Ruahine Grand Traverse Ruahine Grand Traverse - New Zealand ...

plan to avoid 10 kms of extra walkingthe following afternoon.Although the traverse could be done ina longish day, we planned to get mostof the altitude gain out of the way onDay One and then enjoy the alpinesection with fresh legs and unrushed.This meant a stay at Purity Hut.For the first hour you cross prettyfarmland following white painted fenceposts which mark the route to the parkboundary. Parts of this proved to be thesteepest terrain encountered on thewhole trip. From here there is a well cuttrack running up a bush spur for anotherhour to reach the new Purity Hutwhich sits just above the bushline at1300 metres (6 bunks, brand spanking,very nice). It was clagged in when wearrived at dark. This didn’t exactly haveus jumping for joy about the prospectsof trying to navigate through thick mistand Spaniard Grass the next day. Bythe time we had a brew on, the starshad come out .... and the town lightsof Taihape, Palmey, Feilding and Levintwinkled in the distance.With the weather forecast to deterioratelater in the day we hauled ourselvesout of bed early (well not alpine startearly but a respectable 6 am neverthe less) to a good night freeze. Friedbacon and a cuppa and we were offfollowing the tussock ridge behind thehut.The snow started at about 1500m.Firm, crunchy.... in fact as near perfectcramponing conditions as onecould hope for. Within an hour we hadreached Wooden Peg, the first of manybumbs to go up and over along themain Hikurangi Range with a blue skyday beckoning and fast travel underfoot.Right: The main RuahineBelow: Purity Hut Range from Iron Peg2From Wooden Peg we had the firstlook at what lay ahead of us. From nowon there would be very little changein elevation for the next 4 hours untilwe hit the track coming up from theother end to access Mckinnon Hut.This section is designated a WildernessArea hence there are no polesto help in crappy weather. Wanderingalong the ridge up and over Iron Pegto the Mangaweka at 1730 metres, thehighest point in the Ruahines providedus with a wonderful panorama. Taihapehill country flanked by the Kaimanawasto the west, Egmont in the distance andof course Ruapehu dominating everythingelse. To the east a massive bushbasin far below extended across tothe main Ruahine Range with HawkesBay farm land tucked in behind. To thenorth Napier, Mahia Peninsula and theKawekas.In fact a West - East crossing couldwell be on the cards for another trip.There looked to be a handy inter connectingtussock ridge running acrosstowards Waipawa Saddle and SunriseHut on the Hawkes Bay side .... forthose that know that popular area.Before long we’d arrived at the summitof Hikurangi, probably the most prominentfeature on the traverse. Althoughmy experience of crosscountry skiingis limited to a day cruising around thesummit plateau on Ruapehu, I haveno doubt that with more snow and lessice, this terrrain would be superb for skitouring.Another down and up and we’dreached the poled route up from theKawhatau road end to Mckinnon Hut....another good looking spot to stay if youwanted to spend a second night uphere. From here down it was 3 hoursto the awaiting mountain bikes. On theway we passed a fairly big tarn coveredin ice. it looked solid from the safety ofthe tussock.“Come on Brendon”“you first”“No way!”“It’ll be fine.... just have your axeready”“And do what?”“.....just in case, but it’ll be fine”“Why don’t you do it?”“Nah, you’re a better swimmer.”“go on ya chicken!”Bravado eventually won out over commonsense.The tarn turned out to besolid as right the way across. Onceback in the bush the track turned outto be constant down, down, down for along way. I only mention this as it wouldbe punishing on the body and soulcoming up this way with the idea ofdoing the traverse from North toSouth.... not recommended.The final obstacle comes 5 minutesfrom the end. When we crossed theKawhatau River it was only calf deepwith no recent rainfall to speak of. Ifhowever it had been raining heavily(and having seen the size of the thecatchment above) crossing this wouldbe a serious and silly risk.... even moresilly than inching out onto a frozenpond. DOC do have a cool lookingcableway to ferry trampers across insuch conditions but was broken at thetime. Hopefully I’ve convinced you thatthis isn’t the sort of trip to do in roughweather anyway. all that was left wasan hour Mtb on gravel back to the car.That’s basically the trip - for theweekend warrior Ruapehu is a greatclimbing resource but doesn’t hold solerights to alpine adventures in the NorthIsland.

