The plan for this Easter trip was to attempt Mt Arrowsmith (2781m) from the Cameron Valley and with the weather forecast being excellent sunny weather the chances of a successful climb looked good. However as Terry, Nigel and Katrina headed down to Wellington on Thursday afternoon to meet up with Peter and cross on the ferry, the big dump of snow we saw on the Tararuas suggested we might be in for some hard work. Crossing on the ferry one of us remembered that they owned a house in Kaikoura, so that made for a comfortable nights sleep rather than a roadside snooze somewhere. Meeting up with Hinrich and Julie at Christchurch airport we then headed towards Lake Heron and the Cameron road end. Fortunately there wasn’t much evidence of many others up valley so we quickly got rid of tents to lighten our load. Travel up the Cameron was generally uneventful following the marked route that keeps to the TR. However some slack route finding by (he shall remain nameless but was the only one of us who had been there before) meant we spent some unwanted time crossing the last stream too early and grovelling round in scrub and rock covered in snow. We eventually got back on route and made it to the hut after dark, with the help of the occasional pole, snow covered cairns and footsteps of the hut’s only other resident. Saturday morning with a 5am wake up saw us heading up the Cameron by headlamp and torchlight. The soft unconsolidated snow cover got deeper and taking turns at step plugging became the order of the morning. We eventually got to the big bend in the Cameron Glacier with about 50cm or more snow masking rocks, ice and holes. Coupled to this would be the avalanche risk on the South Cameron Glacier. So after much consensus discussion it was decided to abandon the attempt of Mt Arrowsmith itself and head back down to the hut and do an afternoon scramble elsewhere after lunch. Of course once eating up at large and relaxing at the hut no afternoon scramble took place. We did decide however that the next day we would attempt The Marquee (2421m) via the long south ridge, which although still a mix of rock and fresh loose snow would not present the problems encountered for Arrowsmith. On Sunday another 5am wakeup, a 6:15 am departure, and leaving Peter to look after a pinched nerve, five of us headed across to the 700m grunt up the spur to put us onto the start of the ridge. The snow cover at least made the scree easier to ascend. Once on the spur it was slow but steady progress for the next one and a half kms, with Hinrich being chief snow plugger and tester of the rock holds. A couple of roped pitches and some running belays were necessary because of the snow cover, but otherwise it was steady scrambling. Leaving one of the party members just before pt. 2346m to concentrate on the scenery, the remaining four humans and (unbeknown to me) the two Easter bunnies did a final spurt on and up to the summit reaching the top at 3pm – which we had decided shortly before should be our turn round time. The Easter Bunnies then spent a bit of time admiring the views before getting eaten. As expected the descent was going to run out of daylight, however the conditions were excellent, no wind and soon the moon was up. Peter had some candles going on the window ledge as beacons and had prepared pre-dinner nibbles to delight all taste buds. Our last day was going to be a long one for those of us driving all the way back so a relatively early start was undertaken on the Monday. This time following the route down valley was easier, although some of us attempted to battle with the Matagouri at one point. The two vehicles headed in different directions once we got to Mt Sommers; Julie and Hinrich direct to Christchurch airport, while the other four drove north. Coffee and toasted sammies at Staverly, huge ice creams at Amberley, fish and chips at Kaikoura. Almost running out of time for the ferry we didn’t even have to turn the motor off! Loading had almost finished. We were the last vehicle onto the ferry! Getting into Wellington about 1:30am on Tues morning wasn’t too tiring for Peter, but the other three of us got back to P North about 3:30am. An excellent trip thanks to Peter our organizer and leader. We were Peter Shanahan, Nigel Scott, Julie Deslippe, Katrina Hughes, Hinrich Schaefer, Terry Crippen. Terry Crippen
