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
Recently Gary and Iris have been out cranking some classic big multipitch rock routes.Fabulous sunny weather, and great, inspirational rock.
Classic Swiss granite slab climbing
Inspirational Swiss rock climbing
Iris belaying on 10 pitch ‘le singe’
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 ….
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
specialised rock training, MJ leading
Aaron ready to belay us up
Aaron and MJ
Multipitch rock climbing on the granite slabs near Homer Tunnel in the Fiordland, Darren mountains was the start of this summers specialised Police SAR squad training.
Stunning location and excellent rock and even the Keas behaved themselves and did not destroy our packs.
The plan to do a traverse of Mt Macpherson over to Mt Talbot was thwarted by the Fiordland jungle mist, so after a slightly soggy ascent and descent to homer saddle, the continuation of specialised training was on the way back to Wanaka, with a climbing stop off at Kingston. Superb multipitch climbing with excellent lake views before a Queenstown burger.
Next climbing instruction installment will be in March …..what will we get up to then?…..
The peak season of mountaineering adventures in the Southern Alps has started with this last month of the year. Guided climbing adventures with us begin most often right here in Wanaka, including ascents of Mt Aspiring, Mt Tasman and of course the highest, Mt Cook – Aoraki.
Also mountaineering courses and Gary has just spent a 7 day trip with three Australians, based at Pioneer hut for the best weather days, learning, refreshing and improving alpine climbing skills, enjoying the alpine ambiance and taking in the wilderness aspect of the Southern Alps:
Mic and Monty have both been on Alpinism adventures here with us before and it was a pleasure to introduce Mic’s son Pat to the fun and excitement of alpine climbing.
learning to place ice screws on a climbing course
End of the month, two fit fellas will be arriving from Aussie to go on an intermediate-advanced climbing course with mountain guide Gaz. The NZ weather looks to have settled into a more settled state of play and alpine conditions look excellent for the 10 day specialized mountain training.
If you are looking for a climbing course we have two sceduled courses comming up:
If you are an individual or a group looking to have a week of private mountaineering instruction, just get in touch and we can see if we can fit around your schedule.