The Twelve Summitsof Ruapehu in a day. by Marcus BaiIt was nearly three years ago whenI last attempted this challenge. Thattime, Kevin and I knocked off 11 ofthem, but by the time we got to thebottom of our last peak - Girdlestone,the clag was rolling in and we wereboth pretty shagged. After much soulsearching, we reluctantly let this onego. And after that, I swore never again.However, almost three years later, thememories of the pain and anguish hadfaded and I found myself toying withthe idea once more. Of course, startingfrom the hut or high up on the mountainas it is traditionally done, was not anoption. As in the last attempt, it had tobe done from the carpark and back.Only this way could it qualify as thesuitably stupid and pointless challengethat it had to be.This time the other idiots who camewith me were Craig and Scott RimeRat.Both young, keen and crazy enoughto want to give this a go. The onlydownside was that they were also veryfit, which meant I spent most of the daytrying to keep up with the buggars!We decided to start from Turoa side,same as last time. All accommodationwas booked out at Ohakune so weended up staying at National Park. Avery noisy night gave us a couple ofhours sleep before we were up at 2.30am and driving around to Turoa afterbreakfast. We had our pick of parkingspots - in fact, a very pretty young ladydriving a very big truck was the onlysign of life up there at that time of themorning.We set of up the deserted ski field at4.15 am, conditions were cool, clearand we had a good moon to guide ourway. By the time we were putting ourcrampons on at the top chairlift, thetemperature had dropped to minus 8degrees and it never really seemed towarm up all day. We had great conditionstraversing across the MangaehuehuGlacier in the dark and goodaccess along the ridge found us summitingour first peak just before sunriseat 6.45 am. This was Craig and Scott’sfirst summit of Girdlestone, and aftermy last experience I was relieved to getthis one out of the way first! Wedescended down a nice gully as ashortcut on our way to Mitre (Ringatoto).The rocks were starting to throwchunks of ice at us and Scott and Iwere beginning to wish we’d broughtalong our helmets like Craig had done.we summited Mitre at 8.30 am. It wasfunny to think that normally we’d onlyjust be leaving the carpark about now,and yet here we were standing on oursecond summit!We plugged up towards Tahuranginext. Fortunately Craig took the lead onthe steep ascent, heading directly upto the top, and made it an easy job forScott and me following. It was now only9.30 am and we’d already done theclassic three. It would have been easyto go home now and I’d still have beenNovember MeetingCome along to the Novembermeeting to hear CNI memberCliff Ellery give a talk withsome great images from hisrecent roadie around Tasmania.Cliff and his climbingmates (Kevin Barratt, GrantPiper and Richard Knott)visited 8 crags over a 2 weekperiod in May this year. Hedescribes Tassie as a tradclimber’s mecca with excitingfeatures such as an 80m jam crack, sea stacks andgreat slab climbing.Tea and bickies provided -gold coin donation please.happy with what is normally considereda ‘good day out’.The next leg was where the fun started.We descended to the saddle and decidedto continue along the ridge a littleway, bag Te Ataahua, and then comeback. However, this peak proved a littlemore elusive than expected. We sidledaround to where we thought it mustbe (it didn’t look far on the map afterall.), only to see it was much further onagain - and there were a few obstaclesto get around in between. We hadn’tcounted on this part being so long anddrawn out, should we skip this bit anddeal to it on the way back? We eventuallydecided to persevere and get itcontd.Cliff Ellery - ‘Tasmania -a Trad Climber’s Mecca’3

over with. Indeed, it was 11.15ambefore we covered this short distanceto bag our 4th summit. By this stage wewere beginning to feel tired. This sectionhad really messed with our heads,and the thought of the upcoming cratertraverse (which I hadn’t done either),not to mention all the other peaks yet tocome, was beginning to take it’s toll.We descended the ridge towards Pareand dropped further down to the warmshores of the lake itself, where weenjoyed the intoxicating aroma of freshsulpur, before bagging L Peak at 11.45am.The plan from here was to continuealong the knife edge ridge to Pyramidaround the back of the lake. The exposurewas quite exciting, and there wassome apprehension amongst our partyabout this bit (myself included!). Upongetting onto the ridge itself it becameapparent that the conditions were verysoft and far from ideal. If it could bedone at all, it would take a long time. Itwas decided that we’d circumnavigatethe crater instead. It signalled a longerwalk than planned, although I don’tthink it would actually have taken muchmore