Avalanche Peak!
On Monday the 9th, I hopped in the car with Bianca, Gernut, and Harry, all ready for a moderate day tramp at Arthur's Pass-- specifically, Avalanche Peak, which Harry wanted to do. It was supposed to be moderate, 6-8 hours. Talking in the car, we figured since we usually do tramps faster than the estimated time, we could make it to the summit and back in five hours and then try to do the "Devil's Punchbowl" track before dark. But on the way there, looking at Harry's Lonely Planet Tramping Guide, I began to wonder.
The description explained that past the bushline, there isn't much of a track, so trampers needed to be experienced to find their way around. Other words were splashed throughout the description, such as "will need to scramble up rocks," "challenging," and my personal favorite, "deathtrap." Once we got to the top, I could see why it would be described as a deathtrap-- had the weather not been as lovely as it was, things would have been slippery (and the term "avalanche" would probably have been well illustrated!).
Well, anyway, a little less than seven hours after we'd set out, we made it back to the car.
Wow. So, we start out making our way through the bush, and almost right away we've got a lot of steep ground to cover-- some was so steep and rocky that it was almost more like climbing that walking. Pretty quickly, I could feel the burn in not only my calves, but my quads. It was pretty intense. I was so glad that I only had a day pack! When we finally cleared the bushline, we were all feeling pretty tired. But we figured we were over halfway there. So, we kind of loitered around a little lookout area for a bit, admiring the view, and chatting with a few other trampers we're run into. Eventually, though, we knew we needed to get a move on onto the summit, where we'd also decided we'd eat lunch. Off we went, Harry and I a bit ahead of Bianca and Gernut. We finally made it to the top of the "summit" and realized that, yeah, it wasn't the summit at all. We still had a ways to go.
I wasn't too concerned, really. My body has always managed to summon the energy and motivation it needs from somewhere-- but this was looking to be the most challenging tramp yet. We could see from where we were eating our lunch that we'd have to go downhill a bit, climb upover another hill, go back down, and then pick our way across the boulders that were sprinkled alongside one side of the mountain to get to the top-- "scrambling," that's right. And that would take us to the glorious top-- but we'd still have to climb down. Oh my.
We packed up again, and diligently continued on with our journey. Partway up the last ascent, I was panting pretty hard, and begging my quads to hang in there, but at last, we arrived at the summit.
SO worth it (I don't think I haven't said that yet-- well, still no exception, I suppose :-P). We dropped our bags, and headed off to the very end of the summit rocks to absorb the panorama. I love the rush of finally reaching the summit-- the vain satisfaction. Mmm. While we were reveling in our achievement, I noticed a bird. It was a kea! They're described at the DOC as being like seagulls, and described by the locals as being like mean, violent, irritating seagulls. Well, this one looked friendly enough. We were all rather amused by the funny looking bird (who had obviously had an easier time making it to the top than we did, haha!)... until he gave us this... look. It was an odd look for a bird, like a dare, or a guffaw. And then off he flew... over to our bags. Hungry little bastard.
We squeezed through/around/over the dark, shale-like rocks at the summit to make it back to our bags. The damn kea got one of my zippers open-- the only thing I had in that compartment, luckily, was toilet paper. That was amusing enough for the kea though, who began walking down the mountain with it, leaving a TP trail behind him. I felt a bit silly clinging to tussock and crumbling rock off the side of a mountain so that I could save the unlittered landscape from my toilet paper, but I managed to recollect it all. When I made it back up, the bird had moved onto Bianca and Gernut's bag, and had actually found some trailmix (though they quickly nabbed it back). The others were entertained by the kea for a bit, but I laid down, looked around, and just breathed for a little while.
The sun was starting to lower, so we got our rears and gear in started making our way back. The way down was, as ways down usually are, rather hard on the knees. The distance we had to cover highlighted this, but we sank into a groove, and Bianca and I made good time on the way back, chattering along the way pleasantly.
We made it, at last, back down. It was getting just dark enough to rule out the Devil's Punchbowl-- plus, we were pretty tired. In all honesty, I would have sucked it up and gone if the others had wanted to-- might as well, right?--but I think Bianca and Gernut were more than ready to get back! We grabbed a snack for the longish drive home, and ventured back to Chch.
