HiTAC December 2022

President’s Desk With Christmas holidays immediately upon us, I hope our membership has managed to avoid the pitfalls of getting caught up in the spending frenzy of sales on offer or at least find a rare genuine bargain. One way to avoid it entirely, which me and my family are opting for this year, is the good old spend limited secret santa, so everyone can use their hard earned money to self gift themselves some new toys or an adventurous holiday. The Rock Rats otherwise known as the Taranaki tuataras who predominantly climb on plastic who the club supports with […]

Trip Report: Bush Skills Navigation Nov 2022

I recently attended the OTNZ Bush Navigation Skills course and have to admit (shamefully) my map reading skills certainly would not have saved me if I was to get lost on a solo mission off the beaten track on the maunga but thanks to this course I can say I probably have a 50% chance of finding my way out. Magnetic North, True North , Grid North! Very important first bit of information to learn. I had never used a compass before so that was a new experience for me, you can’t always rely on the GPS or other people. […]

HiTAC November 2022

President’s Desk Kia ora folks, Spring is well and truly here, and rather than the club leaving its members to hibernate we have plans to keep them training over the warmer months. This training consists of alpine and sport rock climbing, navigating alpine routes rarely visited and ticking along in the background preparations for the club’s annual open climb. Therefore I will keep this president’s desk to the point as you have a lot of trip reports and upcoming trips below to read through. First up, well done to the first time Taranaki maunga summiters and the experienced mentors who […]

HiTAC October 2022

President’s Desk Kia ora folks, Well, no body would have believed It, but we managed to get a snowcraft one course completed no thanks to a dismal snow season. A lucky and very grateful total of nine students covered off the basics of safely traveling on snow under a team of volunteer instructors. The course didn’t only just run but was in ideal learning conditions enabling students to grow their confidence massively in just two days and two evenings. The students did well to take in the mass of information show it out there on the real thing including building […]

HiTAC September 2022

President’s Desk Kia ora folks, A lot of our new members will be wondering if their chances of completing a snowcraft course will be possible this year after spotting the mountain on Monday. Thanks to our dynamic efforts of Finn and the dedicated team of volunteer instructors we will try our best to run courses when the conditions allow hence having backup weekends already built in. If these attempts fail a third date is sometimes a possibility subject to instructor availability. Let’s just hope the snow can come back as quickly as it has disappeared. Club night update You may […]