Equipment available for loan
AAA has a range of alpine and climbing equipment items for use by members for AAA activities or for personal expeditions.
CONDITIONS OF LOAN OF ARMY ALPINE ASSOCIATION EQUIPMENT
The following are the conditions of loan for Army Alpine Association equipment:
- The equipment will only be loaned to members of the AAA or others approved by the Committee.
- The costs of transporting loaned equipment are to be borne by the borrower.
- Items lost or damaged beyond economical repair are to be replaced by the borrower or paid for at a value determined by the Equipment Manager unless exempted as an official AAA activity and loss and or damage is accepted as normal risk.
- Damaged items are to be repaired by the borrower prior to return of the stores unless alternate arrangements are made with the Equipment Manager. All damaged and or repaired items are to be identified to the Equipment Manager on return.
- Loan equipment is to be returned dry and clean.
- A hire fee will be determined by the Equipment Manager and must be paid prior to receipt of all stores. The hire fee may be offset by the donation of items useful to the AAA.
- Liability for failure of any AAA loaned equipment, which causes death or injury, will not be accepted by the AAA.
Priority for use of AAA stores and equipment will be:
- AAA Expeditions
- AAA Sponsored Activities
- AAA Members
- Others as approved by the AAA Committee
EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE FOR LOAN
The equipment items available for loan are:
|
Ascender Rope (Pair) |
Harness Climbing |
Rope 8.1mm Edelrid 60m |
LOAN AGREEMENT
You can obtain a copy of the loan agreement here. (Word)
Contact the Equipment Member
to find out more about how to borrow equipment.
BORROWING GEAR FROM OUTSIDE OF CANBERRA
Yes - it can be done.
To do so you need to:
- contact the Equipment Member to make sure the gear is available
- complete the Loan Agreement and send it to the Equipment Member
- provide the Equipment Member with a work freight delivery address and a contact phone number for you during working hours
- make sure you are available when the equipment arrives (ie not on leave or deployed on ops!)
RETURNING BORROWED GEAR FROM OUTSIDE OF CANBERRA
You need to:
- contact the Equipment Member and advise him that the gear is being returned
- package the equipment securely and so it will not be damaged during transport
- complete a freight movement requisition (Form ST116) (PDF)
- deliver the package and the completed Form ST116 to your local Freight Distribution Centre or fax it to DNSDC Moorebank on 02 9600 9329
Please note:
- priority 3 needs to be selected as the priority for delivery unless advised otherwise by the Equipment Member
- if Priority 3 is selected, neither your unit nor AAA needs to pay for the freight
- ask the staff at the Freight Distribution Centre or your unit Q personnel if you need assistance completing the Form ST116
MSR Denali snow shoe - test report
Three AAA members were the first to use the latest addition to the AAA store, some MSR Denali Shoe Shoes. AAA President gives a brief report.
Mid September seemed a bit late in the season to be heading up to BlueLake for some ice climbing with two mates, but after ringing a ranger at Jindabyne who said that the ice at the lake was in good nick, we decided to give it a go. Given the horrible season and low snow falls, Dave, Paul and I grabbed some of the new Denali Snow shoes from the AAA store rather than ski in. Snow shoeing offers similar mobility in the snow to skis, without the risks of hurtling out of control with a 30 kg pack on your back. Plus we were by no means the best back country skiers on the planet.
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| MSR Denali Snowshoes |
We drove up to Guthega after work, arriving late enough to decide that an all night snowshoe into BlueLake was not on the cards. We stomped up the past the Guthega pondage, crossed the flying fox and wearily walked to the top of the first ridgeline before popping up Dave's three man tent.
It's a funny thing when someone tells you that they have the accommodation sorted with a three man tent, then proceeds to pull from their pack what is clearly a two man tent. Some polite chit chat followed, as I argued that Dave should sleep outside, given his miscalculation with the tentage arrangements. Lucky for Dave, we all squeezed inside, and in the morning there was 10cm of new snow on the ground.
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| Topping out of a short pitch of steep ice |
The MSR snowshoes were put to good work, and we made good progress up the valley, eventually climbing through some disagreeable low scrub to gain height on the Northern side of the Snowy River, then finding a good camping spot on a ridgeline above Hedley Tarn.
Two brilliant days of ice climbing at BlueLake followed, with several walls of ice in really good condition. One section high on the North East side of the lake wall offered about 18m of 80% ice, while a narrow couloir further to the west ran for about 25m up beside one of the rock buttresses. The weather was a bit shabby at times, but never bad enough to stop climbing. We saw a few other backcountry skiing parties, and we shared the crag for part of the second day with two other climbers.
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| Shoeshoeing across BlueLake, it's late in the season, but there is still about 60cm of solid ice underneath our feet. |
The new snowshoes worked extremely well, with an excellent binding system using a strong rubber straps and metal buckles to secure a wide variety of boots to the pivoting foot plate. Great traction is achieved by the use of serrated metal rails running down the length of the main plastic shoe base, as well as more aggressive claws positioned at the tip of the pivoting foot plate. This combination allowed you to climb quite steep snow before stopping to fit crampons.
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| No snowshoes in sight, getting up one of the steep gullies at BlueLake. |
Like all showshoes, it is difficult to move across slope, and this can lead to damaging the shoe, or your boot rotating within the binding. Correct technique is easy to pick up however, and the smooth pivoting action and sure grip of these snowshoes makes them great to use. The MSR Denalis come with an additional floatation tails which effectively extended the rear plate of the shoe another 12cm, which is great for deeper snow. We were in no danger of deep shoe, so didn't use these. As the shoes are made of a high impact plastic contruction, they are very light but susceptible to damage if not used correctly. Careless sidestepping and use on any hard surfaces (rocks, gravel, roadway etc) will quickly wear out the shoes. I thoroughly recommend the shoes to anyone wanting to move efficiently around the high country, particularly if you are not a gun skier. Future BLUE ICE exercises will be employing our fleet of snowshoes, and they remain available for use for club members.