Mountaineering

M O U N T A I N E E R I N G

 27/07/15 to 31/07/15

Trip Location: Temple Basin

Tutors: Mike, Drew, Beir and Keith
Group: 16 Taipoutini Polytechnic students

Duration: 5 days (one overnight) 
Date: The 27th to the 31st of September, 2015

Weather Conditions: 
Day 1: Southerly system bringing snow and high winds, laying a fresh snow pack.. 
Day 2: Clear morning with cold southerly winds picking up
             later in the afternoon.
Day 3: Sunny day with good weather throughout. 
Day 4: Fine weather with cold southerly winds

Snow Pack: The snow pact was a thick layer of dry powder, below this was an ice layer from the rain and a rounding icy layer under that.

Learning: This was my first time spending more than a day in snow so the learning curb was steep. I learned lots of new skills such as moving around in the snow. This involved such skills such as pitching, snow anchor systems (T anchor) and body belay anchor systems. We practiced self rescues using an ice axe and also moving and walking around with crampons on. We spent a lot of time looking at snow pacts and how they are formed. Identifying past weather system and rain events that effect the past. We dug out the out line of a boxed shaped and tested the strength of the pack, analyzing the different layers. I learned about avalanche causes and when are where you are most likely to find them. We spent a lot of time around safety and rescues, practicing using transceivers and searching for transceivers. During our mountain week we had an over night trip where we made snow caves. It was here where I really learnt about effective ways of digging into the snow and roles and positions to make this effective.

Personal Experience: 

Day one: We headed to temple basin and spent  the afternoon climbing the hike that it takes to enter temple basin. From here we watched a film about avalanche awareness and discussed avalanche safety techniques and safe routes up a mountain

Day two: Today we were out of the class room and in amidst it. We wore transceivers and ventures to a side of the mountain to learn about anchors and snow pack. There was a lot of good learning and due to the recent snow event a lot of sick snow boarders shredding the slopes up behind us. We made sure at lunch time to grab a dry bag and go tobogganing down the sides of the slopes. The evening was spent travelling up mountain, looking at the winds effect on the snow and practicing self rescues.

Day three: Day three we started to get into moving around the mountain ridge line. We went up a more challenging route, using rope systems we had practiced earlier. We walked the tops looking at safe ridge line choices to start the journey, followed by identifying cornices that are dangerous to stand on the tops. When then lowered down a partner using T slot anchor systems to finish up a cold day.


Day four: The overnight mountain trip. There had been a soft snow fall the night before so everywhere was covered in fresh powder. The ski resort was bustling as we left. We journeyed up a spur that offered very little traction and used a lot of strength and energy to make distance anywhere. We pushed on and made good distance up the mountain. We reached an area where we found a large wind blown cornice. It was here that we spent the rest of the afternoon digging a snow cave. Let me tell you snow caves take a lot of time and hard work. My snow cave team spent a lot of time arguing, some maybe more so than working. It was funny though as I love slow hard work that involves persistence and gains great rewards near the ending. So in other words I loved building the snow cave and was happy to be left with a large mount of the work. Eventually the work was dona and the reward was great. It was such a fun night in the cave and surprisingly warm.

Day five: The mornings in the mountain are tough. Getting up and getting hustling is a big ask. Gear so easily gets lost mixed in with miles of white snow it's easy for a spade or ice axe to simply go missing. We started off with a late start but eventually had breakfast and got moving. We pushed to make it down the mountain and had lunch in the resort. It wasn't long after we got to Temple basin that we were descending down her slopes back to the vans below.

 Mountain was a challenging week of polytechnic. The conditions are savage and keeping a cool head at that altitude is an impressive learned skill. I found it very challenging but yet also very rewarding. The photo are impressive but the effort to get up there and take them maybe even more so.

 Learning to Board
"Personal time in the mountains"

Learning: Snow boarding is just like all boarding sports. Its core elements are balance and edging. A lot of snow boarding it seems is about seeing the line, planning turns and controlling speed. I'm still very much learning but I have a few basics down and all that's left is time.

Experience: I first went snow boarding at an outdoor education camp called O.P.C. Tongariro. I was 16 years old and spent a day on the beginners slopes. It takes a fair bit of falling over but by the end of the first day I could ride down the whole slope without stacking it. Since then I've been to the Mountains another few times over in Australia on a field called Selwyn snow field. The skills I learned from the first time came back to me very fast and it wasn't long until I was on intermediate and then of course advanced track trying to push speed and limits faster than I'm ready for. It made a day of awesome stacks and some really good wins and break through's,