Early September – Gary and Iris traveled from Switzerland via many twists and turns in their little car to the magnificent Dolomites for some fantastic alpine rock climbing.
Such a beautiful area of limestone rock towers and faces with a back drop of forest .
Iris climbing superb featured limestone in the Dolomites, Italy
Belaying on a 7 pitch climb
Superb scenery as we climbed in the Dolomites
Switzerland has amazing rock walls and superb multipitch climbs on them.
Iris and Gaz climbed at Sanetsch ( 2240m alt) yesterday – a beautiful cloudless, sunny alpine climbing day in Switzerland.
Back in NZ – Iris got an alert on her phone here in Switzerland – chains required on the Crown range , Wanaka, NZ. Yep, the winter snows have well and truly arrived in New Zealand setting the winter snow pack up beautifully for ski touring in September/October.
Enjoy you alpine passions….
Iris leading 5b beautiful limestone pitch heading for the skyline pitches 🙂
Winter in NZ has arrived down under. Enjoy the slopes and get into the groove and shape for an awesome ski tour in late Winter/Spring( the most superb time for alpine ski touring on the NZ Glaciers).
The Alpinism & Ski team will be back from the Dolomites Mid September, back at the Wanaka Base ready for a great Kiwi ski touring season.
Enjoy the snow…. 🙂
Fresh winter snow – September ski touring in NZ
Mid July and Phil, Barb , Gaz and Iris have had a fantastic trip to Pontresina ( just up the road from St Moritz), the Engadine region of Switzerland.
On top of a spectacular alpine vista, 20cm of fresh snow was had overnight as the team stayed overnight in the awesome Diaviolazza alpine ‘hotel’.
We then relocated to the beautiful Roseg Gletsher hotel and did a day of alpine trekking up to the Techierva rIfugio.
The final night of the trip was had in the superbly crafted alpine chalet of the Talli Hutte.
Brilliant alpine cuisine, spectacular alpine flowers, marmots, and great company.
Superb alpine views in the Pontresina region of Switzerland
The Awesome Bianco Grat on the 4000m Piz Bernina as seen from the Tschierva Refugio
Phil enjoying the awesome scenery, trekking Switzerland
Gary has been busy corresponding with folk re climbing/mountaineering in Switzerland for the 2019 summer season ( July /August )……are you traveling that way or thinking about it? Give us a call/email and discuss an amazing Swiss alpine adventure with Alpinism and ski.
Inspirational Swiss rock climbing
Classic mountaineering
Fantastic Swiss climbing/mountaineering infrastructure
Northern hemisphere 2019 summer climbing season in comming up. Switzerland is a fantastic destination for rock, snow and ice, alpine climbing and the Alpinism and Ski team is once again going to be based in Leysin, Switzerland for the 2019 european summer.
Come and join us for a week of excellent alpine climbing…
The Matterhorn at sunset on the classic “spaghetti tour” Monterosa Chain , Switzerland/Italy.
Mid March had Gary and American client Paul head into Bevan Col and glacier trek across to Collin Todd Hut to spend the night in preparation for a guided ascent of Mt Aspiring. The weather was a little tricky in the morning, but after 1 hr delay for the mist to clear, the climbing day commenced. The full shipowner ridge and full NW ridge was the route( and standard at this time of year). It was an 11 hr day , successfully summited and great satisfaction for this climb of one of NZ’s classic and moderately challenging peaks. Pauls previous climbing experience over the years in the USA was evident and added alot to the enjoyment and success of the climb. Well done Paul. What a great thing to do in your early days of retirement..
The team then flew out and next day did some local rock climbing – Paul rekindling his passion and skills for this, and then followed up the next day with a traverse of the remarkables – a super classic alpine rock traverse, before Gary dropped Paul off in Queenstown.
Great Autumn non busy climbing conditions. A great 5 days of Alpinism
Summit pose on Mt Aspiring, Autumn 2019 NZ Southern Alps
Lunch time on Single Cone, classic NZ alpine rock climbing traverse
Recently we booked an itinerary for long term client/friend Phil and his wife Barb, to visit the stunning St Moritz alpine area of Switzerland.
Are you thinking of a climbing trip or instruction course in July/August 2019. Join us in Switzerland again where you can enjoy great mountains, stable continental weather, great mountain infrastructure and alpine history/culture.
The stunning view from alpine hotel and restaurant Diavolazza, Pontresina/St Moritz region of Switzerland
Finally I have got myself into the 21st century one might say…I have an iphone, and hence alpine pics taken with it on our most recent trip.
Here some pics from Pioneer hut, Head of the Fox Glacier – a week with Tomasz and Lida from Shanghai. A great course up there alpine climbing and learning skills like ice climbing on a perfect icewall up near the 2nd pioneer hut site.
Pioneer hut, a perfect place for and alpine climbing/instruction course in NZ
Fantastic ice formations @ governors col, main divide of the NZ southern alps
Gary and John have finished off a project they started in March. In March they started their preparation for an attempt on Mt Aspiring with some local rock climbing and a traverse of the Remarkables in Queenstown. So on Friday they flew into to Bevan Col with Aspiring helicopters and traveled in “glacier mode” across to Colin Todd Hut ( 1800m). Next morning after a 3.30am wake up they climbed the ‘kangaroo patch’ and buttress route to the summit ( 3033m). Yeehaa. Well done John!
John and Gaz on the summit – alpine climbing at its best in NZ 🙂
Big peak, big country – the big alpine snow and ice peaks of the Southern Alps,