How to Get Lost on your Way to the Olivines and End up on Mt. Aspiring
Jan 2008
One hot sunny January day six of us (Kieran, Sophie, Guy, Alyn, Jeremy and I), with 10 days of food and gear each exploded out of Pearl. Then with heavy packs, that could barely be lifted and ambitious plans of getting to and from the Olivine Ice Plateau we began slowly slogging up the Matukituki valley. By the time we got to Aspiring Hut we were wondering what in the world we were doing to ourselves! Then came the climb over Cascade saddle… as Sophie put it “this has to be worse than giving birth!” I’m sure we wouldn’t have made it if not for speed-loving Jeremy’s Jet Planes he left on the track for us! At last we made it over the top and were presently surprised to find a toilet and camped there (indecently in a no-camping area).
The next day we walked down into the Dart river Valley and along it until we reached the bridge (25 slow kilometers latter…) that would take us over the river so we could walk up to Desperation Pass. There we met some friendly sand flies whom we were not overly willing to make acquaintance with. They sure tried hard though. In the morning Sophie and Kieran (our alarm clocks) thought that it was raining outside due to the noise the flies were making on the outside of the tent. So we didn’t get up until the sun was high in the sky and had reached their tent, informing them it wasn’t raining.
Jeremy found coming down the pass that a broken toe maybe wasn’t the best thing to try to do a 10 day mountaineering trip with, so decided to leave us and via the Dart river then hitch to Mt. Cook Village. So we took his chocolate, Jet Planes, and GPS, gave him our rubbish (and in Sophie case her canned beetroot (?!?!)) and began bush bashing up to desperation pass with out him. We found weaving our way up through the bush much easier and more fun than the slog up Cascade saddle as we actually took notice of the vegetation due to our intimate association with it, though we discovered none of us were accomplished botanists. We camped by the first stream we came to above the tree line as Kieran wasn’t feeling to well.
A dawn start saw us to the base of the glacier by 8am. Sadly the weather started earlier than us, and we were confronted by a hand of cloud boiling over the pass, bringing the visibility over the snow to zilch. The weather was reported to be shitty for the next to days, so not wanting to spend 2 rainy days with 3 people in a Minaret we sadly abandoned our Olivine Ice Plateau dreams, turned around, and facing the sun and a clear blue sky, started walking back down the mountain. We got down to the Dart river and the hut by mid afternoon, then to the surprise of all the ‘normal’ trampers we began walking the rest of the way out at about 4pm. We stopped for 2 lovely swims on the way, and made it to the shelter at the end of the road by 10pm where we made a delicious dinner which included an entrée of pita bread fried in oil filled with cheese and garlic. J The rain hit that night, leaking through Sophie and my tent, sending me with a soaking sleeping bag into the shelter.
In the morning we enjoyed a big breakfast then played cards as we waited for some one to pass by that could take us home. Slowly the other trampers showed up, soaking wet and now understanding our evening tramping the night before! A lovely Israeli guy said he would catch the bus to his car then come back and pick us up. When he got to his car though he decided that it wouldn’t be able to cross all the fords, so he sent a man and his son who were going hunting and had a 4X4 to come pick us up. So we scored a ride into Queenstown with them, and then easily hitched back to Wanaka. We then headed to the pub (the men to a beer, I to the toilets to scrub) and then a feast of fish and chips! Fat, salt…. Mmmmmmmm…. Being cheap asses we began scouting out a free place to spend the night were the police wouldn’t evict us. The pine trees in the public park won out as the place to be. Sophie initiated the first cuddle pile and we all snuggled up on the hill and watched the shooting stars until it got too cold and we went off to our respective beds hidden in the trees.
After the night of successful not-camping we hitched back to Pearl in the Matukituki valley. We re-organized our bags for climbing Mt. Aspiring then laid in the shade until 4pm, when the temperature became acceptable for walking. With much lighter packs we began walking towards the mountain. We set up camp a couple hours down the track, where soon Joe and Vicky joined us,both planning on climbing Aspiring. Together we put up with the bugs and had an early night.
Joe woke us early as the bugs got too much for them to handle (they were bivying – we were tenting) They had an exciting night – a possum decided to get friendly, so Joe scared it away. But when it came back, he killed it with the blunt end of his ice axe, splattering blood all over poor Vicky, then with it still quivering he threw it into the river. Now that is a possum control method we should tell DOC about! We continued our walk up the valley to the base of Bevan Saddle. The scramble up to saddle was very fun as we got to sidle along a rock slab beside the stream. J We stopped at the saddle while Joe and Vicky kept on to the hut. We had lunch and a snooze in the sun. Sophie and I scrambled up Mt. Bevan while Kieran taught Alyn how to pitch. By the time we consumed dinner and listened to the alpine radio it was 9:30. The idea was to start up the mountain as soon as the weather cleared to climb (it was quite cloudy at the time.)
Pesky keas that were keen on eating my feet (I was bivying while the others were in tents.) allowed me only 2 hours sleep before my alarm rang at midnight. A clear still sky, so I began to wake the others…. No one else seemed as keen. After I got dressed and had my breakfast and no one else was up it took some serious motivating and some “you guys have to get up – I am already in my boots and gaiters!!” Then I heard this horrid sound and discovered it to be Alyn vomiting. He understandably decided to stay at the tents while we climbed the mountain. So at last 4 of us set off by 2am, ours the only torches dotting the glacier. We took the “Kangaroo” route, as the normal route was impassable as the ramp had a massive shrund at the bottom (and the top we latter discovered). We also discovered on the way down that the quite steep snow that required two-tooling and the little ledge that we took on the way up were completely avoidable, but as that was the only challenging part of the whole climb it was ok! Soon after sunrise the wind started to pick up, making walking along the ridge very difficult. The weather man had promised us it was to die down by mid morning, we kept hiding from it and cuddling up and napping until we got too cold, then braving a bit more of it before we found another spot to hide. Doing this we made it to the base of the ice just below the summit a bit before noon. There we again hid, trying to decide what to do, as the summit was so close, but we could barely stand up in the wind. Kieran and I ended up deciding we would try pitching it when the next break in the gusts came. Sophie and Guy were still undecided about whether or not to attempt it. Then a guide leading his client walked by and started pitching it. They didn’t seem to be having any trouble with the wind (which was still ravaging us) so we started walking up. And finding the wind non-existence on the snow, we kept walking right passed them, being the first people to reach the summit that day.
We met up with Joe and Vicky just at the bottom of the snow. They had started out at 5am (!!! Aren’t we silly buggers??) and had been watching our progress ahead of them. We also found out that they had been the couple we saw lost down on the lower flank of the ridge having to engage in some rock climbing. They exchanged some sour worms for chocolate, then headed up to the summit. We stopped a bit further down to melted snow down to water and have lunch. They met us there a bit latter, and then we showed them the easy way off the mountain. We got back to Bevan Col exhausted from lack of sleep and had an early dinner then fell into bed (this time the keas decided my head was yummy!!). We walked out to a waiting Pearl the next day, and spent another night not-camping under Wanaka’s pine trees, complete with a cuddle pile trying to fit 4 people under Sophie’s sleeping bag.
Altogether Mt. Aspiring was much easier than I though it would be – both Sophie and I where like “oh dear, that was the easy bit” after our little lost trip up the steep part of the Kangaroo. But we were wrong – that was the hard bit! After that it was easy scrambling and a trail most of the way! A very nice tramp. J I could foresee it being much more of an adventure in winter though…
Terra