I want to climb mountains. Pure and simple, that’s my drive. Big one, small ones, well known one, unknown ones, doesn’t matter. I want to climb them. I never came from a mountaineering family, hell, we don’t even really have mountains in Australia. Nevertheless, I want to climb mountains. One problem… I don’t know anything about mountaineering. Here’s a quick look at what an intro to mountaineering in New Zealand looks like.
Quick Stuff
Were – New Zealand – Aoraki / Mount Cook Region
When – November – April / May
Cost – $3000 covers most stuff, not including flights.
Getting Started
Now Australia doesn’t really have many mountains and to find one’s with snow is even harder, so my endeavour to be a mountaineer is turning out quite difficult to begin with. A quick google search on Intro to mountaineering courses show a few options locally and abroad in our closest neighbouring country, New Zealand. Both have pro’s and con’s.
Australia – Australian School of mountaineering, Australian Alpine Academy and Allie Peppers all run into courses. Although local, these are only run August & September and generally you need your own equipment. That means forking out about $3K on gear for an ‘intro’. What if you don’t like it? I’ve never even seen an ice axe, what if i buy the wrong one?
New Zealand – There are a plethora of companies to choose from including Adventure consultants, Alpine Guides, Queenstown Mountain Guides and Aspiring Guides, to name a few. Courses are generally run Oct – April, however, can run year round depending on where you are, and most of them supply hire gear which i think is perfect if you don’t know what technical gear you actually need.
I chose to go with Alpine Guides Aoraki so I could see the beautiful Aoraki / Mt Cook for their 7 day Alpine Skills course for a cost of $2875. This included helicopter flights in, all technical equipment, meals, guide, hut booking cost and lodging when not on the mountain and cost me an extra $50 for gear hire of boots and hard shell pants. I took the opportunity to get the last course of the season at late notice for a April/May experience.
Getting There
Getting there is quite simple and can be done by flying into either Queenstown or Christchurch and the team at alpine guides communicated very well with the best approach. I chose to go in and out of Queenstown (one of my favourite places) where i had 2 days and nights on the way in of the usual high adrenaline activates Queenstown has to offer of tobogganing, jet boating, pub crawling and sight seeing. I stayed in the very well located Absoloot Hostel for $60 bucks a night in a private king room overlooking the lake.
The transit up to Aoraki Village was simple. I jumped on a bus departing 100m from my accommodation for $100 dollars which made its way across the Canterbury plains to a small town in central south island called Twizel, known for it’s local Salmon farming. From there Dave our guide picked me up and we drove the extra 45 minuets to Aoraki / Mt Cook village, a stunning and extremely picturesque drive along a deep valley surrounded by snow capped mountains.
Arriving at the village we set up at the Alpine Guides office to introduce ourselves where i met my counterpart Angus, an 18 year old local lad, and do a quick gear check, most of my gear was ok aside from needing technical equipment. I thought the itinerary would consist of a village day to get us onboarded but i was quick to find out we were chasing a weather window and heading straight to the heliport for our flight.
MOUNTAIN TIME!
The three of us made our way across the crunching gravel in the afternoon sunlight, harnesses on, ropes and technical equipment hanging off, to take a knee next to the landing platform. The thumping blades of the 5 seater Heli hovered over us, landing struts touching down on the platform while the rotors maintained their pace as we loaded in.
I’ve never loading into a Heli in quite dramatic fashion and was feeling the adventure was really beginning. We were off, skimming across the plains at an accelerating speed, crossing the rapidly retreating Tasman glacier before reaching and climbing the Hockstetter Icefall. A vertical hanging glacial waterfall 300 metres wide and 700 metres high.
Approaching the top we viewed a red hut hanging what looked to me, precariously on the very top of the icefall overlooking a very vertical drop. Circling the hut we viewed the plateau Glacier, a wide open plain of ice, in a basin of aggressive looking icy mountains, the largest one sitting pride and centre, Aoraki / Mt Cook.
Plateau Hut
Our pilot set us down next to the Hut while we scurried out, ‘don’t go that way, you’ll die and we cant retrieve you’ was the first thing i heard as i stepping out, setting the scene of the potential dangers of the environment. Moving our gear inside we got to know our new home for the next week.
Plateau hut is extremely well maintained by the DOC (Department of Conservation) and has enough bunks for 40 people in 3 large rooms. Mattresses are included and you just use your sleeping bag.
The kitchen dining area has bunch tables to accommodate everyone and has 4 different cooking stations. Water is plentiful as there’s snow year round and there is a toilet block a short walk outside through the snow which can get quite hairy in a strong wind. There is no heating however the hut is made out of the same material as a cold room to insulate it and keep the heat in. The more people inside the warmer it gets, although we were the only ones there so it was a very level 2 degrees our entire stay.
