine guides TMC, buti was also looking at adventure consultants 12 day alpine expedition course, has anyone done these before, or can they reccomend other courses instead? thanks

Climboholic

13-Aug-2006
10:26:32 AM

I'm also looking in to NZ Mountaineering courses for the ADFA Mountaineering club in Jan 08. Let us know what you find out.

Apparently, the satisfaction you get out of the course depends on the experience level of the group. The guides have to go as slow as the least knowledgeable person. So it pays to organise a group of the same experience and to gain as many skills as you can before going.

Ell

13-Aug-2006
6:16:34 PM

Totally agree. My and my mate were lucky that we had a 2:1 client:guide ratio. Definitely made for a much better experience!

Macpacgirl

15-Aug-2006
1:41:25 PM

i did the alpine guide 10 dayer in 2002 - it was brilliant, my friend did it in 2003 and hated it.

Robb

15-Aug-2006
2:00:04 PM

Some guys I know did the alpine rec course. shorter, cheaper and run from the caroline hut. Apparently they didnt spend much time on the glaciers due to weather or proximity of hut to glaciers. They went back the following year to NZ intent on consolidating their skills but ended up spending more time in the pub due to not really having the confidence to venture into the hills. This is the key in my opinion. you need the basic skills to give you confidence to get out there and spend that time in the hills.
I never did a course, just learnt from others and still alive. Not a path i'd fully recommend but you have to get out there on your own at some point and consolidate.
Aspiring guides, alpine guides and a few others, geoff whyatt used to run some good courses apparently are all names to look into.
cheers
Rob

JohnK

15-Aug-2006
2:48:20 PM

another thing to consider is where the course is run. Ideally you want to do a course in the same area you are likely to go back and climb in. Same with the walking out bit. do a course where you have to walk out rather than fly out. The best part about the TMC courses by Alpine Guides is the location and the fact that mostly they fly in and walk out from the Upper Tasman. Getting experience in the Tasman Glacier area means that you will be confident after the course in venturing into an area on your own where you can spend many years afterwards ticking some of NZ's best peaks.
As someone else said, if you can get into a course with smaller numbers of people at your level that's the best. Simply find out from the school how many bookings they have for each date and what sort of people they have booked. So if it's a very large group with only begginers, then shuffle yourself to another date, or get together with some friends and hire a personal guide to teach you.

jonorock

15-Aug-2006
3:08:44 PM

It is a long walk down the Tasman Glacier at the end of a 10 day trip (for most people anyway). Although it is probably good to do it once then you will never want to do it again. If you have had a week of bad weather and not much climbing you are going to want to be climbing rather than walking down the Tasman Glacier. My guess is that from Kelman Hut a guide would allow 1.5-2 days for a group to get down.

I have done the walk from Kelman Hut (upper Tasman glacier) to Mt Cook Village twice.
THe second time we were stuck in the hut for 8 days straight. Could not see more than 100m outside, had to hang on for your life just to get to the toilet and the hut was struck by lightning almost every night. Almost completely out of food on about the 9th morning the weather cleared slightly and we ran down the Tasman for a few hrs. As soon as we reached the moraine the weather completely closed in again, I fell in a hole, twisted my ankle, climbed back out of hole, slept on a pile of rocks, it rained, got hungry and dragged my sorry self to Mt Cook Village the next morning (actually it took all day).

JohnK

15-Aug-2006
3:40:48 PM

>THe second time we were stuck in the hut for 8 days straight. Could not
>see more than 100m outside, had to hang on for your life just to get to
>the toilet and the hut was struck by lightning almost every night. Almost
>completely out of food on about the 9th morning the weather cleared slightly
>and we ran down the Tasman for a few hrs. As soon as we reached the moraine
>the weather completely closed in again, I fell in a hole, twisted my ankle,
>climbed back out of hole, slept on a pile of rocks, it rained, got hungry
>and dragged my sorry self to Mt Cook Village the next morning (actually
>it took all day).

That's a great story Jonathan! I have to admit I have been a bit more fortunate in breaking it up and spending a night at De Bache hut before going to Mt Cook village. However I did walk in the rain for a day going the other way from Ball Shelter to De LaBeche hut last Xmas and went the wrong way thus spending 7 hrs bashing through morraine ice cliffs & huge holes!

Don't let all these stories scare you Rodeo. Walking out of the Tasman might be hard the first time but it's good preperation for anything else you plan on doing and it gets far easier every time afterwards. If you want to visually see this area including photos from a TMC by Alpine Guides in the upper tasman and walking out go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkazanas/sets/544526/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnkazanas/sets/1758356/

rodeo

16-Aug-2006
12:59:53 PM

wow those photos looks awesome, i really wanna go now!

nikolisper

18-Aug-2006
1:43:32 PM

Yeah, thanks very much JohnK.. I just spent my whole morning looking at your pics. Some really cool stuff in there.

sliianna

22-Aug-2006
4:56:55 PM

there has been a similar thread on this topic where ppl talked about many of these courses- i did an 8 day one with alpine guides at FOX- called alpine ascents course. have a look at that old thread

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