Tramping in the Pisa Range

We went up into the Pisa Range with Mark, June, Miri and mate from work Andrew in the weekend. Hired every set of snow shoes bar one in wanaka, and Andrew hiring a set of skins and heel lifters for his skis so he could telemark instead.

It turned into a bit of an epic as we set off from the snow farm carpark at 9:30 pm. The predicted clear skies had turn to misty rain, which bounced back ones headlamp beam giving a great veiwable radius of about 30m.

Through a good combination of Map skills and GPS usage (Marks' work toy) we found the hut at about 1:45am. A good design, an old insulated chiller by the look of it, so it was nice and toastie in no time. Kirtle Burn Hut it was. Next morning saw a 10:30 am start for a stroll up Mount Pisa. Really just walking slightly uphill until you run out of mountain and it drops off down to the Cromwell valley. However the Rime ice on the fence posts made great shapes and patterns and the rolling snow covered hills were beautiful in the changing light. Again the promised weather didn't really deliver but we got some fantastic views through the cloud when it cleared breifly. We headed down back to the hut, much faster downhill, admired some onimous looking cornices that overhung the valley we by passed. Back at the hut at 12:45, Lunch, now lunch was good, tortillas, sundried tomato cream cheese and hummus with cashews, mmmmm, pack up, navigating in the day is so much easier than in white out in the middle of the night! It was nice to see different scenery (our actually see rather). Great trip.

Was actually really hard work in snow shoes, while you certainly didn't sink nearly as far. the extra drag on your feet does still drain your engergy especially when you stand on them or trip over them. Not as effeicent as tramping but still good for deep stuff. We would have been waist deep in most places without them.

Charlies 21st

The weekend of the 25th of August we went up to Mount Cook and stayed at Unwin Lodge (NZAC Base Lodge) for Charlotte's 21st. (Teri's sister). A great weekend was had by all, everyone dressing up on Saturday night for a big game of "Who am I" were players take turns at guessing who people are supposed to be by their costume. With about 50 people attending it was a strange sight to behold. The next day was a lazy morning, a hearty breakfast melded into brunch which somehow rolled into a wonder up Mount Sebastopol with Ben, Alex and Tammy. A good short scramble up broken and fissured rock, some of it more loose than we would have prefered, however we went one at a time so as not to dislodge rocks onto each others heads.

The best part was the descent, which was scree running down a really nice scree slope. Ben being the descent specialist he is was down in less than 20 mins I think. Teri and I took a bit longer, this also being the first time I had ever been scree running so it was good to soak it up. I have since read a trip report on the web describing that slope as one of the nicest scree runs in NZ. A trip to the Old Mountaineers Cafe and bar for an ice cream before heading to the lodge to pack up and drive home through the Lindas Pass, another beautiful piece of country, and another brilliant piece of road engineering. Nice drive it is.