We clipped on our gear and headed outside for our first learning, using crampons and ice axes on slopes. I found it fascinating the walking uphill can either be a slippery affair or with a few pieces of equipment, extremely easy. The sun was setting and we lapped up the views while we could before heading inside for dinner.
I must say, the food was one of the highlights. My mind was settled with eating dehydrated meals everyday and i was very pleasantly surprised when we started having steaks with red wine Jus and local salmon with white source. Turns out in a previous life Dave was a cook and having been guiding for many years knew exactly what to bring.
IN THE HANDS OF THE GODS
Climbing in anywhere in the world has a risk of weather however New Zealand and especially on Cook has extremely variable weather due to how young of a mountain system it is and the close vicinity to the Ocean. I found all this out waking up on day 2 to blizzard conditions and a weather warning for 100km winds for the next 2 days.
Patience is a virtue in life, however it’s a necessity in Mountaineering. We spent 2 days inside waiting for the weather, learning rope and technical skills, reading old books, drinking vats of coffee and swapping stories. Dave is very experienced in the world of mountain guiding. Multiple trips up Everest , one trip up Lohtse, Denali, potentially the most summits of Cook than anyone alive and even assisting in the Everest earthquake the movie ‘Sherpa’ is about. I was enthralled listening to his stories about people that i only knew from books and movies and of local and international climbing experiences. As much as confinement limited the down time, it did allow for amazing sunsets when the weather had a break.
Learning the Ropes
When the weather turn acceptable enough to head outside again we spent time working on glacial travel, crevasse rescue, belaying, abseiling, ice climbing and using ice tools, building anchors and generally building up our knowledge base of skills and safety. Intermittent weather kept us rotating from inside to outside and stopped us from heading too far away from shelter so no wild peaks were conquered but the goal of our trip was being achieved, learning.
Nights were either spent with wind howling and whistling through the hut pylons while booming cracks of avalanche slides echoed around the basin. Or, in quite tranquil quiet, completely removed from civilisation and distraction of technology. I managed to take a great astro photo at one point showing off Aoraki / Mt Count against a backdrop of the Aurora Australis, better known as the Southern Lights.
RETREATING
Poor weather limited our time on the mountain and by day 5 we had to retreat off the mountain in a very small weather window. This Heli load would be much ore exciting than the first due to the icy condition of the day and the concern of the machine sliding straight off the mountain if it wasn’t in control. The helicopter swooped in and perched itself precariously on a downhill slope. Upward draft still emanating from the rotors, only the front of the struts touching the ground while Dave scurried to load us and our gear into the cabin. Making our escape to calmly drift on back down the valley with amazing views of the village.
Village Life
That afternoon was spent going over our rope skills while hanging off the side of a local bridge and having a sight seeing tour of the village’s search and rescue HQ. Dave’s dog is the area’s trained avalanche dog so we had a behind the scene’s look and talk through of what happens in an emergency.
Leading into the the village is a quite striking rock wall about 100m high which was our objective for the following morning, a moderately tame multi pitch climb of relative ease for us to tick off before leaving. Only problem, we were forecast for a very early season low snowfall which would render the wall a-lot more unsafe. This is probably the only time in my life i’ve wished for it to not snow and waking up enthusiastically at first light i was met with a quite beautiful but not helpful scene of a valley covered in an inch of snow. Alas, weather would thwart us one more time.
Dave made the call to cancel the the climb and as my bus ride out was scheduled for 1pm, picked us up and took us to a local climbing rock on the way to Twizel for a last minute top rope session before dropping me at the bus stop.
Back to Queenstown
I caught the bus back to Queenstown arriving just before sunset, where the town had also received snow, and had its occupants completely rugged up head to toe. Having just come from a blizzarding glacier i felt quite climatized to the cold and even went for an evening run in shorts and a T-Shirt around an amazing lakeside walk for a stunning view of the remarkable.
An early flight out the following morning closed out the trip. My Intro to Mountaineering in New Zealand was a very unique experience and something which i feel quite privileged to be able to do. Yes, the weather posed some implications but that all makes up part of an epic experience!
COSTS
Course – $2875 NZD – including gear hire and Heli flights
Flight – $750 AUD – From Sydney
Bus – $93 NZD – Queenstown to Twizel return
Accommodation – $70 per night – Absoloot – Great location and view
Accommodation – $60 – Q2 Hostel – Great room and location
Food and Drink – Completely up to you in Queenstown
