Seaward Kaikoura Range

View over Mt Fyffe to Kaikoura peninsula from Snowflake summit. Photo credit: Mathew D

Thursday We piled onto the Thursday afternoon ferry, and the group started to get to know each other. We had a good mix of new and more experienced group members, including Harry and Paul, who had both attempted Snowflake via this route before – notably before the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake https://wtmc.org.nz/trip-report/slippery-snowflake/. We had a good … Read more

Te Heuheu with a pack of dinosaurs

“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” This quote came to my mind as I approached the summit of Te Heuheu via Pinnacle Ridge, something I never dreamed I would be doing.  I was once again chasing dinosaurs up the mountain on a … Read more

Learning the Skills and Tools of Alpine Travel with Hillary Outdoors

A few weeks back I enjoyed a special opportunity to firm up some alpine skills with the support of a WTMC scholarship on a Hillary Outdoors alpine instruction course. The two days up at Ruapehu were a nice crash course in travelling in a mixed alpine environment practising the tools of the trade. Our first … Read more

Mt Aspiring/Tititea

The usual trio of Elisabet, Nick and myself had been talking about Aspiring for at least a year, and plans finally came together for Christmas 2018. It was on. We’d had the helicopter booked for months, I’d be in Wanaka on the 26th, Nick and Elisabet would fly down to meet me, we’d have a … Read more

Cathedral Rocks Climbing

We had a slower than usual trip out of Wellington Friday, but it was made all the more interesting by a well contested game of ‘I spy’, initiated by a fellow travel buddy Oliver (who was travelling up with his Dad Simon for a weekend of the “going downhill fast in a good way” variety. … Read more

Snowcraft 2018

INTRODUCTION Snowcraft 2018 is now complete, with 20 students participating in this introductory course to moving safely and efficiently in an alpine environment. While still following the familiar and established course format of theory sessions mixed with two weekends on the mountain, we progressed with the emphasis introduced last year on keeping the skills relevant … Read more

Traversing Travers, konquering Kehu

Taking an extra day off work for this adventure was bittersweet – 6 interested punters were whittled down to just 3 as we were the only ones who could get the time off before the closing date for the trip. However in the end we were glad we did it as we ended up with … Read more