Quite a fun week actually – more to come in a weeks time. The reason being on Thursday and Friday we had our Annual Team Building / Leadership / Contact Centre training. The facilitator was a guy called Tony Brindle. He used to (still does some) do lots of Hard Core Mountaineering – with the likes of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates etc… Worked in Outward Bound etc. But it was great… there were lots of little exercises and anecdotes to get us all thinking. I’ll write more about it next week (just in case anyone from the Contact Centre actually reads this and I spoil the exercises they will have to do!)

Then last night had lots of friends over for Pizza before heading out to watch part 1 of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. It was funny.. for all the organisation etc. that I’d learned over the last couple of days – I was too busy rounding everyone up to take them across the bridges and through Mona Vale (the botanical gardens out the back of my house) to check the oven was off. 1/2 way through my friend Neil says they might have left one in the oven … so I ran back to check. Fortunately it was on a low ish heat so no major catastrophe. The ducks enjoyed eating it this morning.. or some of it anyway! (yes, this is my back garden)

Then this morning headed out biking to Godley head with Michelle and Sheb?(sp?) a friend of hers who instructs on Outward Bound. I think I am going to test myself this week and see if my back is up to a 3km run (should be I reckon) and if so will see if I can get myself onto it.. will see.. It’s something I would love to do.

Only had one fall where I didn’t manage to get out of the clip peddles.. and it was only onto grass so not too bad. I’m still feeling really unsafe! in them – but getting there.. slowly ;)

Really should stop heading out for pints before getting up early the next morning!… This Friday it was the Chill pray-for-snow party in the Dux. Seems to have done the trick, it has been raining here (snowing up there) constantly for the last 3 days – if this keeps up twill be a good season. I even won a t-shirt at the spot prizes (not exactly legitimately but all the same..)

Then Sat morning it was back up to Arthurs Pass, this time heading up the other side. The tramp started up a valley and boulder hopping up a river. There were nice views down over Lake Kaurapataka (the lake on the way in to The Otahake Hot pools), and across to Mt. Alexander too.

The idea was to get up onto the summit of Mt. Pfeifer (1704m). We even brought ice-axe and crampons. Unfortunately we left a little later than we should have (plus the weather clagged in anyway) Also, I was going pretty slowly to be honest.. not used to wearing heavy mountaineering boots! So we didn’t make it onto the top (this time)… Back down again (note the trees who shed their bark to stop the moss + lichen growing on them..) and then a quick stop in the Bealey pub before back to ChCh.

A while ago at a party I casually mentioned that it’d be good if there was a place to go to organise car pooling to the ski fields this winter.

Euan and Darren (two of the others at the party) thought it was a good idea too, we drank our wine, ate Florians excellent cuisine, and thought no more of it.

OR I did at any rate. A couple of days ago they came back and said that it actually was worth doing..

So, no I’ve spent no time on making it look pretty, but spent today registering a domain and setting the bones of the system up.. IF anyone wants to try and break it / suggest obvious improvements (there are lots of things I want to do to it) then http://www.snowpool.org.nz/ is the link to try. Hopefully it’ll get used…

I was quietly happy with my days work :)

Some people maintain that tramping isn’t worth the effort. At 5am on Saturday morning I was beginning to think this for the first time in my life. Mind you, I personally reckon it might have had something to do with drinking until midnight with Kiwi, English, Scottish, Irish and Slovakians (a dangerous combination if ever there was one)

So.. up at 5am, and after meeting the others from the CUTC we drove up to Arthurs Pass to start up Mt. Bealey (1836m)

The route climbs steeply up through the bush (beech forest) and then becomes a really impressive arete with side ridges coming off it. I was here 1 year, 11 months and 3 weeks ago with Florian. It was misty then.. we managed to get onto a side ridge and went completely off route. It was actually hilarious – Florian was adamant we were heading North (look at the sun) when we were infact heading South. It wasn’t until someone pointed out he was in the wrong hemisphere and showed him his compass that we finally turned around!

Anyways – blue skies for us this weekend.

Summit Pic L->R: Sharon, Caroline, Olivier, Carol, James and Volker. A great crowd to go tramping with (not a kiwi amongst us.. though I am getting there I feel)

So we trundled along through amazing scenery (though I am so out of shape I wasn’t admiring it as much as it deserved.. more cursing it really)

Once we got onto the top of Avalanche Peak (where they have races up and down every year, for fun, as you do…) it was a shortish trip down the ridge to find the exit off the mountain. The exit is a really long scree run which you can see below.

You descend about 500m. Quickly. It’s super fun as it is really easy to slide down it (acts like sand). The bottom of the slope was agony though – thighs screaming blue bloody murder with all the big rocks (which don’t slide *quite* so easily) having already fallen to the bottom! It was good to get to the hut that night.

The walk out the next morning was quite straight forward along the river valley. I had thought by the end of yesterday how funny it was to have dry feet on a hike… Fortunately there were more than enough river crossings to make up for it today!

So all in all a great weekend, it was good to stretch the legs again.

Declan (on the right in this very old picture I took off the climbing website..)

single handedly got me through tech-drawing in my first year in college (no joke), came away climbing to Cassis in France for that summer. He was a real help in second year too with motivation for the schol exams. We then flatted together for a year on campus (house 37 I think).. where he made erroneous stories about my pyjamas up.. also getting me through electronics that year..

Anyway.. great guy – and he has just left Ireland to join the British Army.. I actually think he’ll be really good in there – bringing his own brand of sanity to the job. Good luck Declan.. keep us posted with the stories!… and if you can manage a rotation out to NZ – all the better.