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

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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 Gear<strong>New</strong>sletterIs 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
Page 2 and 3: plan to avoid 10 kms of extra walki
Page 4 and 5: over with. Indeed, it was 11.15ambe
Page 8: protecting me from the elements.The

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