For the past couple of months we (the 6 AIC students) have been heading off into the mountains with a team of dedicated (and highly skilled!) instructors to learn how to safely climb challenging snowy peaks. The Alpine Instruction Course, run by Sharron Came together with this years instructors (Allen Higgins, David Jewell, John Duggan and Yibai He) consisted of a day of indoor climbing, a day of rock climbing out at Titahi Bay followed by 3 weekends in the snow – 2 weekends based at our club lodge on Mt Ruapehu and one weekend based at the Kapuni lodge on Mt Egmont. Weekends were spent walking and climbing up and down snowy peaks, getting our heads around various knots, rope work, snow anchors and crevasse extraction techniques!
I highly recommend this course to those of you who have an interest in taking your snowcraft training further – to gain more confidence out in the snow and to learn how to safely tackle steep, icy slopes! Bring with you enthusiasm, some fitness and a willingness to challenge yourself and you will both learn a huge amount and have a lot of fun! We certainly did..
A huge thanks to all the 2009 AIC instructors!