Last week, nearing the start of the season, Snow School Group Two (Thomas, Blake, Elliot, Henry, Kat, Katelyn, Mia, and Tony) was lucky enough to embark on a fun and exciting adventure learning different mountaineering techniques taught by our wonderful instructors, Brendan and Trisha. Our trip began at the University of Auckland clocktower, where we all met each other for the first time. Nervous but excited, we began to talk about the only thing we knew we had in common, our love for climbing and tramping. From there we set off in our cars (shoutout to Brendan’s Honda Civic) to Mount Ruapehu.
After waking up bright and early at the backpackers lodge, we drove up to the whakapapa ski resort where we were greeted with tons of snow and a scorcher of a day. Very quickly, we stopped to delayer as we were all sweating buckets and had completely overestimated how cold it was going to be. On the way up the mountain, Brendan and Trisha began to teach us all of the basics from how to hold your ice axe to walking up slopes safely with crampons. Having got the basics down we headed to the Ruapehu Hut located 2040m high. Nearing the end of the day, we settled in for dinner and shenanigans, including the prusik climb, puzzle, table traverse, and, of course, sock wrestling.
The next day, we woke up bright and early and stepped outside the hut to see the sunrise, where we saw some of the most amazing views. We began our day by putting together a weather report accompanied by some more avalanche theory. From our weather report, we decided to wait for the horrendous wind that had picked up that day to settle down and set out in the afternoon for some self-arrest practice and more terrain climbing techniques. After a lot of sliding, we headed back to the hut where we learnt some more theory and made dinner. The night didn't go without its fair share of mischief as we once again whipped out the prusik climb again and ate some authentic ice cream straight from the mountain, which Brendan had so kindly made for us. Later that night, we set out again to go stargazing in the cold before going to bed, and I have to tell you, you HAD to be there to see how beautiful it was.
On our last day, we woke up super early to make the most of the day. We were all so excited to see that our instructors were squeezing whatever time we had left to teach us as much as possible. The day was filled with all kinds of activities, but the one that stuck out the most was the avalanche rescue simulation. We were completely taken off guard when Brendan called out, “avalanche!” We managed to regain our composure to find the buried transceiver and finish the simulation with what I’d like to think is a pretty decent time for our first rescue.
It is safe to say that once we were all down from the mountain, we were spent. Over the past three days on the mountain, we had worked so hard to make the most of the opportunity given to us by our awesome instructors. Thank you so much, Trisha and Brendan, for giving up your time to introduce us to the wonderful world of mountaineering. You'll definitely see us back on the mountain at some point soon with our new found mountaineering skills!
コメント