I'm looking at hiking the Larapinta Trail again in August 2010. Any takers? I've done lots of hiking in lots of countries and Larapinta is my all time favourite hike.

It will be a 19 day walk. You can actually do it in 14 but blitzing it through without stopping to do sidetrips and swim in the gorges seems like missing the point. 19 days leaves time to camp in the mountain tops and even have a rest day to swim and explore around day 10.

It's not an especially easy walk, nor is it that hard. We'll start off at an easy pace and so long as you've got at least average fitness and above average determination, you can walk yourself fit in the first 4 to 8 days at a pace that won't build blisters. The walk covers 230km of the West McDonnell Ranges and finishes at Alice Springs The West McDonnell Range is the second highest mountain range in Australia and will have you gasping for the first few days (unless you'll already marathon man) but by the end of 19 days you'll be skipping up hills like a mountain goat :-)

Cost is moderate. Most expensive part will be your flights to Alice. Some land transport and rations should work out to about $400 per person plus $30 or so for the last night at a backpackers.

And last but not least...
A mate and I hiked it a couple of years ago and are planning to do it again to make a documentary (or 6 docos actually) of the hike so looking for people who aren't worried about seeing their face on Discovery Channel (if we should be lucky enough to have it actually end up there :-).
We're also planning on doing some 'before and after' fitness testing (VO2 max and the like) plus blood cholesterol etc to get some stats on the benefits of pack-walking.

Still interested? Drop me a line at 2009@juliantalbot.com

It's a great hike!

Cheers,

Julian

Hi all,

I'm going to be in Tanzania caretaking an exploration camp for 3 months or so and I'm planning on visiting a few game parks as well as hiking Mt Kilimanjaro so I just thought I'd put it out there to see if there was any interest from ANUMC club members. I'm not sure the exact logistics yet but pretty sure I'll have spare room at the camp and I'll do some local recon when I get there to find out details re Kili.

I'll be there from 28OCT09 to... (not sure yet but probably January or even Feb).

Drop me an email if you're even vaguely interested. No need for firm commitments, I'm just floating the idea to see if there is any interest.

Best contact for me is 2009@juliantalbot.com

Cheers,

Julian

Rising tall at 1375m, Mt Tennent is one of the more exciting mountains in Namadgi. I have only walked up there once as part of the Big Days Out, during the heat of the summer. I would love to revisit this mountain now that the weather is cooler.

Starting from Namadgi visitors centre, this is a moderate walk with a total ascent of about 600m, and the return trip will take up most of the day. It is suitable for people who have done a couple of day walks before and want to challenge themselves with something a bit more demanding. The views at the top are absolutely stunning and well worth the effort.

I am open to any weekend in late July or August, depending on the availability of other interested people. Please let me know if you are interested, and we'll talk about the dates etc!

I know this is somewhat outside the normal activities the ANUMC covers, but it is something that i'd really like to do some time and having spoken to a few people in the club about this it seems there may be a few other members also interested.
I'm quite keen to see if it may be possible to organise some sort of trip which involves a horse 'trail ride', maybe with an overnight camp. It would need to be suitable for people who have never riden a horse before (i haven't), so i'm thinking that perhaps if there were enough interested people it may be possible to approach some kind of company and get a group discount. This may also get around any potential insurance problem that is likely with this kind of thing.
Does anyone know of anything around Canberra that would do this, and is anyone else interested?

I'd like to go to tassie to do frenchman's cap through route in the next month or so. A desciption is found at http://members.pcug.org.au/~apurdam/Tassy2003/fcindex.html. I'd be looking to take a week off work as the walk takes 5-6 days. The walk is quite difficult, at times being very muddy and with indistinct tracks, and has been recommended to me by a couple of friends. It may be a long shot but is anyone interested?
tony

Sign up to this if you are interested in learning to climb outdoors. The emphasis of trips based off this is on learning rather than climbing. A successful trip is one where you learn lots, even if you only get one climb in. Trips will focus on skills like gear placement, anchor building, belaying etc. Whether trips are predominantly trad (Google "trad climbing") or sport will depend on the preferences of the organiser and the experienced climbers that come along to help. Beginners who sign up should be willing to organise trips. Organising a trip involves the following:

• Find at least one experienced climber willing to help out
• Pick a weekend that both you and your experienced climber(s) can make
• Post the trip on the club web site
• Organise cars amongst the trip participants
• Limit numbers based on number of experienced climbers (Probably no more than 2 beginners to each experienced climber)
• Pick up gear from the gear store prior to trip (usually Thursday)
• Go on the trip itself
• Collect rope fees from participants (take to gear store when you return gear)
• Return gear to gear store following the trip (usually Tuesday)
• Organise a post trip get together (eg, Pizza at Debacle) on the following Tuesday, so that everyone can discuss what they learnt

Before going on a trip, it might be a good idea to see what you can learn online and from books. The gear store has some books on climbing, including "Climbing Anchors" (by John Long). Borrow these out and read them.

