New Zealand Alpine Club

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[edit] New Zealand Alpine Club

The New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC) was founded in 1891 and is one of the oldest [Alpine Clubs] in the world. The NZAC is the national climbing organization in New Zealand and is a member of the [Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (U.I.A.A.)]. It has about 2900 members who are spread across eleven Sections, ten in [New Zealand] and one in [Australia], and in other countries. It has its [own website] [1], and runs a National Office based in [Christchurch].

The [Club] actively promotes climbing in New Zealand and overseas. It publishes guidebooks to New Zealand mountains and to selected rock climbing areas, a quarterly magazine The Climber, and the annual New Zealand Alpine Journal. NZAC owns 17 lodges and huts that are available for use by club members and other climbers. Most sections provide instruction courses for beginning climbers and the Club also provides instruction for intermediate and advanced skills. NZAC sponsors the annual national bouldering series held during the summer at four locations, as well as other local and national competitive climbing events.

The visibility of mountaineering in New Zealand was boosted by the 1953 ascent of [Mt Everest] by [Sir Edmund Hillary] and [Tenzing Norgay]. Hillary is amongst the best known and most revered New Zealanders and is a Life Member of the NZAC. Other NZAC members have completed first ascents in many mountain areas as well as the Himalaya, including in Antarctica, and the Andes.

New Zealand is a very mountainous country, and mountaineering has long been popular in New Zealand. The mountaineering opportunities focus particularly on the Southern Alps which run the length of the South Island, but also include other ranges such as the Kaikouras, Arrowsmiths and the [North Island] [volcanoes] Taranaki/Mt Egmont and Mounts Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro.

[Rock climbing] attracts many participants in New Zealand and the varied topography and rock types provide opportunities for rock climbing within some cities such as [Auckland], Christchurch and [Dunedin], and within an hours drive of most cities in New Zealand. [Ice climbing], [bouldering], [sport climbing] and [[trad climbing] are all well established.

[edit] See also

William Spotswood Green, Rob Hall, Edmund Hillary

[edit] External Links

*Information about New Zealand  Alpine  Club