A trip to the mountains of Fiordland – the Darren mountains. Gaz and Tim headed down to Homer Hut to get in a great climb of Mt McPherson via Homer Saddle and ‘Talbots Ladder’. A great wilderness feeling objective involving alpine rock and a classic snow summit with awesome alpine vistas of the surrounding snowy Fiordland peaks.
The summit slopes of Mt McPherson – classic alpine climbing in Fiordland, NZ
Climbing amongst the Darren Mountain peaks
Alpine rock climbing above homer saddle
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
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
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,
Late Feb/early March Gaz and long time client, friend and business mentor headed for a few days to the head of the Tasman Glacier, and from Kelman hut, got Phils alpine climbing program re started. The summit of Mt Alymer was acheived and a visit to Tasman Saddle hut (which was being renovated by the DOC mt Cook crew) – many a night has previously been had by Phil, gaz and friends, particularly on ski touring adventures based at that hut 🙂
A steady trip down the upper neve to a helicopter pick up at malte brun heli pickup site was the finale to a great trip
Well done Phil for all the effort put in to enable this to happen.
Phil and mates previously on a ski tour in the Murchesion glacier area.
In the middle of the July/August Swiss climbing season , Grant and Gary spent a week in the Swiss Alps working on developing Grants intermediate and advanced climbing techniques/skills for smooth, efficient ascent and descent of big peaks.
Climbing on Mt Blanc de Cheilion, Switzerland
Matterhorn skyline, Swiss Alps
Learn , develop, extend you Alpinism skills in Switzerland this 2016 season. Join IFMGA Mountain Guide Gary Dickson for a week during July or August this 2016.
Switzerland has brilliant terrain for delivering excellent, high quality climbing courses, and you can take advantage of the knowledge that Gary has gained over the last 15 seasons doing such courses.
Contact us now to work out when you can head into the Swiss Alps for your tailor made Swiss climbing course ….
Early April saw IFMGA Mountain Guide once again head back to the head of the Tasman Glacier for a 1:1 ratio alpine climbing instruction course for a chap from Sweden.
Mountain Guides Qualifications
Tasman Saddle hut, your base for a mountaineering instruction course
Grant has just booked with me a week of mountaineering in the Swiss alps in August. You too can come and join the alpinism and ski team and enjoy the massive supermarket of mountaineering peaks and routes with good access, light packs, excellent mountain accomodation in Switzerland.
On his recent trip in the NZ Alps, Ant is inspired to get into more mountaineering again and will maybe join me in the swiss alps too………………… what about you?
Nadelhorn, classic summit, Switzerland
Almageller hut. Sass valley, Switzerland
January 2016, Ascents trip to the West coast, based at Centenial Hut. Great weather and we had the whole of the 8000ha of the Franz neve to ourselves! and the end of the week , a fantastic traverse of the Remarkables, above Queenstown….
Anthony on the summit of Single Cone, the third peak on the Remarkables traverse
Ant climbing on Mt Aurora, Franz Josef glacier, West coast NZ