Trip Report by Wiebke Heise
Trip Participants: Scott Taylor, Magdalena Faltynkova, Wiebke Heise
Friday evening Scott, Magdalena and Wiebke left Wellington to climb Tapuae-O-Uenuku. The surprisingly low number of participants was probably because of the RWC final, the ferries being fully booked already 2 weeks before the trip and a competing trip organised by the Tararua Tramping Club. On the interislander at 6.25 we met the 2 other groups heading towards the inland Kaikouras, 8 people from the Tararua tramping club to climb Tapuae-O-Uenuku and 4 which aimed to climb Mitre peak. All arrived at Gladstone Downs about 2 hours later tents were quickly put up and everyone went to sleep with the sound of the drizzling rain.
Next morning was still cloudy and drizzling; no one really looked forward to walking in cold water for the rest of the day.
Scott and Magdalena crossing the Hodder
Magdalena who had only arrived 10 days before in the country looked slightly terrified during the first 5 river crossings but then bravely mastered the remaining 53 (yes, Paul from the TTC party counted them). We arrived the Hodder huts after about 7 hours walking with cold feet and very tired. The mitre climbing party decided to carry on walking and camp further up the valley so us and the TTC party had the huts to share.
Magdalena and Scott were glad they got the smaller hut for themselves, Wiebke and the TTC shared the larger hut. Hut and the feet warmed up quickly and we had a nice evening even with massages for sore necks and backs – thanks to Allison.
The next morning was clear and sunny no wind and not even frosty, so perfect weather for summit day. Unfortunately Magdalena developed a bad cold during the night, so she and Scott decided to take it easy and did not plan on summiting. Wiebke got adopted by the TTC team and all had a leisurely start at 8 am.
View from the top: Mt Alarm
We climbed the obvious route via a steep couloir to the basin and then up the ridge, although some more ambitious members of the TTC tried a steeper and narrower couloir. The views were a bit obstructed by clouds but one could see Alarm, Mitre and the Nelson Lakes peaks in the distance. We sat for about 1 and a half hour at the summit relaxing and trying to spot the Mitre climbers in the distance. Glissading down was a lot of fun, as well as running in the soft snow. Less fun was losing the crampons from the pack while glissading and having to walk a fair bit back up.
Everybody was back in the hut by about 6pm, the successful Mitre climbers also showed up at the huts shortly after us. While preparing dinner the injuries of the day were compared and documented: twisted knee, bruised leg, swollen ankle, broken fingernail.
The next morning a kea woke us up at about 6am. It was 8 until we left the huts, a warm and sunny day again. It very soon became clear that Dave’s knee injury was too bad to walk out although he tried to walk and tried hard not to complain. Since the TTC party didn’t carry a locator beacon we activated ours and only about 30 minutes later a helicopter arrived to pick Dave up from the hut and take him to hospital. Everybody else walked back down the river, although the water seemed a bit higher than in the walk in, this time the cold water was pleasantly refreshing. We all made it in time to go back to the ferry, it had been a fun trip and last not least everybody appreciated how valuable it is to carry a PLB.
W. Heise