time in the end.It was 1.05 pm when we summitedPyramid and we were only half waythrough - we still had another 6 summitsto go! It was at this point that bothCraig and I really started to feel tired.By the time we had grovelled our wayto near the base of Cathedral Rockswe were both having doubts aboutwhether or not we were going to beable to do this. I was seriously thinkingabout bailing - after all, Te Heuheu wasso much further away again before wecould even think about turning around.Scott by this point was beginning tocome right, after going through a lowearlier, but it didn’t help when he casuallymentioned that he’d completely runout of water! Craig and I only had half alitre each left. Would it be wise to continueon with only 1 litre between thethree of us, especially in our sorry stateand with another 6 summits still to go?After much indecision and fence sitting,I decided it was time to pull out thedrugs. I’d bought along a Pocket V totry in case of an emergency like this,and I dished out some panadeine toCraig and Scott to help with their ‘pain’.After the caffeine hit I felt much better- it was back on! Cathedral was mucheasier than I remembered and we summitedthat at 2.05 pm.We followed Scott’s lead across thePlateau and knocked off Tukino surprisinglyquickly at 2.50 pm, and TeHeuheu a satisfying 10 minutes later.We had now turned around and wereon our way home! This was a hugepsychological boost and after stoppingfor a quick feed, we found ourselves onGlacier Knob at 3.35 pm.The clouds were now beginning tobuild and starting to close in nearby.With this in mind, and with the end insight, Scott set off again across thePlateau leaving me desperately tryingto stretch my legs far enough to use hissteps (take smaller steps when you’vegot midgets trying to keep up with youScott!). We were on Dome 20 minuteslater and now felt very confident withonly one more peak to go.Craig took the lead up Pare and wewere very happy to knock off this finalsummit half an hour later at 4.25 pm.A congratulatory handshake all aroundand then we were pleased to headMap showing route undertaken.down....down...such a long way down!Back to the once again deserted carparkat 5.45 pm just on dark, and justas the winds picked up and the cloudsrolled in - perfect timing. And still with aswig of water to spare!It was a 13.5 hour day. We coveredroughly 23 kms with 2600 metre totalascent. The stats don’t sound thatmuch, but I guess it feels so muchharder because a lot of the challengeis not so much what your body is doingbut what is going on in your head.Climbing peak after peak demandscontinual concentration, and of coursethe inevitable mind games start to playtheir part too!For me, this has been a much anticipatedand most satisfying challenge tofinally tick off. Many thanks Craig andScott for sharing it.CNI NewsWharepapa Crag ClosurePopular Wharepapa Rock, more commonlyknown as CastleRock is closeduntil further notice.With the proposed new rules foradventure tourism CastleRock hasundertaken to add a third anchor to allthe climbs on the Lower Tier. The flyingfox and abseil site will be auditedat the same time.New signage will eventually bedisplayed informing users of theirresponsibilities etc.Bouldering @ BrycesBryces Cafe at Wharepapa South,Tuesdays and Thursdays from4.30pm. $5 entry - first visit free.A great little wall with loads of problemsto suit all levels.Phone: 07 872 2533Advance Notice -Lead Climbing InstructionWeekend at KinlochThe CNI Section is planning a leadclimbing instruction weekend at Kinlochin November or December.This will feature an introduction tosport and trad multi-pitch climbing in afantastic outdoor setting.More details to follow.2010 Reel Rock Film Tour16th October at The Edge ClimbingWall, Events Centre Taupo.Open from 6pm with films starting at7.30. Spot prizes, gear trials etcMore information on page 6.4

National OfficeFree 6 month MembershipExtensionEach month a special 6 month membershipextension will be given to alucky member who pays their renewalwithin 14 days of them being mailedout.A name will be drawn at random fromthe renewals received and a replacementcard will be sent to the luckymember showing their new expirydate. This will apply to any individual,or additional member. So when yourrenewal comes up, get it back to usquick smart to be in the draw.CongratulationsThe first winner of our free 6 monthmembership extension is AustralianClub member simon Locke. Congratulationsto Simon, a member of 6 yearsstanding, we value your continuedsupport of our Club.NZAC Hut BookingsMembers please note that bookingsfor Arthur’s Pass, Ruapehu and PorterLodge are handled through theNational Office in Christchurch.These huts all have a keypad andthe office holds the codes for these.Please DO NOT contact section memberslooking for the key codes.The office is manned Monday toFriday until 