The plan is to head to Mt Twynam and practise some mountaineering skills. We will aim to get some practise in: Roping up for glacier travel Building snow anchors Pitched climbing Crevasse rescue The exercise will last the whole weekend. We'll drive down Friday night and return Sunday evening. Starting from Saturday morning, we'll walk in via Guthega in rope teams of two. Upon reaching the base of Twynam, we'll set up camp and spend the rest of the day practising a range of snow anchors and pitching up some nearby snow slopes. An early night will be followed by an alpine start where teams will be tasked with a roped ascent of Mt Twynam before sunrise. If there is time and suitable terrain, we will practise some crevasse rescue before returning the way we came in. In order to maximise the amount of practise we can get, participants will be required to do some preparation beforehand, including: - snow camping - roped climbing of some sort (gym is ok, but you must be able to belay) - tying knots: figure of 8, rethreaded figure of 8, alpine butterfly, prussik knot, overhand (a good resource: http://www.animatedknots.com/) - building basic pulley systems: 2:1, 3:1 (another resource: http://www.ropebook.com/information/pulley-systems) We will have a meeting a few weeks before the trip (around mid August) where participants will be asked to demonstrate some of these skills. You will also want to have enough fitness to get through the weekend. When you sign up, please include some information about your skills and experience and what you hope to gain from the weekend. Note that signing up does not guarantee you a spot on the trip. Participants will be selected based on how well they meet the requirements. There is hard limit of 6 participants (not including leaders). If there is sufficient interest, multiple trips may be run. Btw this probably won't be a fun trip. Expect sweating as you carry lots of seemingly useless weight up steep hills, then slowly lose all feeling in your hands and feet while you wait for your partner to fumble through their three layers of gloves attempting to build a bombproof anchor in a hopeless situation. Of course this will all be significantly worse during a storm.
See trip description.