Toolfreak in New Zealand. - Day 8 / 18 Mt. Cook & Alpine course

Back in the land of the living!

I stayed for two days on the Mt. Cook campsite, after that my sleeping bag started to getting wet and i decided to move over to the YHA hostel after the 48 hours of rain....

After my little move the weather got better and i went for a ride to ball shelter.
My course started on on the 5th of march so i had to wait another day.

My report follows a bit later, i`m out of cash....

Cheers :beer:

Sorry for the delay folks ;)

Alpine course at Mt.Cook 1st. day

At the start of the course whe stayed in a nice chalet with a real shower!
Kevin , our guide started with checking our gear (backpack, clothing, harness, etc.) , after that we fitted crampons and sorted out the food.

We had a small diner in the chalet and went to bed early, tommorow we would fly into the mountains!

2th. day

Kevin arrived at 8:30, after loading the gear, we went to the shop/ base.

Our flight was booked at 10:30 , so we did some essential rope practice in the garden, beautiful weather!
Due high winds our flight was set to 11:30, again some practice :rolleyes:

Finally Kevin drove us to the Airport, whe loaded the plane and my second flight ever started!
The pilot dropped us & the food right on the tasman gletsjer, superb...... :D
We had to walk about 2km to our hut, so once with our gear and the second time with the food.

We had the hut for ourselves, so our first day in the mountains ended very relaxed!

cheers :beer:

3th. day

After a good breakfast we started with some glacier travel and cramponning, nothing serious.
Because it was a beginners course, the tempo was very relaxed!
Returned to hut at 15:00 and did nothing till diner, who said mountaineering was heavy........ :D


cheers :beer:

4th. day

After breakfast (pancakes, hua!) we roped up for glacier travel.
Today our first summit was in sight, Hochstetter Dome it would be!

The weather again was fabelous, blue sky and a boiling sun :D
After three hours we reached the ridge, and from there it was only 10 minutes to the summit (something over 3000 mtr. )
The pics where taken and we decided to take our lunch on a safer spot.

Back home (hut) at 1430, with a long lazy afternoon left!

Its so relaxing in the Mountains, your mind becomes clear, you can watch the sun go down, enjoy your beer and think about NOTHING at all....

cheers :beer:

5th. day

Rope technics on schedule today :) we needed soft snow for practice, so Kevin decided to walk to another hut in order to get some condition.

We checked out some cravaces for later, and followed the route to the kellman hut.
Again a plane landed right on the cravaces area, these pilots are crazy, if you ask me!

We made some thea and enjoyed the lunch in Kellman hut, itwas after 12, so the snow had become quit soft, just what we needed.

Back again to the cravaces area, time to build some belay points / anchors.
We all had to build one haul mechanic with ropes and carabiners, test them and jump into the the cravace.

Since i did it before it was not difficult, but its great fun to jump in a cravace :D

Back in the hut at 1600, after a productive day!


cheers :beer:

6th. day

Today a second summit was on schedule; Mt. Alymer not that high (something about 2700) but more technical.

Started at 0800, a bit earlier in order to get good cramponing conditions.
When we arrived at Alymer col, whe saw the sharp ridge to summit, very nice and exposed :D

Kevin took us in pairs of two to the summit, the ridge was sharp but not very difficult and crampons made a big difference!
The weather was so beautiful and clear, i could see the westcoast and the Tasman sea...

After our succsesful ascent, Kevin made a top rope on a overhanging ice wall (about 10 mtr.) playtime ;)

The iceclimb was difficult but fun, it was far more better than i had before, its addicting too.....

At the end of day day whe had done enough exercise, time to go home!

cheers :beer:

7th. day

Our last day in the mountains, we would fly out at 1430, with another group of japanese climbers.

First whe had to clean the hut, wich was pretty full at the last day, but many hands did a fast job.

We had to drag our garbage to the plane landings site wich was 3hrs walk.
We said goodbye to the other climbers and headed off to another icewall for some last iceclimbing.

The plane was late, so we enjoyed the lunch in the snow and i got a pretty bad sunburn after that :mad:

Kevin told us they wouldn`t take "smellies" (climbers & trampers) on tourist ski planes, so they had to fly in an empty plane :D

Up to our first shower in six days, hua!

The course included a barmeal in the local pub, whe enjoyed the meal with lots of beer and wine, celebrating the nice week!

cheers :beer:

Our last morning we did some rockclimbing and returned the climbing stuff.
Kevin offered us a free stay in the chalet, so Axel (belgium guy) and i stayed there for the night, eating pizza, drinking beer and watched a movie (A.I.) , you know, the civilised stuff.... :D

I live in this dam ncountry and do you think I get to do this stuff???? enjoy your self dude

Brendon
:beer:

Yeah it's funny huh... we got scenery that folks travel across the world to see and we don't often stop to take it in.

Wait for till i show my pics....:D