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It’s getting colder and the days are getting shorter, the 2026 alpine season will soon be upon us and with it the NZAC snowcraft courses. We’re changing our course structure this year to continue to improve snowcraft and better prepare participants to be confident in the mountains.
What’s changed?
Sign-ups
Our snowcraft courses are incredibly popular and it is challenging to shortlist from so many applications. We will give priority to NZAC volunteers or people investing in the community. From there applicants will be selected based on fitness, experience, and overall keenness/availability.
If you are interested in applying, you are strongly encouraged to attend the club night on Thu 21 May for an overview of the courses and to answer any questions.
Sign ups open Friday 22 May and close Friday 12 June.
Spaces
In recent years, we have greatly scaled up Snowcraft 1 to 40 total slots, which put strain on our volunteers. This year we are trialling a single 16 slot Snowcraft 1 course so that we can put the focus into the course material we feel it deserves.
Snowcraft 2 will remain at 12 slots.
Course structure
We are adding afterwork sessions based in Wellington before the main course weekends. This enables us to make the most of the weekends on the mountain, where we can focus on practical snow skills.
Snowcraft 1
7th July - Navigation theory night
15th July - Gear talk/check + weather in the mountains
18th July - Navigation practical
27th July - Avalanche awareness + learning to use transmitters
30th July -2nd August - Main instruction weekend
5th August - Next steps / objectives and trip planning
14th-15th August - Consolidation trip
Snowcraft 2
5th August - Gear talk/check + ropework
12th August - Alpine anchors and belaying
20-23rd August - Main instructional weekend
Ngā mihi
Snowcraft subcommittee
Photos: from Snowcraft 1
Event Venue
Tararua Tramping Club, Tararua Tramping Club Inc., 4 Moncrieff St, Mount Victoria, Wellington 6011, New Zealand, Wellington