Suggestions for finding an experienced climber to help out:

• Post a comment here saying what kind of trip you'd like to run and that you're willing to organise, but need an experienced climber or two
• Climb at the climbing wall and persuade someone there to come along
• Post to the climb mailing list

This might all sound a bit scary, but don't let it be. I'm happy to help provide support for any upcoming trip organisers. Just contact me by clicking on my name at the top of this page.

The ANUMC is looking to organise both Senior First Aid and Remote Area Rescue courses for trip members sometime in the next couple of months. We need expressions of interest in order to book and pay for the courses, which will be given by either Parasol or the Red Cross.

The senior first aid course will cost around $160 and the ANUMC will subsidise 10 members up to 50% of the cost. The course involves completion of a log book and a one day lesson. We need at least 10 participants for each course for this to go ahead.

The course covers the skills and knowledge required to "provide first aid response, life support, management of casualty(s), the incident and other first
aiders, until the arrival of medical or other assistance." Including the ability to "Perform CPR and provide basic emergency life support". (As quoted on the Parasol website. More info at www.parasolemt.com.au) There are no pre-requisites for this course although if you already hold a senior first aid certificate you can do a refresher for $90.

The remote area rescue course will cost $425. Subsidies may be available subject to agreement from the ANUMC committee and dependent on numbers.

The course will take 24 hours of training for participants that hold a current senior first aid certificate and 34 hours for those that don't. Participants must be first aid certificate holders (Level 2).

It will cover "the skills and knowledge required to provide first aid to a casualty in a remote and/or isolated situation.", including how to "work in conjunction with medical and emergency services support and evaluate the incident." (again, quoted from Parasol)

Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested so we can finalise dates and the number of courses needed. I have attached fact sheets from Parasol for your infromation

http://www.mundabiddi.org.au/

This looks like an incredible trail. I know very little about cycle touring, but for some reason this looks like a cool thing to do and a bit of a challenge.

though my type of challenge (at the moment) would still involve finding a bed and shower at the towns we pass through (unless i toughen up).

there is some fine singletrack in the town of Jarrahdale - I often dream about it.. (yeah, I'm a perth girl!).

supposedly the first stage should take 7-10 days. part of stage 2 is also open.

would you start south and work north, saving singletrack goodness 'till the end?!

vaguely interest anyone? thinking it'd have to be spring this year or autumn next...

The Darrans are an astonishingly beautiful and rugged area of the South Island, inland from Milford Sound in Fiordland. Huge granite towers offer unlimited long Alpine rock climbing at all grades. Check out, for example, http://www.cosleyhouston.com/recent/03-03-nz-sabre.htm to get an idea of what's involved.

The Sabre is a must-climb peak, with feasible routes up it for the ordinary weekend rock climber; it's just that the routes are 500m long! The walk in isn't trivial either as any look at a topo map will attest.

Unfortunately, all this splendour is in possibly the wettest area of a wet island. Don't be fooled by the pictures in the link above, the weather in these mountains can be spectacularly foul. I reckon any trip in to these regions either relies on a helicopter to grab weather windows (and there are some permitted landing sites in the Darrans) or packs enough food and gear to sit out the weather. Either way this must-do trip wll take some planning and commitment.

Late summer 2009 (Feb-Mar) would be a good time.

Mount Feathertop is a beautiful peak in the Victorian Alps. Under snow it can have some real climbing, especially in the steep couloirs on the northern side. The summit and back is a good day's walk from Harrietville (pretty little place with a real pub) and there are also traverses along the Razorback, probably involving overnighting at or near Federation Hut. Given the right weather this is as close to mountaineering as you're going to get this side of the Tasman. More detail at http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources05/05_1092.pdf and googling Mount Feathertop will give lots of useful hits.

It's quite a way, about 500 km to Harrietville, so to do justice to the area would need several days in late winter when the snow is established.

There might even be some downhill skiing available at the Victorian resorts!