#7 University club culture and falling in love with alpine adventures - Maddy Whittaker

01/02/21 • 67 min

Maddy Whittaker first went tramping during an Outward Bound Course as an 18 year old. It totally changed the course of her life. She joined the Otago University Tramping Club and has spent nearly every spare moment in the outdoors during the past three years. At 20 years old she has just graduated from university and is currently out on a three month traverse of the Southern Alps from Arthurs Pass to Milford Sound. Maddy and a few of her mates have become known as the ‘New Zealand Alpine Kids’ - too young to join the New Zealand Alpine Team but absolutely crushing it in the alpine zone in Aotearoa.

This episode is sponsored by Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand

EPISODE LINKS:

Maddy's You Tube channel (she loves making videos to convey her trips)

Maddy's personal blog site

This episode is sponsored by Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand

EPISODE LINKS:

Maddy's You Tube channel (she loves making videos to convey her trips)

Maddy's personal blog site

Previous Episode

#6 Legend in our mountain biking community - Ashley Peters

Ashley Peters is renowned for her huge smile and infectious love of bikes. I consider her one of the most incredible role models for women in leadership in sport and recreation in New Zealand. Since first learning to mountain bike fifteen years ago, she has set up multiple bike organisations in New Zealand, largely focused on helping others achieve independence. Ash is a PMBIA Mountain Bike 2 instructor and an NZOIA level 2 mountain biking assessor. In this episode we chat about the joys of biking and the positive things we’re seeing in the industry, including the development of New Zealand mountain bike qualifications. We discuss gender equality in sport and recreation, including strategies to increase female participation in outdoor recreation activities. We discuss the differences between competition and recreation and how these different styles play into long-term participation.

Photo: Laurence Crossman-Emms

Episode links:

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Next Episode

#8 From mountaineering to bikepacking - Brian Alder

In this episode we talk about Brian’s evolution as a climber and then as a bikepacker. We also talk about the evolution of mountaineering in New Zealand, including the style of climbing in New Zealand in the late 80s and 90s and the positives of mentorship in the New Zealand Alpine Team. Our conversation turns to the rapidly developing bikepacking scene around the world and in NZ. We chat about pushing the limits in mountaineering compared to bikepacking races. Brian shares some experiences from the Tour Divide race in North America, the Great Southern Brevet in NZ and organising the inaugural Tour Te Waipounamu bikepacking race.