5pm. Call Margaret inthe first instance for bookings +64(0)3 377 7595 or email margaret@alpineclub.org.nz if you don’t requirean instant reply.AGM and DebateThis will be on October 15th in theYMCA conference room. The debatewill be on ‘whether to rename theSouth Ridge of Aoraki Mt Cook theHillary Ridge’ Come along and voiceyour opinion loudly.Summer Climbing CampInformation and registration detailsare now available for the camp on;http://alpineclub.org.nz/default/377The camp is to be based from theBroken River Ski Field. Activities foreveryone and families welcome.Centenary of Freda Du Faur’sHistoric Climb of Aoraki Mt CookThere will be a celebration of the eventat Mt Cook village on Dec 4th. This willinvolve lots of food, guest speakersand open discussion.Check the website for more details.Reel Rock Film Tour – Taupo – New Zealand16th October 2010 – 6.00pm Opening – Film Starting at 7.30pmAdults $18 – Kids (Under 15) $14Tickets for the Taupo Show of the Reel Rock Film Tour provide:Free Climbing on the night of the EventOne off deal – get two, 3 month membership’s with TheEdge Climbing Wall, Taupo, for the cost of one ($80 – can be redeemedanytime before the 30th October 2010 with proof of eventticket)Chance of winning spot prizes (provided by local sponsors)Cheap food/snacks and drink (beer and wine included)available for purchase at the venue.Gear trials and discounted products available on the nightfrom local businesses (try out some Scarpa shoes on the wall beforebuying them at a good price).For more information or any other queries please contact either:Ben RohdeMike RendallEvent CoordinatorCommunity Programmes Coordinator027 6127 381 Rockwall Taupo Events CentreBen.rohde@opus.co.nzE: mrendall@taupovenues.co.nzP: 07 376 0350 extn. 78425

By Mark SmithThe Blue Ice MiceStrike Again- An account of SnowCraft 2 held in August.This last weekend was spent at MtRuapehu studying the fine art of AlpineSnow Craft with Dennis. This class washeld as part of the NZAC and it lived upto it’s name. We learned about settingup belay points, pitches, bollardsand my favourite, emergency sheltersall with the amazing backdrop of thealpine terrain.I’m only partially ashamed to saythat the initial climb up kicked my ass...again. We all carried a huge loadand I only had my tiny shoulders. Coldweather gear, lighting, helmet, goggles,food, crampons, ice axe, ice hammer,a transponder (for avalanches), snowprobes, shovel, water ....ugh I realisedlater that I didn’t need this, a heavy fulldry60 metre rope, harness, carabiners,webbing, snow stakes, a big pack,sleeping bag, sleeping pad, bivvy bag,and the makings for a special Saturdaynight dinner split amongst us all. I carrieda bottle of wine, toilet paper, andtwo capsicum. I’m sure I must have leftsome stuff out - anyway it was heavy.The walk up to Delta Ridge Hut wason, but the good news was that it wasgood snow, not much ice. Oh, and itwas raining changing to snow. Oh,and it was pitch dark, our head torcheslighting the way.I mistakenly thought the hut was goingto be rougher than it actually was. Ithas heating, cooking facilities, water,bunks with mattresses, toilets and adrying room which was very useful.It was also good to see so many smilingfamiliar faces from the SnowCraft 1course held a few months back.As much as I had my ass kicked onthe way up, I seriously dug the technicalaspects of what was going on. Webuilt a snow bollard and I jumped at thechance to be the first to give it a go. Asnow bollard is basically a groove youcut in the snow in which you put yourrope before you rappel off a cliff. Thinkof a snow column with your ropewrapped around it and you’ve got thepicture.We learned about setting up belaypoints. It’s simply amazing how strongsnow can be. For each anchor we setup four strong men pulled as hard asthey could downhill and they didn’teven wiggle.With little time left on the first day wemoved on to the highlight of the weekendas far as I was concerned. Thiswas emergency shelters, which youcan safely translate to snow caves. Asmentioned earlier snow can be exceedinglystrong, on top of this it is exceptionallymoldable. Dig a cave leavingleaving 300 mm of ceiling and you canwalk on top of it yet still have light filtering through.As a demonstration, the lead instructorbuilt a satisfactory emergency shelterin four minutes. It wasn’t big, but itwould save your life in a storm. All wecould see of him was his pack whichhe placed in the door way to stop thewind.Our Taj Mahal creation built for six tookthree hours. A tunnel about the sizeof a person on all fours angled up forabout 2 metres led to a bed chamberhigh enough to sit up in, but not muchmore. It was a wet job, I wanted to takeoff my coat but it was too wet to dothat. It was already quite a bit warmerinside than outside. We didn’t completeit by night fall so we finished it by thelight of our head torches.Below: Digging out the snow cave.6

