Hi, I’m Rob Frost.
I’ve been making journeys to remote corners of the Southern Alps / Ka Tiritiri o te Moana since I was a teenager. These amazing mountains provide scope for some of the most rewarding adventures in the world. I have always enjoyed leading others on journeys in the mountains and teaching people new skills, empowering them to do things they may not have thought possible. I also love working with other guides and instructors who have a wealth of experience and enthusiasm – you’ll see a few of them on many of our trips!
My wife Josie and I, with our young son, live in Lyttelton, from where I manage Mountain Journeys. I’ve previously worked for many years as a geotechnical engineer, as a glacier guide on the West Coast, and wrote the award-winning mountaineering guidebook for Aoraki/Mt Cook and Westland Tai Poutini National Parks. I look forward to hearing from you and talking about how we can create an enjoyable, safe, challenging, and memorable experience for you.
“Rob was made to be a guide in the backcountry. Just as importantly, he has a deep love of our wild places, and a real desire to share this with others. I couldn’t recommend him highly enough.”
-Robbie Burton
“Rob is utterly accomplished in the outdoors. He is responsive to group dynamics, a flexible thinker, and has great taste in music! He loves his work – every step he takes tells you that, and you can’t help but be influenced by his passion. A perfect guide and companion in the hills.”
-Suze Lord
“It was great to push the boundaries of our comfort zone knowing that Rob had all the experience to keep us safe in such a challenging environment. His depth of knowledge and experience is huge and I’m sure some of the things we asked him were ridiculous but he answered all of our rookie questions in a way that made them seem sensible. He’s simply an all round likeable guy with a great sense of humour. His attention to detail during the planning phase of our trip made me feel very well cared for and this continued throughout the whole weekend. Oh and the food was awesome!”
-Alison Cook
“I went on a trip with Mountain Journeys and had an amazing time. Rob is an experienced professional guide with endless knowledge of New Zealand’s backcountry. He was considered and safe in his judgement calls while creating an exciting adventure that catered well to our particular group.”
-Tora Hamblett
A summary of what we offer:
(1) Guided Transalpine Journeys
These are small-group trips where we go off the beaten track and take everything we need to be self-sufficient and flexible, including alpine equipment on many trips. Several trips are scheduled for the summer season, including a 6-day “hard” trip in late November which still has 2 places available.
We also have several windows of availability for private trips, so let us know what you’d like to do!
These trips are extremely varied in terms of how easy/difficult we can make them. Anyone who’s used to carrying an overnight pack can join the easier journeys; at the other end of the continuum we can go to places that will challenge the most seasoned multi-day trampers and hunters.
We don’t have fixed destinations, we just aim for a certain style of trip over a certain range of dates. We generally follow the good weather and try to get above the bushline as much as possible.
(2) Navigation Courses
Anyone from complete beginners to multi-day adventure racers and technical mountaineers will benefit from our navigation courses, which regularly receive glowing reviews.
Rob is one of the best in the business at navigation and will teach you pragmatic navigation tools, using simple methods that you’ll easily remember. He has an approachable teaching style and sets everyone navigation tasks according to their ability level.
Even the most basic courses include navigation in the dark and going on a real off-track journey to put your skills to use.
(3) Snow Skills Courses
Our Snow Skills Courses – we think – are the only introductory/ refresher courses that include all three topics of movement (walking with and without crampons in the snow), camping in the snow, and avalanche safety. Mountain Journeys also supplies all of the alpine and avalanche equipment, so you don’t need to hire anything or have your own.
Either join a small group or get in touch for your own private course with a customised itinerary and syllabus.
If you have ambitions of future tramping through across snowy passes, getting into mountaineering or ski touring, or hunting in alpine regions, set yourself up to be safe and confident by joining one of next winter’s courses.
(4) Transalpine Skills Courses
These are the courses that put it all together, for people who wish to be self-sufficient in wild, remote places in the Southern Alps. It’s the type of course Rob wishes existed when he was a rookie!
Transalpine Courses include advanced navigation and route planning, trip strategy, river crossing, campsite selection, meal planning, equipment choices, and much more.
The Standard Course includes an introduction to snow travel using crampons and ice axes, and basic avalanche safety. The Advanced Course requires that participants already have a basic snow background, and introduces rope skills such as anchors, glacier travel, crevasse rescue, and dealing with short tricky steps.
(5) Weddings and other Celebrations
Have your wedding, civil union, birthday, vow-renewal, or any other celebration in a mountain setting with a small group of friends. We have several windows available during summer and autumn.
As well as being a qualified guide, Rob is a registered celebrant, a photographer, and enjoys creating delicious meals and welcoming environments in remote places – Mountain Journeys can be your “one-stop-shop” to organise everything.
Celebrations can be undertaken in some totally unique places, doing everything on foot. We can also organise pretty sweet overnight setups a few hours from the road for groups of up to 12 people.
(6) Commercial Project Support
Got a mountain-based project or team activity in mind? We can help.
We’ve worked on film projects for the BBC, Disney+, and New Zealand-based production companies, providing logistical support and safety personnel to allow them to function safely and comfortably in remote places.
We can also help you facilitate your own mobile wilderness conference or training course, or provide instruction and prepare route planning and navigation challenges for your team. Delicious catering can also be included as part of any trip, no matter how remote.