It was an awesome tramp, though I don't think I would do it again. Would I do something as demanding as that tramp ended up being again? Oh, definitely. But I'd definitely love to see a new view, or the same landscape from a different angle. :-)
Back at the flat, I had to cook and do some laundry... general preparations for Abel Tasman...
The description explained that past the bushline, there isn't much of a track, so trampers needed to be experienced to find their way around. Other words were splashed throughout the description, such as "will need to scramble up rocks," "challenging," and my personal favorite, "deathtrap." Once we got to the top, I could see why it would be described as a deathtrap-- had the weather not been as lovely as it was, things would have been slippery (and the term "avalanche" would probably have been well illustrated!).
Well, anyway, a little less than seven hours after we'd set out, we made it back to the car.
Wow. So, we start out making our way through the bush, and almost right away we've got a lot of steep ground to cover-- some was so steep and rocky that it was almost more like climbing that walking. Pretty quickly, I could feel the burn in not only my calves, but my quads. It was pretty intense. I was so glad that I only had a day pack! When we finally cleared the bushline, we were all feeling pretty tired. But we figured we were over halfway there. So, we kind of loitered around a little lookout area for a bit, admiring the view, and chatting with a few other trampers we're run into. Eventually, though, we knew we needed to get a move on onto the summit, where we'd also decided we'd eat lunch. Off we went, Harry and I a bit ahead of Bianca and Gernut. We finally made it to the top of the "summit" and realized that, yeah, it wasn't the summit at all. We still had a ways to go.
I wasn't too concerned, really. My body has always managed to summon the energy and motivation it needs from somewhere-- but this was looking to be the most challenging tramp yet. We could see from where we were eating our lunch that we'd have to go downhill a bit, climb upover another hill, go back down, and then pick our way across the boulders that were sprinkled alongside one side of the mountain to get to the top-- "scrambling," that's right. And that would take us to the glorious top-- but we'd still have to climb down. Oh my.
We packed up again, and diligently continued on with our journey. Partway up the last ascent, I was panting pretty hard, and begging my quads to hang in there, but at last, we arrived at the summit.
SO worth it (I don't think I haven't said that yet-- well, still no exception, I suppose :-P). We dropped our bags, and headed off to the very end of the summit rocks to absorb the panorama. I love the rush of finally reaching the summit-- the vain satisfaction. Mmm. While we were reveling in our achievement, I noticed a bird. It was a kea! They're described at the DOC as being like seagulls, and described by the locals as being like mean, violent, irritating seagulls. Well, this one looked friendly enough. We were all rather amused by the funny looking bird (who had obviously had an easier time making it to the top than we did, haha!)... until he gave us this... look. It was an odd look for a bird, like a dare, or a guffaw. And then off he flew... over to our bags. Hungry little bastard.
We squeezed through/around/over the dark, shale-like rocks at the summit to make it back to our bags. The damn kea got one of my zippers open-- the only thing I had in that compartment, luckily, was toilet paper. That was amusing enough for the kea though, who began walking down the mountain with it, leaving a TP trail behind him. I felt a bit silly clinging to tussock and crumbling rock off the side of a mountain so that I could save the unlittered landscape from my toilet paper, but I managed to recollect it all. When I made it back up, the bird had moved onto Bianca and Gernut's bag, and had actually found some trailmix (though they quickly nabbed it back). The others were entertained by the kea for a bit, but I laid down, looked around, and just breathed for a little while.
The sun was starting to lower, so we got our rears and gear in started making our way back. The way down was, as ways down usually are, rather hard on the knees. The distance we had to cover highlighted this, but we sank into a groove, and Bianca and I made good time on the way back, chattering along the way pleasantly.
We made it, at last, back down. It was getting just dark enough to rule out the Devil's Punchbowl-- plus, we were pretty tired. In all honesty, I would have sucked it up and gone if the others had wanted to-- might as well, right?--but I think Bianca and Gernut were more than ready to get back! We grabbed a snack for the longish drive home, and ventured back to Chch.
It was an awesome tramp, though I don't think I would do it again. Would I do something as demanding as that tramp ended up being again? Oh, definitely. But I'd definitely love to see a new view, or the same landscape from a different angle. :-)
Back at the flat, I had to cook and do some laundry... general preparations for Abel Tasman...