Auckland Section Events
Banff Mountain Film Festival 2008
This year we had another successful screening of the NZ leg of the Banff Mountain Film Festival 2008 world tour, with a full house at the Sky City Theatre. Thank you everyone for your support of this event, and a special thanks to Suzanne Stickney and Allan Maclachlan for their organisational skills. We look forward to seeing you all there again next year, so book the date in your diary! (Some time around May next year.)
Summits for Ed Tribute Tour
Please see http://www.summitsfored.org.nz/ for more information on the Summits for Ed tribute tour. The tribute tour was an opportunity to recognise and further the work of Sir Ed in helping young people gain confidence though enjoying the environment.
Mountaineers' Farewell to Sir Edmund Hillary – Jan 2008
Following the state funeral for Sir Ed on Tues 22nd January 2008, a Mountaineers' Farewell was held at the band rotunda in the Domain. An amazing line-up of speakers gave us their personal insights into the fascinating life and adventures of Sir Ed and regaled us with tales of mountains, antarctic ice, projects in Nepal and inspirational experiences. Coordinated by the MC, John Nankervis, we heard from George Band, Norman Hardie, Graeme Dingle, Jan Morris, Lydia Bradey, Mike Gill, John & Diane McKinnon, David Ellis and Gottlieb Braun-Elwert. The speakers were supported by a background visual presentation of photos from Colin Monteith's collection and video/photo archives from TVNZ, edited by the team at Images & Sound and Suz Stickney. This presentation will be shown at the next club meeting.
A big "thank you!" to all those members (both at national and local level) who helped in the organisation for this event and to the audience for their appreciation.
Several members of the Auckland section were also honoured to be included in the Guard of Honour when Sir Ed's casket left the church, and our thanks go to the Auckland Tramping Club for lending us some wooden ice-axes for the occasion.
Annual Masters' Rock-Climbing Social Competition – Saturday 8 March 2008
Organised by Alexander Scherbakov & Gena Sibaev
Mt Eden Quarry
It was a bit much to ask that the sun gods smile us for the second year in a row, I thought as I dropped Alex off down at the quarry on the Friday night when it was absolutely bucketing down. Optimistically, he and Gena got the ladder and chalk out and waited for the “shower” to pass. Thankfully, Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny, and a keen crowd of climbers turned up at the short side, ready to see what challenges had been set up for them this year.
First up was a set of 2 speed climbs, where everyone was paired off and raced the clock (and each other) up into the scrub of the short side. This was a very close competition between the Kids and Masters categories, with Marty and Ian both getting exactly the same combined time. Amongst the women, Janya beat the Kids, and her daughter Polina was triumphant over all the females.
Results by category with combined time (min:sec):
Brats M: Connor Wallace (9:49)
Kids M: Marty Blumen (1:28), Edwin Sheppard (1:37)
Masters M: Ian Wallace (1:28), Paul Whitfield (1:31)
Grandmasters M: John Salisbury (2:12), David Ackery (2:55)
(B)Old Bastards M: Hans Heilbron (11:12)
Brats F: Polina Gorr (3:41), Ceara Wallace (5:49)
Kids F: Shiva Nami (4:16), Cho Hwang (4:23)
Masters F: Janya Gorr (4:04)
The next challenge was set up on the long side, and after a quick forage in the many picnic baskets, the rules were explained and the clock started. Each competitor had 2 hours to climb as many of the 29 set bouldering routes as they could, with climbs ranging from grades 15 to 30 and associated points ranging from 1 to 100. Each successive attempt earned less points, so the key was to not spend too long on any one climb. Alex had applied his formidable mathematical skills to carefully regulate the points system so that no two people would get the same score, and in the end, Brett and Paul were separated by just 0.2 points with Edwin scoring an impressive total of 207.4!
Results by category:
Brats M: Connor Wallace (3.8)
Kids M: Edwin Sheppard (207.4), Andrew DeVille (185)
Masters M: Ian Wallace (134.2), Paul Whitfield (125), Brett McGill (124.8)
Grandmasters M: David Ackery (60), John Salisbury (36)
(B)Old Bastards M: Hans Heilbron (0)
Brats F: Ceara Wallace (9), Polina Gorr (0.8)
Kids F: Miki Okabe (9.4), Cho Hwang (5.2)
Masters F: Janya Gorr (3)
Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who took part in the competition as well as all the supporters. Special thanks to our wonderful sponsors Outdoor Action, Bivouac and NZAC, who provided such great prizes and muffins. This email from Ian Wallace sums up the feeling of the day:
"Many thanks for a great day on Saturday and for all your hard work in organizing things. Thanks too for including the kids (brats). Ceara and Connor are now both asking "How old do you have to be to join the Alpine Club?" !!! "
Find out more...
Browse this website to find out what trips are happening, local and national Alpine Club news, information about instruction courses, how to get to the Ruapehu hut, and who to contact on the committee if you'd like to volunteer!