We still had a full evening ahead beforesleeping in the snow cave so - back tothe hut. A full all out dinner is one of thehighlights of the course. We all pitchedin and produced a lovely meal. Afterwardswe talked about the day and foolaround. Funnily enough I got beat upthe most during this time. Someonesuggested a game called table traversing.The idea is to start with your bellyon the table, climb to the underside ofthe table and then climb back up theother side of the table without touchingthe ground. As you might imaginethe hardest part was the climbing backonto the top. I was left with a prizewinning bruise on the inside of my leftthigh which striated deep blue andyellow 25 cm long by 8 cm wide and anassortment of lesser orbiting bruises invarious places. Luckily for me I decidedto stop. I managed to do the wholething in bits, but not in one go. I thinkI’ve figured it out sitting safe, soundand bruised back in my home officewriting this.It’s amazing how much fun you canhave without a TV, there were othergames I won’t bore you with, but eventuallyit was time to sleep and we allknew where that was going to be...It wasn’t too bad...it was warm to startwith, while we were awake it wasgood. After our metabolisms quieteddown for sleep it chilled off. Afterwardswe learned that building a six personshelter and only having four people init was doomed to be cold. Two peoplehad made other arrangements at thelast second so we were missing twoportable heating systems.Since it was warmer inside than outand it was definitely above freezing, thesnow was slowly melting. Our ceilingsweren’t smooth so it had a tendencyto drip down in several places...drip...drip...drip.Instruction CoursesNZAC High Alpine Skills Course, Mt CookThis is for those NZAC members’ who have participated on a Basic InstructionCourse or instructed in a trainee capacity.The course will run for six days from January 30th - February 4th and will bebased at Mt Cook. Instructors will be qualified NZMGA Mountain Guides.The course will be foot based rather than utilising helicopter or fixed wingaccess. It will also be ‘bivvy’ based rather than ‘hut’ based. This means it isimportant participants have a good level of fitness.The cost of the course is $875. Additionally, participants will provide their owntransport and food and pay their accommodation at Unwin.If you are interested in participating on this course contact:instruction@alpineclub.org.nz or phone 03 337 7595.This had a couple of outcomes, firstlymy tarp ended up with a pool of wateron it, my sleeping pad took the brunt ofit keeping me high and dry. Secondly,I had to make a pitstop! I held off aslong as I could, but eventually the threeglasses of wine and the constant drippingwon out.I put on my frozen boots and climbeddown the tunnel on all fours still in myskivvies. All that lovely snow was nowhard, unyielding ice - the temperaturehad dropped and the wind hadpicked up considerably. I was shiveringviolently in less than a minute standingthere in the cold, impossibly stark clearmoonscape. The lighting, the stars, thedistant half lit image of Ngauruhoe allconspired to make me believe that thebackdrop was simply a hand drawnsketch.Even though I was shivering I took severalseconds longer to stare in wonderat the panorama and the fact that myshelter was doing such a great job contdBelow: Mariusz demonstrating self recovery techniquesGear HireIce Axe/Crampons/Helmets:$30 all 3 items per w’endor $15 each per w’endHarness/Carabiner/Figure 8 belay/Helmet: $30 all 3 items per w’endor $15 each per w’endTransceivers/Hammers/SnowShovels: $15 each per w’endNeed to hire gear for the WinterSeason?Call Dennis Sanders on 07 856 6754CNI Members receive 30% discounton all Hire GearNewsletterIs there something you’d like tosee in this newsletter?Have a tale to tell?Business to advertise?We need ongoing stories aboutyour adventures in the greatoutdoors be it kayaking, mountainbiking, tramping, climbing.All ideas will be considered and allarticles will be published.Email: deb@picturebook.co.nzThought for the DayThe pessimist looks atopportunities and seesdifficulties, the optimistlooks at difficulties andsees opportunities.Unknown7

