With a month gone the score stands at, Mountains 1 : Me 0 (Also it appears I am about as good at regular blogging as I am at getting up mountains)
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| Glacier Explorers ensured no Icey swim was required |
So when Silvia asked me if I wanted to try Nuns veil with some of her friends I (unusually, I normally find a way to talk my self out of going into the mountains) said "yes". Little did I know what I was getting into.
After some discussion about gear, there is always some discussion about gear, we settled on Bivying so as to be light weight. Silvia would carry the rope, and me the cooking gear, I definitely got the better end of the deal, but then I needed to as I suspected I would be a little less fit than the rest of the team.
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| A great spot for a sleep (and Whisky) |
Turned out that the trip was actually a rescheduled CMC trip, and a race, or at least thats what it seemed like to me. Well more specifically a race where I was last. After waiting for the Glacier Explorer guys to give us a lift across Lake Tasman, we had a good old wander up the hugely unpleasant Gorilla stream. Progress was slow, for me, but eventually we reached the bivi site, not our bivi site but the one usually used. At this point we were driven on by Nina, the trip leader and from here on referred to as "the slave driver" to get to her goal a high bivi one a level bit of glacier 500m below the summit.
In all seriousness this is how I would chose to do the mountain every time. Her slave driverness picked a great route and climbing it from the high camp made it a much more pleasant (tho still quite horrendous) walk out the next day.
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| Down climbing from the summit |
We set up our Bivi site and had tea and Whisky (rum for Silvia) and after a amazing sunset settled down for the night. Up at 3 away by 4 was the decree of the slave driver so after a decent 6 hours sleep we rubbed the sleep out of our eyes and got our gear on, leaving our bivi's and tents in place we set up of the first easy snow slope. Progress was easy at first, well technically, my "fitness" was still not where it could be but we made steady time until the slope steepened up. At this point a few of the party decided to call it a day and head down to try a smaller rocky peak, unfortunately time pressures did not allow us to use the rope the long suffering Silvia had carried to here, to take people less confident on steep ground to the summit. Some more steep ground and a time consuming traverse took us to the final snow slope to the rocky top of Nun's Veil.
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| Mount Cook in the morning sun |
Thanks to our early start we saw an average sunrise and the amazing sight of the suns rays sliding down the face of Mount Cook. We headed back to our bivi site, then into the valley. The long trudge back towards Tasman Valley was every thing we (I) had feared but every step closer to home felt great.
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| Finally leaving Gorilla stream |
21 hours after waking up on a glacier and climbing a peak I had never really heard of 2 weeks previously I was tucking my self into bed back in Christchurch. Being in the mountains reminded me why I moved to NZ.
Months 2, Peaks tried 2, and 1 Success
Due to all of my lagging behind and lack of a "real camera" all photos are from the slave drivers camera, she had plenty of opportunity to take lots of amazing photos while waiting for me, Thanks heaps for the photos and the trip, check all Nina's amazing photos out at ninadickerhof.smugmug.com/
