New Zealand Mountaineering 2009

Lake Pukaki with Mt Cook in the background. This is where we will be climbing.

Ben and Trent in Mt Cook National Park

All the gear that I took with me

Unwin Hut. Our accomodation back at the valley floor. Photo by Ben

The start of snow cave construction. It took us 15 hours to build it large enough to put a tent up in it. Trent is just starting to dig out the entry tunnel

Ben at work on the snow cave

With all the excess snow we built a wall to protect the entry from NW wind and snow.

The wall to protect verse nor'west winds.

The wall to protect verse nor'west winds.

The entry tunnel. At the end you climb up into the cave.

The view from the end of the entry tunnel

This is the exit from the cave into the entry tunnel. The floor of the snow cave is a good 50cm above the roof of the entry tunnel

Trent lying in the kitchen area of the snow cave. To the left is the exit. Photo is taken from the foot of the sleeping area.

Trent in the tent, in the snow cave. We were protected by 7 layers. 1st thermals, 2nd silk bag, 3rd sleeping bag, 4th bivy bag, 4th inner tent, 5th outer tent, 6th snow cave, 7th the ridge protecting us from the full nor' west storm winds.

Ben un-packing the tent. Exit to the right.

The tent pitched in the snow cave.

Pulling down the tent. We had to abandon the cave due to low supplies.

The view from Hospital Flats climbing area near Wanaka. We travelled away from the bad weather at Mt Cook National Park, to here to enjoy the sunshine.

Most routes were bolted, but this climb was a grade 17 crack, which I managed to climb with our minimal alpine rack. Fun times.

Climbing Hospital Flats classic crack climb

At the top of the grade 17 crack. A couple of hand and foot jams. I didn't even need to place my link cam, which made up half the range of our rack.

A bird on Water Tank Ridge. Photo by Ben

This was apart of our hiking day to nowhere in particular. We got an alpine start and started climbing the ridge behind the village, called Water Tank Ridge. It snowed, and produced slush all over the vegitation, which we had to hang of as we climbed. We were nearly beyond the most steepest part when we decided to head down. Ben got a good taste of mountaineering in NZ, crap weather, loose rock, slippery vegitation, lots of exposure. It was a fun hike.

A rabbit. It didn't feel right for me to try to throw a rock at this one. It was just sitting there, the target was easy and unsporting.

Trent hiking up the Hooker Valley, New Zealand

After our Water Tank Ridge journey of 5 hours, we decided to attempt the Copeland pass that same day. This was walking up the Hooker Glacier. After 4 hour journey we took a look at the ridge up to the pass, and decided to turn around and try something else the next day. Another 3 hour hike and we're back to Unwin Hut for a total of 12 hours of hiking to nowhere in particular. Got to see lots of cool things.

Hooker Glacier Moraine. Photo by Ben.

The summit photo on Mt Sealy!

Downclimbing the South West face of Mt Sealy. This is about a 150m 45 degree slope. The rock at top right is the final rock steep of about 30m pitch, then an easy scamble to the right for the summit.

We did 2 abseils of the rocks to the top of the snow slope. From there I set up two T-slot anchors in the loose snow, and Ben did a 120m abseil to the bottom. I climbed down while releasing the rope and pulling apart the anchors.

Ben took this photo from Mueller hut. I love the shadow and the sky. The pano aspect balances all three areas of this photo.