The Southern Alps are a fabulous play ground and Wanaka is a great base to start from, be it ski touring, ascents or technical mountaineering instruction courses, not to forget the amazing trekking excursions. For all of these alpinism adventures, it is a good thing to be well prepared, either on your own or with a mountain guide.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation has stopped the intention system this year and sent us following which we want to pass on to all alpinism adventurers: they (DoC) are

encouraging people to use  the New Zealand Outdoors Intentions process on the AdventureSmart website; www.adventuresmart.org.nz  which is endorsed by New Zealand’s search and rescue agencies and provides three simple options to tell someone they trust the details about their trip. The main message is: before you go outdoors, tell someone your plans.

Many mountaineers, climbers, trampers and ski touring or other Alpinism addicts are keen to have an emergency plan in place and here some suggestions for getting insurance cover for these alpinism activities:

• The New Zealand Alpine Club insurance always very helpful, the Alpinism & Ski team use it for Europe
• Australian insurance possibility, being used by our latest guest in Switzerland
• European options to be covered for alpinism: REGA in Switzerland, we strongly support this rescue system, Austrian Alpine Club has been and is used by some of our alpinism guests
• Another global option
  

If you know of another worthy insurance option to be covered for our favorite activities, get in touch so that we can spread the word.

For now, stay safe and keep having fun!