So. Who the heck are ya? :)

Yep, no worries Honora. Ol' Joe Blakes are something I know one or two things about.

@Pipeking: March 2003. It was written up as such in the NZAC guidebook for that area. That's when I found out it was a first ascent - gobsmacked. We only needed to pitch a wee section over a step on the glacier and even that was optional. What was described by John Pascoe as a difficult rock climb had us puzzled as it was nothing, barely a scramble. Maybe that put people off.

Ok, well my name is Peter. My start in the hills started with scouting in the 70s, back when anyone could be a scoutleader, and we abseiled minimally supervised off the cliffs at motumoana using harnesses made from a couple of meters of manilla rope. Then for telethons, we abseiled down the building on the corner of Custom and Queen, the one with the restaurant on top. Top of the town it was called back then. I remember my first tramp and what a burdon that pack was. Nasty those old canvas packs were, but it was all a matter of perspective, once you got into those fabulous gorges in the waitaks youd didnt care about the aching shoulders much after that. By 11 we were spending weekends unsupervised bush crashing in search of unknown waterfalls, slipping into the then closed water catchment area, and generally having a blast. Later at high school a 4th form teacher, took us to Ketatahi in winter, and that was the start of the lifetime love of the mountains. In 2005 i took 4 months off, in the early spring and hiked a 1000km in the southern alps, doing 8 day trips, whatever took my fancy, things id wanted to do for years, but had trouble getting away with family and other committments. That was a great experience. Theres something about long distance walking that appeals to me, and the PCT and CDT are kind of calling. Not sure when or how, but who knows. More realistically ill adopt madpoms approach, biting off the interesting bits as time permits. For madpom, yeah, also happy to be out their solo. And one for honora, count me in as a chicken bone cruncher. Modern agriculture has a lot to answer for in the declining nutrient density of food.

Cheers for sharing Peter. You've got some great experience, and I'm sure more than a few good yarns! :)

@pipeking I think Honora meant Mt Williams in the Rolleston Range:) http://climbnz.org.nz/nz/si/canterbury/rolleston-range/mt-williams

I was a hunter to start with, not a tramper, first with my Father and brothers and then later with school mates. My first go with tramping was when I joined the Outdoor Pursuits group at high school, this was followed up with trips with mates, brothers and cousins in my late teens. I was in the Army for 5 years in the late 80's-early 90's and obviously did a lot of outdoor stuff though not tramping per see. Me and Army pals would do a bit of weekend tramping and hunting in the Waikeremoana, Ruahines, National Park area and around Waiouru. When I was posted to Canterbury it was Arthurs Pass the Lewis area and around Lake Sumner. When I went to Varsity in the early 90's I was a member of the UCTC and also did some small fry tramp/climbing with mates and at one point was a member of the CMC as well. Biggest peak I've been up is Rolleston, but eventually gave up on climbing as it quite frankly scared the bejesus out of me. Also I got into mountain biking in a big way. I did a bit of tramping, mountain biking and running through the late 90's and early 00's but when work, wife and kids came along just seemed to run out of time and stopped for many years. I started back tramping in 2010 and now go out for multi day, overnighters and day trips both with friends and also a lot by myself as well. My current goals are to walk all of the Great Walks (done 4 so far), Im section walking the TaT and I'm interested in doing some hiking in the US either the AT or PCT (I am originally from the States and have family over there, in Georgia, Virginia and California). Main places I now tramp are Lewis Pass (I love the whole area), Arthurs Pass, Canterbury foothills, Nelson Lakes area's.

@Pipeking. My partner, Frank, sussed out that route. The guy who thought he was leading the trip wanted to go a long route along the tops but Frank said it would take too long so we went Frank's route. I stupidly didn't take my crampons and Frank kindly lent me his so missed out on the climb. The 'leader' also piked at 4am a couple of hours before we got up, so I could have borrowed his crampons. A couple of others also piked when they saw the route... I adjusted the crampons and then forgot all about it until Frank went to put his crampons on when we were climbing Tara Tama. Between the 2 of us we had no SAK, so Frank used the tip of my ice axe pick to adjust the screws. Phew/Doh!

tramped in almost all of the parks

These forums need a 'like' button. :)

@kreig a like button would be ace!! Well i've been Kev since birth and affectionately Bamboo for around 13 years. I've had many nicknames growing up. Most of them inoffensive. I'm, like many on this forum an open book so to speak. I'll admit i'm very new to tramping and I have never properly hiked in NZ. I'm English and have hiked around many of our mounds (Small hills really. Even the UKs largest aren't that big, but there are some great technical climbs) and many trails in the Peak District which is on my doorstep. Generally most people know me as Bamboo and i'm fine with that or Kev. Some call me Kevin, but that was usually the mother or the ex when i'd done something wrong!! ha :) In the short time i've been using this forum I have a growing respect for many of the contributors @waynowski @pipeking @izogi @JETNZ @deepriver @kreig and probably some others I can't think of right now, so apologies for that. Look forward to asking, reading, learning and even offering my own advice from here on in.