protecting me from the elements.The next morning we started in withsome more ‘classroom’ work. Glaciertravel can be dangerous due tocrevasses. Some can be seriouslydeep (as in hundreds of feet). In anycase they can be seriously bad for yourhealth. The concept of glacier travel isto walk with one or more partners heldtogether by ropes. If you notice yourpartner has fallen down a slot you digin as quickly as you can while the 10metres of rope is playing out in front ofyou. We learned the basics as to howto rig yourself for this kind of walking - itwas pretty nifty.And then it was time to get comfortablewith the cold again. With the knowledgeof anchors previously learned wewere able to set up pitches going upand down 45 degree slopes in teamswhile one climbed and the other belayed.Not hard, but your bum does getcold sitting in the snow.The weather was fabulous. Our instructorshad thoughtfully decided to haveus bring our lunch, so we sat on theslopes in our improvised bucket seatsand watched the skiers fly past on theslopes slightly below us... it was all sovery good.We completed our pitch practice bothup and down after lunch and then itwas off back to the hut to practicecrevasse self recovery techniques. Irigged up as best I could rememberand dressed up for the occasion - readthat to mean a partially packed backpack.Ropes hanging from the ceilinghooked to belayers simulated the fallinto the crevasse. While dangling, undoyour backpack hook it onto your rope,undo the slack end of your prusik anduse it and another to climb up the rope.And then it was a mad dash to cleanup, get all the gear together and getdressed for the walk down the mountain.A great and pleasant surprise wasthe decision to take the chairlift down.An hour of humiliation was reduced toseveral minutes flying over the terrain.Gotta love my weekends!Alpine Hut Users get Direct Lineto HelicoptersHigh on the main divide, sheltering in a hut with a five day Norweststorm forecast - there’s only one thing you want to do....get out!New radios installed by DOC in these alpine huts will ensure you have the bestchance yet of not getting trapped.Radios in Pioneer, Centennial, Almer and Chancellor huts have long been availablefor hut users to contact DOC regarding party intentions and weather reportsand for emergency use. However, they have just got better!Four new radios have been installed in the West Coast alpine huts at Fox andFranz Josef Glaciers. The radios will allow climbers and skiers to communicatedirectly with helicopter companies to get a lift ouf of the mountains at their convenience.Each of the huts are very different: Chancellor Hut has been sheltering climbersfor a century and was carried up the glacier in pieces by packhorse, while CentennialHut is relatively new, having only been in use since 1993. All of the huts playa vital role in sheltering climbers and skiers from the elements and have providedbases for climbers of New Zealand’s most impressive peaks, such as Mt Tasman/HoroKoau. As they are located at altitudes of up to 2200m above sea level,walking to one of the alpine huts from the roadend or walking out at the end ofan exhausting trip could take more time than climbing the mountain! Time off togo climbing is a precious resource for many climbers, so being able to arrange aten minute helicopter flight to avoid an eight hour walk through challenging glaciatedterrain is important for many of the people who escape to the mountains forrecreation.By using the preprogrammed channels, hut users will be able to contact helicoptercompanies based in Franz josef or Fox Glacier directly. This will be a much moreeffective way for climbers and skiers to alert pilots to clearing weather or to warnthem about sudden cloud masses surrounding the landing sites.“We’ve really enjoyed working with DOC and the helicopter companies to develpthis fantastic new service to the climbing community”, says Ollie Clifton of theNew Zealand Alpine Club. “This is a great improvement to the accessiblity of thehuts and mountain services. Improvements such as these would not be possiblewithout contributions from hut users, so everyone who has paid their hut fees hashelped to make this project happen.”The new radios and new batteries were installed in the last week of July - a jointeffort between the Department of Conservation, New Zealand Alpine Club, GlacierHelicopters, Fox and Franz Heliservices and The Helicopter Line.The radios have four preprogrammed channels with the channel buttons on thefront of the unit, an On/Off button and a scroll key. When the radio is switched onit automatically tunes to the DOC channel, as this in the one that will be used inemergencies and for the regular radion schedules.The channels are: F1: DOCF2: Fox/Franz HeliservicesF3: Glacier Helicopters F4: The Helicopter LineFor further information contact: Cornelia Vervoorn, Community Relations Ranger,Franz Josef Waiau Area on 03 752 0084 or cvervoorn@doc.govt.nzCommitte Members Contact DetailsPaul McCullagh Chairman/Section Rep. 021 872 613 paulm@vodafone.net.nzMarcus Bai Treasurer/Committee 07 839 3149 bai@xtra.co.nzDeborah Hinde Newsletter/Committee 07 872 2804 deb@picturebook.co.nzDennis Sanders Gear Hire/Whangaehue Hut 07 856 6754 smsanders@xtra.co.nzCommittee/SnowCraft Coord.David Addison Banff Coordinator/Committee 07 853 9349 david.addison@thermalchemistry.co.nzCraig Hoskings Secretary/Committee 027 312 1006 craigh@waikato.ac.nzKevin Hammond Committee 027 480 9580 kevinh@winaggs.co.nz8