Alpine review 2022-23

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What you need to know

While no incident occurred, a report identifying issues and proposed recommendations was provided by a club member to the Committee late last year, which prompted WTMC to undertake a review of how we run club alpine trips and training. The review resulted in new club policies to formalise club processes and improve safety on alpine trips.

The new club policies for alpine trips include:

  • Overall expectations for club alpine trips;
  • Eligibility criteria and responsibilities for alpine trip leaders and alpine participants respectively;
  • Processes to select and support alpine trip leaders;
  • A risk assessment template to be completed for each trip;
  • Updated online sign up forms for alpine trips.

Going forward, all alpine trip leaders and participants will be required to read and comply with these policies .

Thank you to the Wellington section of the New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC) for sharing their policies and template with us, and to the several club members who contributed to this process.

Any questions or comments can be addressed to Jon () or Anne ().

Summit plateau and Tukino, Ruapehu (2022)

Review process

WTMC undertook a review of how we run alpine trips and training, which included:

  • a review of the report and recommendations by a panel of three, who also made recommendations;
  • discussions with the Mountain Safety Council on what good practice looks like, where they shared a number of resources relating to requirements for alpine guides and outdoor providers;
  • gathering information and learning from previous known incidents on alpine trips (including other clubs);
  • reaching out to FMC for guidance (none available but a relevant article came out in the June edition of the backcountry magazine in response to our request);
  • discussions with clubs in the Wellington region on current club alpine practices, including relating to trip leader and participant selection, trip planning, risk management and gear on club alpine trips;
  • closer collaboration with NZAC Wellington, who also agreed for WTMC to use NZAC policies as a basis to develop our own written policies.

This process highlighted that while a number of our club practices were broadly in line with other clubs (e.g. trip leader or participant selection etc), we did not have written policies or formal club processes for alpine trips. This means that expectations for trip leaders and participants could be unclear, and we did not have a standardised way of assessing risks for alpine trips. It also created a risk of inconsistent practices overtime, for example with changes on the committee or new alpine leaders.

As a result, a few club members with alpine training developed alpine policies to bring some structure to club alpine trips and how risks are identified and managed, while also incorporating the learnings from the process above. The draft policies were reviewed by several alpine trip leaders and their comments were incorporated.

Through this process we also built closer links with NZAC and going forward we are hoping to continue strengthening this collaboration and better support each other with both alpine trips and training. 

New alpine policies

The Committee approved the new alpine policies at the July committee meeting, which are now filed alongside other club policies, under the About > Governance tab. New alpine policies include:

Alpine training

Snowcraft

You might also have noticed that we are not running a snowcraft course this year. This is both due to our lead instructor stepping down, and also wanting to take a step back and reassess whether and how we run alpine training. We are hoping to run an in-house snowcraft next year if possible, although the format is yet to be confirmed.

Avalanche training

Everyone is encouraged to complete the MSC Avalanche Online Course (free), as an introduction or refresher on avalanche safety.

Please also consider taking an avalanche course if you don’t have formal avalanche training yet – it’s an important component of safety in the alpine environment. The list of providers is available on the MSC website.

On the North Island, Hillary Outdoors is running an avalanche awareness course (1 day) on Monday 14 August 2023.
If you sign up please email to let us know – so we can help coordinate transport and accommodation.

WTMC scholarships for alpine training

Remember that active club members who give back to the club may be eligible for a WTMC scholarship to help with the cost of external training. For example, this could be use for beginner or intermediate alpine skills courses, avalanche training or alpine leadership training.

Preparing for the 2023 alpine season

We are hoping to start publishing proposed club alpine trips in the coming weeks. These will be made available on the alpine trips page.
If you are a NZAC member, the NZAC alpine schedule has already been published by the Wellington section.

What you can do now:

Crater lake, Ruapehu (2021)