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Southland Section New Zealand AlpineClub NewsletterNovember 2015Southland Section November MeetingOur November meeting is Our Christmas Dinner on Thursday 19th 2015 at 7:15 pm, (Seated at7:30 pm.) at the Thar & Feather Restaurant. (The Southland Hotel 410 Elles Road)The Hotel requires Numbers for catering. Would you please let Vonnie know if you wish to attend,and the large numbers coming with you, by the 12th November. Please make an effort to come,there are many members on our list but we can never put faces to names. Come along and join uswe would love to share your company.Please phone Vonnie on (03) 214 1548 (There is an answer phone) Thank you.Check this out if you have access to the internet, This is our section page on 657124/Section meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of every second month at 7:00pm. Non-members are warmlyinvited to come along and join us. For more information regarding the New Zealand Alpine Club contact theSection Chairman, Peter O’Neill Phone (03) 217 3889 or peter4donna@xtra.co.nz

Section Climbing Wall EveningsYMCA climbing wall every Monday, Tuesday andWednesday 6:00 to 8:30pm. 3.50 for NZACmembers and 5.50 for general public. Shoes forhire. You are welcome to take your own ropes tolead climbs these range from Grades 14 to 23. It isa great place to meet fellow members to arrangetrips on fine weekends.Please phone Peter O’Neill if interested in a fun,and exercising evening (03) 217 3889Weekend tripsAnyone interested in being on an email list that canbe used to rally people for weekend climbing, ormountaineering trips should contact Alastair Walker(03) 415 7887 or 021 583 320mealluaine@yrless.co.nzEmail AddressesWe have cut down on expensesby not sending snail mailnewsletters to members with anemail address. Please send usyour email address and receivethis newsletter electronically. Maps and photos willlook better on your computer too.david.johnston003@gmail.comMember number: 632Date of Birth: 6/12/1924Deceased: 28/6/2015 90yrHomer Hut50th ANNIVERSARY OF HOMER HUTAt Labour weekend the Southland Sectionorganized a celebration at Homer Hut to celebratethe 50th anniversary of its construction.For the keen people who arrived in Friday night,Saturday remained fine until about 3pm allowing afew assents to Gertrude Saddle. There was anexceptional amount of snow for this time of theyear.On Saturday night spirits flowed freely and many atale was told of past deeds.In spite of the bad weather forecast we weretreated to a perfect barbeque day on Sunday,there was hardly a sand fly to be seen, and in truestyle a Kea took centre stage during thespeeches. After we were well fed by Ron McLeodand his good helpers with his super-sizedbarbeque, we were treated to speeches by BillGordon and Noel Dunlop on the history of the hutconstruction; much of the finishing work on the hutwas carried out by club members but they hadtheir priorities right. Work was only scheduled fordays when the weather was not suitable forclimbing!ObituriesMember : Warwick Robert ProvanNotified: Wife JulieJoined: 1/1/1975Section: Canty/WestlandMember Type: VeteranMember number: 1328Date of Birth: 18/9/1950Deceased: 25/7/2015 64yrJulie volunteers with the NZAC reference library andis a Veteran member herself. She has helped withresearch for us and so was a frequent visitor to theHQ. 59 Reserve Tce, Lyttelton 03 328 9087Member : Dr Paul McNeil HillNotified: Wife Lesley:Joined: 4/5/2000Section: WellingtonMember Type: SeniorMember number: 5819Date of Birth: 18/9/1934Deceased: 14/5/2015 80yrMember : Mr George Whiffen GoodyearNotified: Wife Catherine (50yr Vet)Joined: 1/1/1944Section: OtagoMember Type: Veteran 50yrThis was followed by Robin McNeill (FMCPresident) who described the process of therecent upgrade. We were reminded never to takethe toilets for granted – they caused a lot ofheadaches and a disproportionate amount oftime. Bill Lendrum talked about being a wardenand Alastair Walker about the winter climbingmeets. John Cocks (NZAC president) gave aNZAC state of the nation speech. The formalitiesconcluded with the cutting of a hut birthday cakeby Mick Heslin and Ron Dickie, the oldestmembers of the Southland section who werepresent.

We were reminded of the notable assents in thisworld class climbing area, many made by SouthlandSection members, and they are documented in theGerald Hall-Jones book “Mountaineering from theMilford Road” There are a few copies of this stillavailable from Bill Gordon.As a grand finale we treated to a one-gun salute byRay Willet with his hair spray powered onionlauncher. Watch out ISIS if you ever attempt toinvade Fiordland we will bring tears to your eyes.Keith Moffat 28/10/2015Stoat Trapping:Ron Dickie and Mick Heslin cutting the Homer Hut50th birthday cakeStanley going to NepalBryan Scott and I are leaving on 14 November forNepal on a relief mission to have a look at remotedestroyed villages and assess if we can organise aservice project there such as rebuilding a school orrepairing infrastructure. We will be there for 6 weeksand hope to decide where we will base our project,draw up plans and arrange government approvaland then fund raise across several countries andreturn next year to implement the project.Castle Downs Family Fun DayThere will be a Family fun day at Castle Downs(Near Dipton) on the 14th November starting at 10am. Everyone is welcome especially children andyoung ones. Matt has organised a day of rockclimbing for beginners and pros. There will be abarbeque at midday, bring a picnic and anything youwould like cooked on the bbq. Please contact Matton 215 9907 for more information.Page 1518/04/201519/09/2015stoat rat11111111111111111111111

