Ball Pass – Mount Cook

Flying into Christchurch late Friday we had two days and a dodgy weather forecast to get ourselves over Ball Pass. Three of the group had gone ahead early, which left six of us arriving on the 8:15 pm flight to grab the two remaining cars and drive to Mt Cook. The weather on the way … Read more

Mt Rolleston – Arthurs Pass

Accompanied by a light westerly and drizzle we pulled our packs out of the car, switched on our head torches and headed up the Coral track. This could be a short, steep, sticky night time jaunt to the bush line and back if the wind doesn’t abate we joked, philosophical about our chances. Unlike previous … Read more

Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku – Inland Kaikouras

The journey to Mt. Tappy is one of the highlights of the WTMC winter schedule and this year was no exception. The trip got off to a poor start from a punctuality viewpoint as we arrived into Picton 90 mins late at half past midnight. The ferry staff put on free fish n chips to … Read more

Mt Cupola

I looked at the weather forecast on the Monday and it looked alright. Rain on the Friday and Sunday and clear on the Saturday, the climbing day By Tuesday the forecast had gone rotten, two fronts passing through one hitting on our Saturday. I sorted out a good book and made sure we had some … Read more

Alpine Refresher

This year we decided to schedule an alpine refresher weekend ahead of the snow courses, the idea being that instructors would get in some practice before the courses started. However, with Snowcraft cancelled due to a lack of numbers, the weekend evolved into an opportunity for people who had previously done an AIC or Snowcraft … Read more

Mix and Mingle with Bush Lawyer Crumble

There were three, or maybe four, punters signed up for the Mt Luna fit trip. At the last moment two punters signed up for the med–fit trip. Hence the fit group heading over Luna divided back into a fit and med-fit party, who then re-molded together as one group made up of two separate groups, … Read more

A trip to the Gardens

Whenever I sign up for a trip like this it is because I have absolutely no idea what the trip is apart from there will be some glaciers and ice plateaus and so “yes please” pops out well before my rational side can pipe in with “Hmmm well that must also mean crossing some potentially … Read more

Alpine Courses Update

This year the Club again ran both an Alpine Instruction Course and a Snowcraft course. We had 6 people on the AIC and 14 doing Snowcraft so a total of 20 students. At the time of writing we had just completed the Snowcraft course while the AIC still had its final weekend to go. We enjoyed two brilliant … Read more