Find your ideal Mountaineering Course in New Zealand

Are you looking for the right mountaineering course for you? Many people start their mountaineering journey by taking a course with a professional mountain guide. With the risks associated with mountaineering and alpine climbing, there is a ‘steep’ learning curve and often lengthy apprenticeship. Courses can provide valuable skills development, tips and tricks to help you progress safely in your adventures, access to experienced mentors and opportunities to develop climbing partnerships.

It can be challenging to figure out where to begin, so we offer a variety of courses suitable for all levels of experience. Taking a series of courses can help aspiring mountaineers develop the skills and confidence needed to tackle more challenging objectives in the mountains of New Zealand and beyond. After completing a course, it’s recommended to spend time consolidating your skills and seeking mentorship from more experienced individuals before looking at the next step in the apprenticeship.

For ski and splitboard touring, see our ski touring progression.

Foundational Courses

We offer 3 foundational courses to get started building skills and knowledge and depending on your future goals. A little familiarity with knots and belaying will set you up to get the most out of the ropework aspects of these courses. This can easily be gained with a few sessions at a local climbing gym or with a local rock climbing instructor.

Summer Mountaineering Course

The Summer Mountaineering Course is the benchmark intensive course for New Zealand mountaineering and covers all the skills required to confidently tackle your own mountain adventures. The course comprehensively covers skills including snowcraft and crampon and ice axe use, glacier travel and crevasse rescue, trip planning, weather and avalanche awareness, snow and ice climbing, protection, and anchors, equipment selection, route planning and navigation. These courses are scheduled from November to April and are usually based from high alpine huts in the Aoraki Mount Cook region.

Ski Mountaineering Course

The Ski Mountaineering Course is for those with aspirations for ascents and ski or splitboard descents of New Zealand’s high peaks. The course introduces and develops the skills to undertake classic ski mountaineering objectives and glacier travel. For those with some ski or splitboard touring experience, this is an excellent step up into bigger mountain objectives. These courses are scheduled during August – October in the Aoraki Mount Cook or Westland regions.

Winter Mountaineering Course

The Winter Mountaineering Course is based out of Frankton, near Queenstown with day trips to the Remarkables mountain range near Queenstown. This is a popular venue for year-round mountaineering with easy access via the ski field. Running during July, August and September, these courses focus on snowcraft and winter mountaineering skills, including ice and mixed climbing. Without helicopter access, these make a cost-effective option for getting started with snowcraft and mountain skills.

Specialist Courses

If you have already completed a mountaineering course and have applied those skills in your adventures, our specialist courses are the next step in your mountaineering journey. These courses focus on specific technical skills at a time, allowing you to choose the courses that align with your mountain goals, at your own pace and according to your budget. Breaking down the complex topic of mountaineering into smaller, manageable chunks can help you build knowledge and understanding of the environment and the application of systems. This learning process can happen alongside gaining practical experience on increasingly challenging objectives.

Avalanche Skills Course

The Avalanche Skills Course for mountaineers is the first step in a lifelong journey of understanding and staying safe from avalanches. The course, with a focus on foot-based travel, introduces an awareness of how the terrain and weather can affect the stability of the snowpack and how climbers can gather and interpret information about the weather and snowpack to plan and safely carry trips in the NZ mountains.

Ice Climbing Course

The Ice Climbing Course is based at the upper crags and cirque of the South Branch of Wye Creek. The area provides one of New Zealand’s most accessible and varied winter climbing venues. Satisfying the criteria of altitude, drainage, and cold aspect gives this area reliability for good ice formation during the coldest periods of winter. Develop your ice climbing skills with expert instruction so that you can then apply skills on water and alpine ice objectives in the high mountains.

Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue Course

The short local Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue Course prepares mountaineers and trampers for carrying out travel over glaciers. It covers all the alpine skills required for spring or summer mountain missions. A customised refresher is also available for those who have covered these skills previously before embarking on a season’s adventuring.

Alpine Rock Climbing Course

The Alpine Rock Climbing Course covers the skills to increase your speed and safety on your own alpine rock climbing objectives and be able to plan and manage mountain routes, avoid potential issues, and problem-solve the most common emergency situations. Courses are run on the crags of Wānaka with day or overnight trips to the alpine rock of the Remarkables mountains near Queenstown.

Advanced Courses

If you have acquired and honed the specialist skills above, and have undergone a period of consolidation and mentorship, you might be ready for an advanced alpine climbing course. This will allow you to advance your alpine climbing skills for bigger and more challenging objectives.

Advanced Mountaineering Course

At this level, the best outcomes are achieved in small groups, ideally with existing climbing partnerships or those you intend to climb with in the future. This is the focus of the Advanced Mountaineering Course where teams get to apply their skills under the guidance of their instructor on actual objectives in the high mountains.

Which time of year is best?

Conditions in the mountains vary throughout the summer season so there is value in courses all throughout the year.

Typically during spring (November – December) there is more snow and the glaciers are well filled in with snow so, although courses still cover crevasse rescue and glacier travel skills, actual travel around the glaciers generally be straightforward. This also means that courses have more opportunity to practice snow climbing skills. Despite this time of year being the season for New Zealand’s classic snow ascents, it is generally the least settled for weather with the possibility or storms and new snow.

During the middle of summer (January and February) the days are longer, warmer, and the weather generally settled, The seasonal winter snow is melting off the glaciers providing more opportunities for glacier ice climbing, practising route finding through more complex glacier terrain and some alpine rock climbing.

Towards the end of the summer season (March or April), courses will have a similar focus to mid-summer courses though there is the possibility of new snow to fill in crevasses, cooler temperatures and shorter days. It can also be a great time of year for light for photography.

So to some extent, choosing the time of year for a course depends on future goals in the mountains. Whether that’s classic snow ascents such as the Minarets or Lendenfeld, or mixed or alpine rock scrambles or climbs such as the classics in the Darrans, Malte Brun, or Tititea / Mount Aspiring.

For more information on these or other courses available, get in touch with us so that we can give you the best advice.

‘Thank you again. That was an awesome day out and I really appreciated how generous [our guide] was with his time and knowledge. [He] crammed in more than I thought possible in a day.’

— Megan, Remarkables Alpine Rock Climbing Course

‘[Our guide] did an outstanding job of creating building blocks of learning – e.g. around crevasse rescue – so each of us was able to assimilate the learning involved at a rate that was appropriate for each of us. He also very skillfully managed and created situations where we could test ourselves at a level at which we were comfortable, without specifically calling this out.

— Ruth, Summer Mountaineering Course

‘[Our guide] was an outstanding teacher. Very patient, knowledgeable and an excellent communicator. The course was engaging and I learnt loads!’

— Danielle, Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue Course

wanakamountainguides

30 May 2024

Mountaineering Course, Uncategorized

Avalanche Skills, Crevasses Rescue, Glacier Travel, Ice Climbing, Mountaineering

Learn Mountaineering with Wānaka Mountain Guides