Until now I hadn’t climbed a real mountain in any real sense, so I spent several weeks looking forward to tagging along on a trampey club alpine trip to Mt Travers, in Nelson Lakes, to see what was involved. The intended route wasn’t too technical for my recent snowcraft training, and Sharron (the organiser) was nice enough to let me join in.
Our plan was something I wasn’t completely used to. Until now I’d spent most of my time tramping rather than climbing, and tramps (at least within the club) tend to have an emphasis on trying not to visit the same place twice, if at all possible. Thus it felt strange to suddenly be embarking on an adventure where the stated goal was simply to get to the top of something and get back again.
Sunday morning.
Dates: 10th – 13th October, 2008
Location: Nelson Lakes National Park, Lake Rotoiti.
People: Sharron, David, Marie, John, Lorraine and me.
Huts visited: Coldwater Hut (0 nights), John Tait Hut (2 nights).
Route: Water taxi from St Arnaud to Coldwater Hut on Saturday morning, then walk to John Tait Hut. Climb to summit of Mt Travers on Sunday via Summit Creek basin, then back to John Tait Hut. Walk back to Coldwater Hut on Monday and return via water taxi.
[Photos and movies]
Having arrived via the evening ferry sailing and a shuttle to St Arnaud (courtesy of Nelson Lakes Shuttles), we stayed at the Kerr Bay campground, alongside the two club Medium-rated trips who were aiming for Lake Angelus. The only disturbance overnight was a loud thump at 5am — the consequence of a certain person from our group happening to roll off a nicely prepared (but narrow) make-shift bed. Even though nobody else had been considerate enough to sleep in exactly the right place to break the fall, there was no serious injury. As the stars slowly faded from the night sky, a single bellbird woke a noisy chorus of echoing bellbirds, and morning had arrived.