From Snowcraft to Mount Travers

Text taken from the club newsletter.

FROM SNOWCRAFT TO MOUNT TRAVERS

A long journey for a South Island summit by DEBBIE BUCK with SHARRON CAME, ANDREI ZUBKOV,

DAVID JEWELL and TIM DUNNING

Snowcraft 2012 was a medley of weather. The mint day for summiting Te Heu Heu erased the less than perfect other weather from my memory. After that, to embed the John Wayne crampon walk in my muscle memory, I had a few 2012 alpine tramps. Ngauruhoe high camp was claggy and calm. We had a sunny walk up and down the Hodder River, and bailed partway up the col to Tappy’s summit as a storm ap- proached. Te ao Whekere was a rock grovel that, for me, ended beneath a steep technical snow section enveloped in clag.

2013 was more of the same. I was mastering crampon- ing and snow travel in various terrain and various weather, getting used to chilly feet and fingers and bagging summits up at Tongariro National Park. But the South Island sum- mits were proving elusive. Fortunately I’m persistent and patient.

For the 2014 alpine tramping season, my goal was one (any one) South Island summit. I spent a weekend up at Tongariro National Park, learning about snow anchors, alpine rope-work and pitching…perhaps if I had some technical alpine skills I’d be more confident and the alpine weather gods more cooperative!

Tappy became Not Tappy or ‘not quite Uwerau’; com- plete with a six hour upward bush bash to get anywhere vaguely alpine. Cupola, after a week of snowfall, was a step plugging and ‘spot the avalanche’ mission that ended not far above the stunningly sited hut.

I took heart and reflected on the experience of real mountaineers – their many summit bids that didn’t suc- ceed for a plethora of reasons reinforce the sweetness of hard-won summits.

The four day Travers and Cotterell ALP1 was my final South Island alpine tramp for the season. David sent out the trip plan and Sharron sent some helpful hints about snacking on the go and drinking electrolyte fluid instead of water (my usual beverage). The weather forecast ummed and aahed in the week before. By Friday afternoon it was looking like we would have one mint summit day and one undecided summit day. Hopefully there had been enough freezes to consolidate the fresh snow that was around from the previous weekend.

On Saturday morning, the five of us (David, Shar- ron, Tim, Andrei and I) tramped up the Travers Valley to our base at John Tait Hut. After lunch we went on a Mt Travers reccy up to the junction of Summit Creek with the Travers Valley. Tim and David scouted further up Summit Creek to the basin and came back with promising news about the ease of travel and the snowline. Back near the hut Sharron found a spot to cross the Travers River for the ascent of Cotterell Peak the next day. We made dinner and settled in for an early night – albeit a rather hot and sleep- less one because of a crew of glampers who kept a bonfire stoked well into the night.

We woke late after missing our daylight-saving adjusted alarm and faffed about. Andrei decided to walk up to Cupola Hut instead of attempting Cotterell. The rest of us postponed the inevitable cold crossing of the Travers River until about 9:30 a.m. We ascended through untracked bush and my wet feet got colder as we tramped through the snow. We reached the bushline which was windy and cold.

By now, I couldn’t feel much of my feet below my ankles and was definitely the slowest of the crew. The trip plan had mentioned a steep technical section near the

Summit Creek with Mount Travers in the distance top of Cotterell. It had also mentioned that bailing at the bushline would be a ‘good day out’. I decided that I was too tired and cold to progress at the pace that would get the four of us to the summit of Cot- terell. I was content to leave the others and navigate back down to John Tait Hut. Hopefully this would save some of my energy for the Travers summit bid tomorrow on the forecasted mint day. So I spent a cruisy couple of hours wander- ing on bearings down to the Travers River. Fortunately the snow melt hadn’t made the river level too high to cross alone. It was a good day out!

“I contemplated just staying where I was and not going across the knife edge…but knew how annoyed I would be with myself if

I baulked”

Back at the hut, I had a wash in the river, caught up with Andrei, and chopped some of the dinner veges. I jettisoned some unnecessary kit before Sharron returned to inspect my pack contents…she’d promised to be brutal! Fortunately she wasn’t too appalled by what was left in my pack – she removed the goggles and hand warmers because if the weather was bad enough for goggles then we’d be bailing anyway. After dinner, I relocated my snacks to various accessible places – jacket and shorts pockets and the top of my pack, and filled up my camelback with 1.5 litres of Replace. Hopefully this would be enough liquid for the day. I felt prepared for the Mt Travers summit day. All I needed was a good night’s sleep before I got up at 5:45 a.m. to put on the stove. The next morning we got up as planned, left at 7 a.m. and made quick time (50 minutes) to Summit Creek. Af- ter another 50 minutes of tramping through the bush on the true left, we were near the bottom of the Travers basin and had reached some snow patches. We filled up with water and de-layered because it was warm. Lots of sun without cloud or wind. We tramped through alpine tus- sock, spaniard and heath, reaching an icier section where we put on crampons. We’d had a good overnight frost, so

The summit ridge the snow was still quite firm at 9:30 a.m.

I led off into the basin, keeping on the left. It felt good to be cramponing at a solid pace in firm snow. I turned right to cut across the basin and was soon in step plugging country. Tim and David charged in front of me… I was relieved. We waited for Andrei and Sharron and then continued the step plugging up the steeper section near the lip of the basin. This opened into an- other basin. I needed some savoury food to keep going, so I had a quick cheese and salami break and then powered on in David and Tim’s steps to meet them at the saddle.

Only another 150 vertical metres to the summit. This section was steeper and softer and the sun scorching. I was thankful for Tim and David’s steps. The three of us met just before the final ‘knife edge’ 50m or so to the summit.

I contemplated just staying where I was and not going across the knife edge…but knew how annoyed I would be with myself if I baulked. I’d been wanting to test my ex- posure threshold, so here was my chance! David led, then Tim and I followed. The snow was firmish and as long as I looked straight ahead along the footsteps in front, I was blissfully unaware of the drop off on my sides. There were only a couple of brief places where it was quite narrow and required a bit more manouvering than one foot in front of the other. I felt a bit hesitant and took these steps care- fully. The rest of the knife edge was a sunny saunter at the top of the world to the summit of Mt Travers (at about 1 p.m.). I was relieved, and a tiny bit exhilarated - my first South Island summit. And such an awesome mint weather day! I could enjoy the expansive mountain vista (unhidden in clag), take some silly pose photos and revel in the mo- ments and the day. Sharron joined us shortly afterwards, having left Andrei at the saddle.

The initial steep part of the descent required facing into the snow. After that it was a mix of side stepping, facing outwards and stepping and then, when the snow got too deep and soft, bum sliding. Eventually we took off our crampons, had a snowball fight (mainly Tim and I) and let gravity help us tramp back down the mountain to the track.

Back at the hut we wearily prepared dinner and re- hydrated. Since it had been such a hot and sweaty day, I refreshed with a quick cleansing dip in the Travers River. It had been a sustained and satisfying South Island summit day, hopefully the next one would be soon.