Mount Aspiring!
Hi Guys
It seems a long time since we were last on line in Queenstown. We climbed Ben Lomond on 23rd Nov. There is a gondola that goes part of the way up but we didn’t cheat! We walked all the way from the bottom. It took about 2 hours to get to the top: we had to cross a small patch of snow. There were great views of Queenstown, the Remarkables and the lake from the top. We went down to the upper gondola station where we had a coffee and a cake and then we had a shorter walk through woods alongside a river before going back to the hostel. Spotted a down jacket 40% off in an outdoor shop. It is fatal to go into these places – but I resisted.
Saturday 24th Nov. Bought said down jacket on the way to catch the bus for Wanaka! No moral fibre! But it really is a bargain. We arrived in Wanaka at about 11ish and immediately bumped into two guys whom we had met on the Milford Track. Small world. My camera was playing up – a poor battery connection I think but we have cobbled it up with gaffer tape. Hope it lasts a bit longer.
Sunday 25th. We took a shuttle bus about 6km out of town and climbed Roy’s Peak (1578m). It was quite a long walk as the path had huge zig zags and it was jolly windy. We walked back to Wanaka along the lake. The next day we thought we would have a lazy day in preparation for our expedition to Mount Aspiring the following day. So we went to Puzzle World where there is a maze in which you have to find 4 corner towers (the easy bit) and then the way out (not so easy). It was rather frustrating but good fun and we managed to get out in time for lunch. There are also rooms with various optical illusions and holograms and lots of puzzles laid out on tables in the cafe. So that took quite a long time before we walked back into Wanaka. We booked a 3 day sea kayaking trip in the Abel Tasman National Park.
At last we began the much anticipated Mount Aspiring Trip! We went to the Aspiring Guides office at 8.30am where we had a warm welcome and a coffee before meeting our guide, Murray, before going through all our gear. The girls in the office had warned us that he was quite eccentric but he just seemed like a normal climber to us – if there is such a thing. There were two other guys in the office who were also going to the mountain but they had different guides. We had arranged to hire all the technical gear from Aspiring Guides so we were duly provided with a pair of Koflachs each (uncomfortable plastic boots for the uninitiated), a harness, crampons, various items of climbing gear and ice axes. We did a bit of shopping and then met back at the office at about 12ish and drove to the farm where we were to catch the helicopter to fly us up to the Bonar Glacier. We had never been in a helicopter before and being of a nervous disposition I was a bit apprehensive. But it was fine although it didn’t seem to be going fast enough to stay airborne to me and it rattled and vibrated something shocking.We landed at Bevan Col and after a few “before” photos we set off across the glacier to the Colin Todd Hut about 1.5hours away. The snow was quite soft so we didn’t need crampons. Crossing the glacier you get good views of the mountain. It looked very high and steep – as we discovered the next day it actually was very high and steep! The hut is perched at the end of a ridge and on arrival it quickly became apparent that there were rather more people than there were bunks. Fortunately some people had brought tents so the problem was solved until two more people turned up just as it was getting dark. We had brought our thermarests just in case so we lent them those.
Summit day! It was reported to be minus 11 deg outside the hut at 3am when we got up so we put on all our layers including our new merino wool icebreaker long johns. After brekky we put on our boots and crampons and head torches and roped up and set off across the glacier to the start of the climb.It was just getting light (about 5.30ish) when we reached the start of the Ramp. This was fairly steep and icy so Murray led about 9 pitches up to the saddle where we had a rest and a drink and something to eat. By this time it was about 8am. Getting to the summit took another couple of hours and it was a lot steeper than it looked from the hut. There was ice and rock bands to negotiate. We moved together until very near the top when it became much steeper and was very icy so Murray led a final pitch to the summit (3033m) where we posed for the photos and admired the spectacular views and ate chocolate and dried bananas. The descent was quite hard as it was steep and icy – we went down the same way as we had come up. When we reached the saddle Murray lowered us down most of the pitches of the Ramp. When we reached the end of the rope Katie banged in a snow stake and I clove hitched us in. Then Murray came down to us and we repeated the process over and over again until we got to the glacier again. On the way down (at about 1.30pm) we passed the two guys who had arrived late at the hut the previous evening on their way up. Too late really because they were very slow and didn’t arrive back at the hut until about 3am the following morning! Once back on the glacier we were able to take off our crampons and walked back to the hut for a well earned cup of tea or three. We then watched people descending the Ramp. It becomes quite dangerous later in the afternoon when the sun gets on it as chunks of ice fall down on you. One guy’s helmet was shattered by one such lump and another was also hit on the head by ice. We took about 11 hours to do the whole climb which apparently is quite good going. We had brilliant weather for our ascent – clear, sunny, no wind – a perfect day.
The weather took a turn for the worse over night and we woke up to high winds and snow. So we decided to stay in the hut rather than starting the walk out. It was good to have a rest day after the climb and nobody complained too much. So we snuggled up in our sleeping bags and ate and drank tea ans swapped climbers’ and travellers’ tales. One of the guides did a demo of crevasse rescue inside the hut, suspended from a bolt in the ceiling. The snow and wind cleared in the evening and we had a beautiful sunset.
Friday dawned clear and we set off across the glacier for Bevan Col and the walk out. The descent was quite steep and the snow was fairly soft before we finally descended a rocky/icy gully to the horizontal world again. There was evidence of recent avalanches on the way. Walking out along the valley was quite rough along a rocky river bank and then through a forest. Awkward in Koflachs and I got a blister on the sole of each foot in the last couple of km along the flat.We arrived at Aspiring Hut in the late afternoon where we spent the night. Yesterday we completed the walk out in about 2 hours (abandoned the boots and wore sandals – would have been a good idea apart from the freezing stream crossings along the way!) and were back in Wanaka at about 11am. After lunch I adopted horizontal mode for an hour or so and then we met one of our fellow climbers for a pizza in the evening. Having a lazy day today, doing the washing, sitting by the lake, writing postcards etc. Tomorrow we are off to Franz Joseph on the bus where we will spend a couple of nights before going to Abel Tasman for our kayaking trip on Thursday.
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