Dave's Diary: Saw Tooth Ridge

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DAVE'S DIARY : Saw Tooth Ridge e - October 22 - 250 Ill fated party 1 Ted - Phil - Phil's Pack = the party splits - Tooth Ridge Party P. & D. down to the creek - up the ridge - - out. Coinleae How long had I waited for a three day week end? Since the last one I suppose. First of all I was to lead the easy trip to Howlett's Hut and Heon to take the crossing, howevér Leon's operation subsequently altered this arrangement. To begin with Bruce Stewart of Masteboon was unable to get to Wellington and the "F" party lost its axe and some of the fuel. When we reached the road end we decided that, instead of going firstly to Howlett's Hut thence across the Sawtooth Ridge and down Blackridge we would do it in the reverse and if the weat ther broke we would be going to a hut and not away from one - and I if the weather held we could go further South along the tops, thus securing a longer trip without much trouble in rejoining the easy partyo However, one member of the party dissented with the idea if the weat ther broke it would be better to be in a hut than going to one. In this way the party lost one of its precious primises and thanks are due to Bob for the loan of his 9 bringing our mumber back to the required strength, Five of us set out - Phil Barton, "Nuts" Bolt, Peter Davis, "Hori" Hall and myself. Ill fate dogged us once again as we had barely left the paddocks when Phil slipped and badly grazed his left thigho We then contimued on our way and found a new track I no I don't mean wé got lost. A new track had been cut up the spur before Government Spur which was the one we intended to take. The way was disced for about a third of the distance. At the top we found a crumbling pinnacle with shingle slides on each side of its Peter hopped across, followed by "Nuts". Hori was traverging at the foot of the pinnacleo I was making ready to hop over the top when/asked-vas the rope handy to which I replied that a few feet below Hori was a perfectily safe deer track and also that the rope was NOT handy ( it was on top, but roping would have caused a delay and as I said there was quite a gcod deer track) and with that I hopped over the pinnacle. (Wish I had been there Dave to see you hop - Ede) Apparently Phil said to Hori L" I am going to slide my pack down to you will you stop it please?" However when the pack reached Hori he had to leap aside as it came hurtling down (I did not know that Hori could move so fast) then it entered into the full view of "Nuts" and I.

I was so interested in what was happening that I forgot to take a photo of the spectacular display we were witnessing. First of all the pack leapt and jumped for about 150 feet into the middle of the shingle slide. Then a little lower down it burst open throwing out a bazaar assortment of dull and bright looking objects. One metal object shone very brightly with reflected sunlight and which I took to be a billy but afterwards we discovered that it was a metal egg container - needless to say the rocks were harder than the eggs! The dull looking objects were ginger biscuits which the pack gave generously to the snow, At times the pack seemed undecided as to whether to explore the lower half of the slide for it would run up the bank and momentary lodge itself in a leat therwood bush and would then end its hesitancy by breaking through the branches and plunge once more into space! We all went down to salvage as much as we could and retrieved everything except the compass. We also left a small loaf floating in the stream at the bottom and the ginger nuts on the snow, (No relation to "Nuts" B.) Phil was not keen on the idea of the Sawtooth Ridge consisting of about a mile of rotting pinnacle formation and probably much worse than the one which we had just crossed. We had a fairly steep climb up some snow slopes too before we reached the top of Ohuinga (5530'). I was to blame for the absence of iceaxes, which would have been an advantage, especially to Phil. I thought they would not be necessary for the following three reasons - The previous year we had not struck much snow: the Southern Tararuas were not showing signs of being covered sufficiently to warrant the use of an age and that the Ruahines were North of the Tararuas and we were going to the ast side. We set out at 7 o'clock and made camp by a tarn at about 3.15 p.m. "Nuts" went ahead to see what the snow face was like and to choose a route for our ascent the following morning. Meanwhile, Pete shot five stags. A strong wind rose but the weather remained clear and sunny. We experienced great difficulty in keeping our primuses going. They were sheltered by two bods in the front and by a shelf of earth at the rear and bushes hanging over the top and were going full blast. Early next morning I sat up to witness a glorious sunrise, The horizon was a band of sunrise red which sent a glow of light along the valley floor. In the sky hung the thin delicate silver outline of the new moon surrounded by a sprinkling of stars. I thought of taking a photo but kept postphoning it until there was a little more light. Eventually I spotted what I thought to be a rising valley mist but before long everything became obscured in murk, Too late. At the beginning I had promised Phil that I would accompany him out should he decide to turn back and he now wished to retrace his steps instead of carrying on with the partye This being so we divideg the gear so that there was a primus and a supply of fuel for each partyo "Nuts", 2, ete and Hori being given the rope. They set out at about 9 o'clock and reached Howlett's Hut mid-afternoon, Later they divulged that Sawtooth Ridge was as expected - on one side a steep shingle slide dropped away into infinity and on the other side a snow slope appeared to do likewise, When they reached the knob at the other end they had fun in finding the ridge to the Hut and at one stage discovered they were going back along

