South Westland November Pilgrimage: Mahitahi and Makawhio

This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.

Paul Richardson and Malcolm Fisher headed down to South Westland again for their annual November pilgrimage, but the Gods must have been, very upset because we didn't: even see the sun for the first seven days and spent five of our eleven days in the /3

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grone position. In other woris the weather was disgraceful. qur route? From Mahitahi Valley up onto the Bannock Brae Range to the western tributary of Greer Creek then down to the flat. and up the main btanch (one day). Two days later we crossed: to: the western hranch of the unnamed creek draining Mt Butzbach; then spent four nights stuck on a rock face because qf the weather. The southerly storms finally cleared and we made our : escape down to the creek which involved numerous abseils and some serious rock climbing. Time was up by now, : and the planned crip shot to bits. We weren't looking forward to the bash down the Hakawhio but it was easy and quite enjoyable. Malcolm said it was easier than the Mahitahi. From our last çamp: at Greer Creek it only took a few hours to get out. The Makawhio Valley is one of the least visited of all Westland Valleys. I'm not sure why this is so because we found the valley was good travel (a real pleasure compared with valleys like the Waitaha). We took a very hard route to get in and went astray somewhere, but we know the right route now and we'll. be going back once our memory of the horrible weather has dimmed.

During the same week (19-23 November) Tony Gazley, Bill Drake, Rudi Katz and Monica Comonisch (from Austria) flew into the Murchison Valley and spent a week ski touring while based at the new Alpine Club hit. They spent three days hut-bound by the storm which dumped a ton of snow, but for the remainder of the time, weather and ski conditions were excellent. They spent seven nights at Murchison Hut and one at Tasman Saddle. They skied out down the Tasman. Tony really enthused about the trip and suggested some of you tow skiers ought to try it. It sure sounds better than tramping in the rain.