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dankness
Jun 4, 2003, 5:47 PM
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Registered: Jun 4, 2003
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Long time lurker, first time poster....
I'm headed for New Zealand next week to stay for a year. I'm planning on doing a lot of climbing, but I'm not sure whether to bring my ice climbing equipment with me. I'm already bringing a rack of trad gear, and ice gear means a lot more stuff to carry around. I've been looking online for quite some time now, and can't find much of anything worthwhile about climbing ice in NZ. Can anybody let me know if it would be worth it to take all that extra stuff out. Would I be able to use it and where?
Thanks!
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maynardgkrebs
Jun 4, 2003, 6:33 PM
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Registered: Feb 28, 2003
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There's some Water Ice stuff around Queenstown, in the Remarkables. It wasn't the season for it while I was there, but the photos I saw really didn't look all that spectacular, at least compared to what we have here in North America.
That being said, DEFINITELY take your ice gear.
You could do some spectacular ice cragging on the Fox and/or Franz Joseph glaciers.
There's no doubt you can put your ice tools to use in the Mount Cook region.
Be sure to visit the Golden Bay area. The Hangdog Camp is the place to stay--$2.00NZ a day to camp (or $10/day to stay in the "Gay Carabiner" bunkhouse) a five minute walk from the rock climbing & one of the best swimming holes in the world. The owner of the Hangdog Camp recently died, so I 'm not sure what's going on with his campground & bunkhouse, hopefully they're still open.
I'd consider myself pretty much a traditionalist (I dragged a big rack all over NZ,) but the majority of the rock climbing there seemed to be sport routes--I'd say that if it comes to a choice between ice & trad gear, lighten up your trad rack & take the ice stuff. You'll likely hook up with folks who you can mingle racks with anyway.
NZ has some of the best alpine climbing in the world--You should be sure to visit the Southern Alps. I don't know whether or not you're into mountaineering, but if you are. I very highly recommend an early season (December) trip up Mt. Taranaki, a volcano on the North Island.
Watch out for Kea--Aggressive alpine parrots.
I recently spent some time down there and climbed pretty much all over--Let me know if you have any more questions or if you want any more recommendations about what to do, where to go, whatever.
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richardiii
Jun 5, 2003, 8:47 AM
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Registered: May 25, 2003
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1) Where you going to live, bro?
2) I know a few trad clmbers, they always find places to go. But yeah, most of the popular areas are sport. However, definately bring the alpine / ice gear in preference if necessary. Definately. Like Maynard says, there's a lot of good frozen stuff here, the climbing might not be as good (I'm not skilled enough to notice) but the views are world class.
3) Really - watch out for Kea. Incredibly intelligent parrots, with sharp and strong beaks, and a lot of spare time. They damage destroy and steal $000s of gear and vehicle every year. If I catch you feeding them, I'll be rather annoyed - it encourages endearing habits like "pecking" people's tents.
R3
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