Not the Poo Valley!

Not the Poo Valley!

by Mike Phethean with Tom, Andrei, Bett, Abbie, Sam, Ed, Jess, Christine, and Katy “W hat are we going to do this Easter?” asked Katy. I mentioned that I was leading a trip to Chittenden and Cotterell.

“I’ve never heard of them, where are they?” asked Katy. I explained they were off the Rainbow Valley on the east side of Nelson Lakes National Park “Oh you mean the Poo Valley! I don’t want to go there again. What else can I do?” asked Katy. This was a reference to Rainbow Valley which was the valley up from our route. It is a working station with lots of animals and their associated mess. I explained that the route I intended to take was on DOC land so no animal mess.

“Huh! There will still be poo! What other trips are there at Easter?” asked Katy.

…… David Jewel had led a successful trip the previous spring to both Mt Travers and Mt Cotterell from the Travers Valley. Studying the map I realised that Mt Cotterell could be climbed from the other side and the guide book revealed it was a rock scramble in summer. Whilst the Travers valley is one of the most beautiful of the Nelson Lakes valleys, I have been up there about ten times and it has become overly familiar.

I was looking for some variety, and somewhere the club hadn’t been before. I reckoned that Mt Chittenden could also be climbed as part of the same trip. As I was Chief Guide the trip naturally found its way on to the schedule. No one volunteered to lead it, so I put my name down.

The other trip to the area was entitled Hellfire and Misery. This was enough to attract Paul Christoffell as a leader who we would share transport with. (Personally I feel the map-makers missed an opportunity. What if the valley were called Brimstone?)

…… Thankfully I did not delegate trip marketing to Katy and so I ended up with nine other people signed up. This began to worry me a little as this is quite a few for an alpine trip. Luckily there was a good mix of experience in the selection, with a good sprinkling of rock climbers and alpinists who had ascended some of New Zealand’s 3000m peaks.

…… We camped on the Thursday night at Kowhai Point campsite, erecting our tents some time around midnight after an on time ferry.

The morning brought good weather and we got dropped off by Paul’s group at Connor’s Creek. After the usual bit of pack sorting, we headed off along the track passing through great beech forest. The sun was shining, a great way to start a tramp, but we knew there was a bad weather front coming the next day. The track peacefully crossed the river a few times before delivering us to lunch at the bush edge. Nary a sign of domesticated animals.

The route then followed the valley up to a saddle in the ridge line. The going was slower with Spaniards and high tussock impeding the way. Route finding was also not optimal with a minor diversion up a side stream, whilst avoiding the aforementioned foliage.

Various peaks can be climbed from the saddle but time did not allow. We dropped into the stream and followed it down until we reached the track at the bottom of the val- ley. A few of us were a little out of tramping practice and glad to see the hut. The hut accommodates eight people so volunteers and snorers (not mentioning names, but he is Russian) slept outside in tents. A little later a disappointed couple arrived to find the hut busy and elected to camp down on the flats.

We chopped some wood but after discussion, the general agreement was that the open fireplace would cause too much smoke to circulate round the hut. Dinner was followed by early to bed as we wanted to make an early Arriving at Begley Hut Keeping warm by the fire in Begley Hut start to dodge the worst of the wind the next day.

We set off not long after the break of dawn with drizzle already descending. We followed a volunteer-maintained track up to the third side stream on the true left of Begley Creek. We boulder hopped up this side stream until bypassing a 70m waterfall on the true left by climbing up through the bush. Tom led us up through scree field scrambles until we reached the South ridge of Chittenden somewhere between point 2162m and the summit.

By now the wind had picked up to the point where it was getting close to blowing people over. This was not the weather for knife edge scrambling and so we had to turn back despite being so close.

Luckily my spirits were kept high by Andrei. He was finding the route finding on the scree descent a little bit intimidating. I offered to show him the way allowing me to use the classic Terminator line of “Follow me if you want to live.” I am not sure if Andrei got the reference but we all managed a safe descent and I was happy. The weather was deteriorating further, reinforcing our decision to descend.

The cold from the weather led to the fire being lit with no discussion and thankfully most of the smoke went out of the chimney. (A tear in the chimney would allow gusts to blow back smoke). Noodles, chocolate and reading filled the afternoon as we listened to the rain come down outside.

The skies had cleared by the morning and we again took the track up Begley Creek but this time headed up slopes to the saddle at 1675. The way up to the saddle is a tussock and loose rock scramble, which was a little more

View of the Traverse Valley and Lake Rotoiti from Mount Chittenden precarious with heavy packs.

After some exploring for routes to the summit, we dropped our packs a few hundred meters down the other side of the saddle and started our ascent. A steep stream with a 5 metre scramble got us on to easier scree slopes. These we followed up to the summit ridge, arriving north east of the peak before following the ridge to the top.

The mists were swirling but there were good glimpses of Lake Rotoiti down the Travers Valley. We had a good half hour of sitting and photos, content in having made one of our summits.

The descent showed the value of wearing helmets. Abbie pulled a rock onto her head before it bounced down the slope. As usual, once on the gentler slopes heading down the Hamilton River the pressure of trip leading disappeared from me.

Not for long though! I had planned to camp at the bush edge of the Hamilton but the tussock was lumpy and generally not flat. We trudged further down river almost desperate for a campsite. Then the river went underground and we began to wonder.

Eventually we found a raised grass bank not very far from where the track proper started. Some sites needed some gardening but it was a good spot and the river had made a useful reappearance. Sam arranged a fire and soon we were fed and asleep.

The morning brought good weather and we walked with a spring in our step to the road end, picking up the track as we went.

Although we were early to the van, bathing was curtailed when Paul’s group emerged from the Lees Valley. We loaded up, and apart from getting stuck in a ford, made good progress to an early ferry home from Picton.

Thanks to all of the punters who made it a great trip - Tom, Andrei, Bett, Abbie, Sam, Ed, Jess, Christine, and Katy.

………….. “Well there was no poo on the trip after all,” Katy remarked on the Ferry. “Yep”, I thought.