With Amanda Wells, Chief Guide
It’s already time to start thinking about the Spring schedule, which runs from September to the end of January. This time, we’re going to do the planning slightly differently.
At the moment, we’re looking for ideas of road ends. You don’t have to specify the trip(s), just a road end that you think it would be inspiring for the club to visit. Perhaps somewhere we haven’t been for a while, or perhaps somewhere closer to home that you think might have some relatively unexplored potential.
By early July, I’ll have drawn up the skeleton of the Spring schedule, with road ends against each date.
Phase two is planning the actual trips. On Wednesday 7 July, we’re going to have a trip planning meeting from 5.30pm onwards before club, at the club rooms. There will be free pizza! The purpose of this gathering will be to plan trips for every road end on the new schedule – people will break into pairs or small groups, pick a road end or two, and come up with a selection of differently graded trips. There will be resources there on the night to help (books, maps, the club’s trip database on a couple of laptops – plus any other resources you can bring), so you don’t have to be a route-planning pro (though they are definitely welcome!).
How can you help?
- Email your ideas of road ends to by early July
- Put Wednesday 7 July @ 5.30pm in your diary – or if you can’t come in person, there will be opportunities to pick a road end and participate by email, just let me know. Please put your thinking caps on so that we can have an exciting, diverse Spring schedule!
On another note, the Mountain Safety Council offers a number of useful courses for trampers. Coming up soon are Basic Navigation (2, 9, 16 August in the evenings, plus a day trip on 22 August – total cost $105) and Outdoor First Aid (27-29 August, $200). We’re planning to run another club first aid course next year, but this is an excellent option if you want to upskill before then. Check out the training section of http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz for more info and to book.
This year, we’ve cancelled our formal Snowcraft course because punter numbers were down significantly on previous years. We’re still running AIC this year – thanks heaps to Sharron and David and the other instructors for all the work they put in here – and Snowcraft will be back on the agenda in 2011.