Sawtooth Ridge, having passed their lunch wrappers! and a deer that Pete had shot. In all they lost three hours and arrived wet and cold at the Hut. And now back to Phil and I. As we were anxious to leave the tops we took a shingle slide (I would have taken a cable car - Ea.) which, typical of the Ruahines led us straight onto a stream bed, We made our way down the stream which was of a gorgeous character, something we had thought impossible for these valleys. Phil did not take too kindly to this business of sidling and we went back to the ridge and we were fortunate in that we hit the track at right angles. Despite all our efforts to follow the track and to keep to the centre of the ridge we found ourselves horribly mixed up in the leatherwood, It was snowing and sleeting and our progress was painfully slow. Phil then suggested that "we get out of this stuff as quickly as possible by goning back to the stream". More than once I thought a gun would have relieved the situation! About five oclock found us looking over a 1,000 fodt bluff, I don't know that it was exactly a 1000 feet as we had no tape measure but we could not see the bottom because of the mist. The bluff continued up on the left and to the right was a deep gorge cut by a streama We retraced our steps for a hundred yards, pitched the tent and decided to ration our food and economise on fuel, I ate a currant roll I some raw liver and milky chocolate I very tasty!!!! Next morning visibility through the mist was better, eventually through trial and error we found our way out to the river, Apart from the things we had THOUGHT about each other we managed extremely well - lots more I could say but all we write in our diaries is not for publication.... - Dave- STILL The Sawtooth Ridge i 5472" Sunday dawned fine so we lay in our sacks for some time. The next time we woke it was to the accompaniment of light rain on our bags. This prompted breakfast and a move. Dave and Phil decided to move down; Hori, Peter and I decided to have a look at the sawteeth even though we could only see a few yards at a time, The Sawtooth Ridge runs Narth-South in a straight line and we thought that once we were on the ridge we couln't get off it. The North end of the ridge is marked by a knob called Ohuinga. We had plugged steps up the soft snow face of this the previous day, so that all we had to do was to follow our steps up the slope to the top, point the Compass South and Bob's Y'r Uncle. Bob happened to be at the South end of the ridge so off we went. For the next couple of hours it blizzed with rain, sleet and snow thrown in, but finally we finished on top of a bump which seemed higher than all the other sawteeth we had passed! It had a cairn on top and we rightly presumed that it was Tiraha at the South end of the ridge. The time was 11 a.m, All we had to to now was to go down in a certain direction and lo and behold - Howletts Huto Unfortunately this was easier said than done. As stated previously once on the ridge, it was hard to get off. At 3 p.m. we staggered back to the top of Tiraha with its now familiar cairn for the third time, cursed for a few moments and set off down into the murk for another goo This time we were lucky and soon found signs of civilisation ( horse droppings and later a track). Howletts Hut was wonderful - even considering what was inside, (See previous account by E.M,R.) "Nuts" -