Winter has rolled around but no one at WTMC seems to be hibernating. We’ve had great turn outs for Wednesday night club talks recently, and plenty of trips still heading out every weekend.
All About Alpine
Winter means the alpine-inclined amongst us start to get into action. During July Henry is running a sold-out Snowcraft course for twenty keen members, for which we had the first of two evening prep sessions this week.
Club Alpine Leaders had a pre-season get-together a few weeks ago. As a group we are keen to support each other and there was lots of discussion about how as a club we can help people stay safe on alpine trips. Here’s three things we’ve put in place:
- We’ve now set up an email group specifically for Alpine Leaders – if you’re on the list you’ll already have received a couple of emails. If you are an Alpine Leader and you’ve not received anything then let Richard know via and he will include you.
- We’re also compiling a mailing list of members who are alpine-ready, so we can get any alpine-specific information to the right people. If you have the relevant experience and want to be included on this list please let me know. If you’ve done WTMC Snowcraft in the last two years then we’ll automatically include you (you can always unsubscribe if you want to).
- We’ve got a shiny new page on the website especially for alpine trips which will in time not only list upcoming trips but also have additional information specifically related to these types of trips.
Expect to be grilled about your experience if you’re signing up to an alpine trip, especially if the leader doesn’t know you or hasn’t been out on the snow with you before. Being comfortable with your team is a crucial part of a successful alpine trip so you will probably want to talk to others going on the trip beforehand too.
Priorities for the new Committee
One of the tasks for the Committee at this point in the year is setting priorities for the year ahead. Some of our ideas so far include:
- How best to invest available funds (this includes any funds raised through the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival) – ideas include A24 traps, paying trapping trip fees, first aid training
- Promoting ways to reduce plastic use in our outdoor activities
- Paua Hut maintenance
If you have views on these or other suggestions then let me know. As I’ve said before, we’re happy to hear suggestions from club members for new initiatives or improvements to how things currently work. Given all the committee members already have assigned club duties to fulfil, such proposals generally have a much higher likelihood of becoming reality if you also offer to make them happen yourself!
Plastic Free July
Next month is ‘Plastic Free July’. I’m keen to reduce the amount of single-use plastic I use while tramping (and when not tramping too!). I imagine some of you already have some tips and tricks to help with this – if you feel like sharing them with us then you could use the WTMC Facebook page.
Buy your tickets for the NZMFF quick!
This year WTMC has again joined forces with VUWTC to bring the best of the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival films to Wellington. There are two nights of films 30th July and 2nd August. Buy tickets here.
Huge thanks to Megan for making this happen for another year running. The funds raised for the club go into scholarships for outdoor activities for our members so buying a film ticket is a win-win situation. Get in quick before they sell out!
‘Big ups’ to FMC
It’s the time of year to send out your FMC cards which should be with you shortly, along with the latest Backcountry bulletin (thanks to Garth for putting in the hours to stuff the envelopes). Your FMC card gets you lots of discounts – check out the back page of Backcountry for the list – including a discount on your DOC Annual Hut Pass.
FMC Membership has benefits for us as a club as well as individual members. FMC advocate on issues affecting all clubs so they have a really important role. This month we approached them with some questions around our club transport policy which are relevant to all clubs and they’ve been incredibly responsive and even published some guidelines for us and other clubs. Thank you FMC 😊
That’s it from me this month except to share that my June as been low on tramping adventures – Queen’s Birthday Weekend in the Tararuas seems a long time ago. But I did make it to Tiritirimatangi in the Hauraki Gulf for a wonderfully tuneful day tramp.
Emily.