By Jack Goodeve, 30 July 2026
It all began on a Thursday morning. Six members of the VUWTC (Victoria University of Wellington Tramping Club) set off in two cars to take part in an Avalanche Skills Course (ASC1) taught by Hillary Outdoors. In the Mean Green LL Bean Subaru Outback we had Harriet, Jack (yours truly), Finlay, and Monty, and then in the Toyota Corolla we had Hazel and Tessa, who due to commitments in the morning would set off at 12 instead of the early 9AM that the other group left at.
I was in Finlay’s car (The mighty Subaru), we headed off on our vehicular pilgrimage to Ozzie’s Hotel & Chalet. We drove steadily onwards learning about each other, and it turns out that Harriet and I are fourth cousins – New Zealand is certainly a small place.
After such a revelation, we arrived at the Ohakune Carrot Park. We hung out and acted like the children we were on the adventure park waiting for the sign-in time at Ozzie’s Hotel & Chalet.
Come 3 PM we drove over and got our key and then when we picked it up, we got set up in our new home for the next two days. Not soon after that Hazel and Tessa arrived and from there, we picked up some groceries and fish & chips for dinner.
By 5:30 PM we had arrived ready and willing to learn at the Te Pae Tata Conference center. There we met Graeme from Hillary Outdoors who would be our instructor over the next two days.
That first night we covered avalanche theory such as: Avalanche basics, terrain, weather, snowpack, human factors, pre-trip planning, rescue techniques, and decision-making tools amongst other things.
I found it truly shocking that most avalanches are caused by other people - that the biggest risk to use out in the backcountry is us causing the avalanche that wipes us out
Finishing up we all headed back to the Chalet after quite a late night; we didn’t finish up until 9:30 – 9:45 PM.
After a restless sleep we all rose and got ready for our field day. This meant we had to be at the public shelter near Iwikau Village to meet Graeme. This meant we had to be up and moving by 6 AM to the chagrin of a few. But we arrived on time, and we were greeted by the friendly face of Graeme and the Hillary Outdoors Van which shuttled us up to Whakapapa Village, and from there we headed up to the TTC Lodge
The trek up to the TTC Lodge was beset by hip deep snow – I recall constantly falling down to my hip, the rocks created these deep wells which the snow covered up it was the perfect little traps and the snow which and not frozen was not particularly suited for crampons.
After we made it to the TTC Lodge we ran through some more Avalanche theory and how to use a probe and we did a transceiver check. We went out into the field to go through all the stuff we had learned the night before.
We firstly started out walking around and looking at snowpacks; analyzing avalanche risks and looking for terrain traps. Reflecting on that day, something I recall is just how prevalent and inconspicuous it can truly be. For example, on the day they put the risk at “Considerable” which offered us plenty of chances to see the conditions that could cause all number of avalanches like Wind slab, Cornice fall, and Icefall.
After that we had lunch which offered us another chance to run through some theory again. Then after that kai we started on how to use these transceivers to locate someone potentially swept away. Alongside the importance of using transceivers properly, Graeme was particularly concerned with out digging techniques; you can lose 2-3 minutes on a bad transceiver search, but you can lose up to 16 if you can’t dig the person out. After that we moved to doing more transceiver searches, then we rounded off with a final theory session.
I must thank the FMC Mountain and Forest Trust for the financial support, without their support the VUWTC would not have been able to send people to get this training. Thank you.
As well as the FMC I must thank the Tararua Tramping Club for letting us use the TTC Lodge as a base for our Avalanche course and Snowcraft Courses.
