UKC

I'm heading to New Zealand at the end of this month, and have been trying to find online forums a la UKC where you can find climbing and alpine partners.

Google hasn't found much, which rather suggests there isn't anything, but I find this hard to believe.

Can anyone advise on the best way to link up with people in NZ? Maybe I just need to bite the bullet and shell out for NZAC membership?

Any tips would be appreciated!

In reply to steve7734:

The alpine club has a couple of forums. Probably not worth shelling out for the membership though unless you are staying for 12months+. If you are in the South Island get on facebook and join the "where are you climbing in Christchurch" group, also the "New Zealand climbing" fb group has regular users. I found a few partners through FB, but best bet is getting down to the local walls. Christchurch has a growing scene, Wanaka has a good base too.

In reply to steve7734:

Not sure about forums but I think there are some facebook pages, at least for Wanaka & QT people seeking partners. You might find that NZAC membership is worthwhile if you're going to use their huts much. you'd need to do the sums but membership can pay for itself in a few nights.

In reply to steve7734:

As above, the alpine club forum is pretty dead, it just doesn't get that threshold of traffic that people check it regularly. Best bet is the FB pages mentioned, along with the NZ mountaineering one.

In reply to steve7734:
Where are you planning to go in NZ? Some of the facebook pages are not very obvious. There are also a few places where you can just rock up to and find partners like paynes ford but these are few and far between.
yeah the NZAC forums get little traffic but they are always worth a shot.

In reply to steve7734:

Not exactly the best place - but you might get lucky: http://tramper.nz/?view=forum&id=21

Thanks all for the info. I'm surprised there's no one forum that's more official or popular though! And I just looked at the find-a-buddy forum on NZAC and no there aren't many posts. A few though

In reply to B_Mark_W:

I'm aiming to spend most of my time in/around Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park

In reply to steve7734:

The FB groups:

Main NZAC site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5638346254/ There are randoms posting on here, but not many.

Australia Section: https://www.facebook.com/groups/nzac.australia/ Probably better for finding potential partners, though they'll be travelling from Australia, obviously.

The NZ climbing community is friendly enough, I've found, but I'm Australian and have been going there a while. It's probably not so easy to just rock up and find multiple partners at short notice.

Aoraki/Cook and the other high peaks are pretty serious and often not conducive to climbing with someone you just met down at the village or in a town - or online. Access is physically tougher and more dangerous than in the Alps, if not as technical. Help is non-existent or far away.

You need proper crevasse-rescue and glacier travel skills, practiced together and ideally a partner who is psychologically similar in what risks they will accept, what suffering they will put up with etc, how willing to fail miserably etc, how long they can sit in a hut in the rain, how well they can not freak out downclimbing narrow exposed ridges of choss etc.

In reply to steve7734:

The forum situation in NZ has gone through a bit of an upheaval in the past 3 or 4 years, with all but the alpine club forum (which you don't need to be a member to use, I don't think) shutting down. So kiwis have sort of turned off the forums, but still worth posting there - can't hurt.