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Mid Summer News - February 2010
It is the busy season here at Aspiring Guides and with trips going on all over the South Island. We meet so many great people that it can be hard to know where to start a newsletter. But here's some snippets from Jan & Feb 2010.
You're never too young..!
 One especially noteworthy trip was Andrew Heaps. Last winter we started getting emails from an 11yr old boy wanting information on climbing Mnt. Aspiring. Not knowing how serious he was, we answered his questions and suggested that he may want to climb some smaller peaks first to get a feel for mountaineering before he made any big plans. Well…he kept asking questions and like all things persistent he finally got his first peak. Jan. 5th Andrew and his father summited Mt. Heavy Top. It will still be a year or two before he gets Mt. Aspiring but somehow I think it is just a matter of time.
Canadian Army invades Wanaka
 Well…20 army cadets aged 14-17 did any way. While our standard group size is 3-4 people occasionally we get requests from organizations for group trips. Mount Aspiring Park has limits on how large a group can be in any one place and we work carefully the Wanaka Department of Conservation with them to accommodate groups while not impacting on other peoples enjoyment of the Aspiring National Park By breaking the group into smaller cells we managed to accomplish some outstanding trips hiking trips to Dragonfly Peak in the East Matukituki and Brewster Lake at the toe of Brewster Glacier.
Technical tip.
Here is a really simple principal to remember for everything from lacing your boots and crampons to pulling down an abseil rope. Always have the side of the rope (or crampons strap or whatever that you are pulling on) run out the underside of whatever it is running through. Below you can see that if you pull on the top side it presses the rope into the rock creating more friction and wear on the rope. This can be very important if the increased rope friction prevents you from being able to retrieve your rope or if your crampons become loose in the middle of a difficult section of ice. Remember this next time you are struggling to get your crampons straps tight enough and there may be a little less cursing!
Our Peruvian Guide - Aritza enjoys summer in the NZ Southern Alps.
 This summer we have had the pleasure of having Aritza Monasterio, an IFMGA guide from Huaraz Peru working for us. We knew we were on to someone special when instead of getting the usual CV and job application we started getting letters from previous clients telling us we should work with Aritza. Apparently all he had to do was mention that he wanted to work in New Zealand and people took it into their own hands to see that they found him a job! Aritza (are-eat-za) has a calm, cool, organized go for it way of guiding that inspires confidence. He has been a great asset to us here at Aspiring Guides.
Here is a typical comment from one of our clients about Aritza.
 “Aritza is the best. I felt very safe at all times. This is my first time climbing, first time using crampons, first time being roped together and we made it to the summit. Aritza judged the conditions and his years of experience showed through” Elsja Dines, Australia.
"I enjoyed spending a week in an isolated part of Mt Cook National Park. We summitted two peaks, choosing same lines without any guidebook! I very much enjoyed our chats over coffee, tea and miso soup! I learnt a lot about mountaineering from another cultural perspective. I will remember "Light is Right". Hope to see you again may be in Peru!" Craig Bedford, Australia.
"Perfect climbing tour with Aritza to Mt Aspiring. Great lanscape and fortunately wonderful weather on our summit day. Aritza was a very sympathetic guide, who made me feel safe all the time. It was also interesting to learn something about Peru and the Basc country. Thank you for the wonderful trip and perhaps we'll see us again on a mountain trip in Peru" Robert, Austria
Aritza runs numerous trekking and climbing trips in the Andes and Whitney will be visiting him in Huaras in April to look at organizing Peru trips in the future. Watch his space!
Timing is Everything!
Below is a photo of a rock which landed on the Gillespie Pass track . The rock came from several hundred meters above and left a 1 kilometer swath through mature forest. They say the mountains here are growing 7mm a year, no says how fast they are falling down! You wouldn't have wanted to be walking on the track when this monster was let loose!
Stefan achieves hardest peak yet!
 Guide Stefan Sporli recently achieved Aspirant Guide status with the New Zealand Guides Association. This is the final step to becoming a fully qualified IFMGA guide and means that Stefan’s status as a guide will be recognized world wide. Good on ya Stefan!
Few people realize the exhaustive list of courses, accomplishments and supervision required to be become a mountain guide. It typically takes 6-8 years to complete the training program and this does not even include the years of experience necessary to even be accepted into the program. This is a big deal!
In the meantime, while we might still be sweltering in the summer heat...we're already busy thinking about winter...!
Dates are out for our 2010 winter programme.
Cheers,
Whit Thurlow
Chief Guide, IFMGA |
