Thread: Alpine ropes harness etc

Hi guys/gals

i Think this is in the right area, im curious what you guys carry for Tahr hunting, i have been thinking for a while that it may be beneficial to carry a lightweight harness and maybe some rope and slings etc incase i get myself bluffed out and can hopefully get out safely or find an easier route out and potentially recover more animals that can get a bit sketchy, obviously would need some training before getting myself too carried away with all this. be interested to see what others are using and gear/courses that you may recommend for this kinda stuff

Cheers

Local Alpine club or possibly tramping club might have a course or two. Otherwise Alpine guides are Mt Cook do courses. There is a lot to learn and pretty easy to learn just enough to be dangerous (if that make sense)

I have never bothered with getting that carried away.
I rode motocross as a young fella, wasnt the fastest guy out there but was always competitive, had some big offs but never got really hurt. Then neck braces came out and everyone was bulletproof, I got one, and proceeded to have the biggest off of my life, foot facing in a direction feet arent supposed to face, broken Sternum and a lot of recovery time. I forgot where I was going with this... but theres a moral in there somewhere.

If you need that stuff go and learn how to use it properly and practice, practice, practice with it. Tie knots at the minimum fortnightly so you don't forget. When I say learn I mean really learn, I had a couple of big falls back in my climbing days. Thankfully I survived unhurt but the thoughts still make me shudder. Also don't skimp on buying good gear.

At the end of the day its like not carrying a PLB or Inreach, what price do you put on your life?

I'm a firm believer that unless you're a skilled and experienced mountaineer, taking mountaineering equipment is more likely to land you in the shit than get you out of it.

Similar to what Ryan says above, the safety gear gives you added confidence. Rather than going "fuck that, I'm not going there" you say "worth a nudge, I've got my harness and rope if I get stuck"... Nek minnit, fell off the rock with a broken cock.

Cheers for the replys, makes sense. i might look into a mountain safety course anyway ( avalanche awareness etc ) but avoid the ropes side of things as its probably more a full time hobby in itself.
thanks again, also prob saved myself some $$$

If you are going after Tahr in places you need specialist climbing gear, you goin the wrong places. You think it's going to be a tricky recovery, don't bloody shoot at it in the first place! Was chasing Tahr in the late 80's when there was fuck all and we did dumb shit because we didn't have the net and information like we have now. Plenty of Tahr left at the mo, go after the ones in country that won't get you killed.

i currently work at heights and we just had a height safety trainer come through who suggested a harness and rope may come in handy with appropriate training hence me asking here and wondered if any others carried this kinda kit appears it isn't that common.

cheers again

Me and a group of mates did the NZSSI introduction to mountaineering course at temple basin last year. I’d highly recommend it. In all my winter hunting I now carry crampons and an ice axe. In my opinion in the right snow conditions it’ll actually make some areas easier to access . It’s all about being aware of what you’re getting yourself into, I wouldn’t necessarily say it gives me a false sense of security. On the course we learnt about ropes and made a harness set up out of a sling. The benefit of the course is that our instructor bases it around what we want to achieve from it and our goal was to use it for hunting purposes so he always made what we were learning relevant to a situation we may find ourselves in whilst hunting. You should be able to look it up the course, we also learnt a lot of other useful about just general awareness in the alpine zone

I don’t think Mountain Safety run any courses any more. They sacked all their volunteer instructors. An avalanche safety course and learning how to use crampons and ice axe would be the best value for money.

When I was a young fella I moved to Queenstown in the late 90s and I got well immersed in all the safety courses that were available which included
Swift water river rescue
Avalanche awareness /rescue
Mountain safety course
Climbing and ropes courses
Dozens of first aid courses over the years
Weather reading
Orienteering

All of this was mainly because I wanted to work in tourism and of course I enjoyed it as it was good practical info the crossed over into all the outdoor sports I was into. This was before I got into hunting but skills learnt has served me well over the years.
Even when we are out on diving or hunting overnighters I enjoy the "what if" scenario talk around the camp fire. It is always good to know how others will deal with a situation and if you personally have the right gear on you and know how to deal with a mishap.
I guess that is why I feel confident heading off into the hills on my own.
Get into doing some courses and just start ticking them off, they are a lot of fun and the skills learnt have great cross overs to lots of areas in life, hey and you never know they may just save the life of yourself or one of your mates.
I see you can do alot of courses on line these days but you can always pick up a mountain safty book and have a read through.
To answer your above question @c-dog, my opinion is leave the ropes in the truck because without the proper skills you could get yourself into shit. I personally believe that an ice axe and crampons are a must to have in the pack along with plb, first aid kit and warm dry clothing. You can read up on how to use this kit, I.e fall arrest, cutting steps etc. Worth carry them even if you don't don't use them. It only takes a 5 meter long section of snow that you had crossed earlier in the day to thaw out during the day then freeze once the sun has left the face and it becomes a death trap.
The bottom line is no matter what type of terrain you plan to walk into just be prepared, do your homework.
Enjoy-never stop learning I reckon.

I am not skilled in climbing. But I like to carry a 20 mtr rope for getting down tricky banks and drop offs, belaying river crossings, tying to gut and recover game. I use the rope to measure down a bank, pass it around a tree etc and knot the ends together. That gives 10 metres of safe rope supported decent.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

I am not skilled in climbing. But I like to carry a 20 mtr rope for getting down tricky banks and drop offs, belaying river crossings, tying to gut and recover game. I use the rope to measure down a bank, pass it around a tree etc and knot the ends together. That gives 10 metres of safe rope supported decent.

I possibly worded my original post wrong as this is the sort of stuff I was intending on using it for, a 20 odd meter rope and a lightweight harness, not full on ice and nasty mountain climbing. But I will be doing a alpine style course before I venture into anything more than I already do currently while chasing tahr

Originally Posted by c-dog

I possibly worded my original post wrong as this is the sort of stuff I was intending on using it for, a 20 odd meter rope and a lightweight harness, not full on ice and nasty mountain climbing. But I will be doing a alpine style course before I venture into anything more than I already do currently while chasing tahr

I figured that's what you meant as there is generally no anchor points at the top of icey bluffs.
Ropes however are very handy to retrieve your bull thar when it drops into a steep shitty gutter which quite often happens