date19/09/2015trapBA10BA18stoat rat11KEYAC 31-40 Homer cirqueAC 20-30 GertrudeB Bowen fallsA safety management plan has beendrawn up by Dr Stanley Mulvany. Thisplan covers things like, traffic, personalinjury, infection, avalanche, weather andthe terrain.Mount Cook Climb:Visiting mountaineer seeks to join non-commercialteam/individual for climbing Mt Cook sometimebetween Dec. 6-20 . Will be in Chch and haveextensive experience with hard climbs in theEuropean Alps and high Himalayas. Many thanksfor any replies: backpacker4life@gmx.deSouthlandSecondaryClimbing Competition 2015Schools’by Aran Jagoutza draw for those students who did not receive ateam or individual medal.Competitions like this are often labour intensive interms of setting up. This competition was nodifferent with all of the routes being changed sothat the local climbers did not have an unfairadvantage on competition day. We had anexcellent route-setting team who came into theYMCA in the evenings and set interesting,challenging and yet level-appropriate climbs. Thegrade range was between 12 and 24. Eachclimber had a choice of climbs to attempt in orderto gain points. Climbers were all able to selectclimbs they could achieve and also choose tochallenge themselves.The fact that almost every climber completed aclimb on most pitches and yet there were only twoclimbers tied on first place in one category istestament to the fact that the competition routeswere well set and thought out.The local climbers put hours of training in on theclimbing wall. Anyone who has tried rock climbingwill understand that to get good at it, you need tospend time on the wall. The results weredominated by local climbers. This is partly due tothe time that they have spent on the wall andpartly due to the support of the local climbingcommunity.James Hargest College featured prominently in theresults for the Senior Boys Category.in 1st place was David Jagoutz (JHC), in 2ndplace was Sean Burrows (JHC) and in 3rd placewas Jordan Reid (JHC). The battle for first andsecond place was decided by an exciting climb-offin the corner of the wall; all spectators cheered forboth competitors and gave them plenty of vocalsupport in true YMCA climbing wall fashion!The Senior Girls Competition saw Emily Jagoutz infirst place, Linnea Karlson (Swedish ExchangeStudent attending CSC) place in 2nd and BridgetDudin (CSC) place in 3rd.Saturday October the 17th saw twelve teams of fourcompetitors from schools around Southlanddescend upon the YMCA Climbing Wall inInvercargill for the annual Southland SecondarySchools Rock Climbing competition held at theYMCA in Invercargill.The competition was supported by the SouthlandSection of the NZ Alpine Club and medals wereprovided by Southland Secondary Schools Sport.The YMCA provided the venue at a very reducedcost of 5 each competitor and instructors gavetheir time freely. The Southland Section generouslygave chalk bags for prizes. these were entered intoPage 4.A huge thank you to all of the volunteers whofreely gave their time route-setting, scoring,judging, instructing and coaching climbers.Photo: JHC Senior Mixed Team(David Jagoutz, Sean Burrows, Jordan Reid andEmily Jagoutz)Photo: CSC Junior Girls’Team(Brenna Jardine, Louise Henderson,Alexander and Lucy McRae)Rachel

(K6 West with line to summit indicated)One of these first ascents was of Changi Tower aremote and technical 6500m rock tower and theother was the FA of the SW buttress of K6 West(7040m). The latter was a route which was chosenafter the intended objective (the central pillar of thesouth face below K6 central) was deemed toodangerous to warrant an eports/grants/historyChangi TowerPhotography Workshop:K6 Pakistani Karakoram 2015 Expedition Report:The registrations are now open for thePhotography Workshop. /mountain-photography-workshop/mark-watsonDate: 2015-12-03 17:00 - 2015-12-07 12:00Location:Unwin Lodge, 5355 Mount Cook Road (StateHighway 80) RD 99, Aoraki Mount Cook NationalPark, 3km before Aoraki Mt Cook VillageOrganiser: Mark Watson (Highlux Photography)Scott Bennett, Steve Swenson and GrahamZimmerman spent the summer of 2015 on a fruitfuland very enjoyable expedition to the PakistanKarakoram. They spent the months of July andAugust in the Nangmah Valley and during a seasonmarked by poor conditions and bad weather inmuch of the range, were fortunate to open twobeautiful and technical routes.Notice of the 2015 NZAC AGM:The 2015 Annual general meeting of NZAC will beheld in Christchurch at 7pm on Friday the 20th ofNovember. Venue to be advised. Any Membermay nominate a candidate for the positions ofHonorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer and theExecutive, Accommodation and PublicationsPage 5.