Throwing Axes

 

dI noticed that I'm really dragging this trip out on blog entries.  We're still on the first day of actual climbing.  Ah well.. to continue.  Here, we have the Pioneer hut (home for the week) sitting on the leftmost rock. To its right, one can see the toilet.  Each time I go, I have lofty expectations... horrible pun intended.  It sure beats my experience on some other climbing adventures when there was no latrine.... especially when temperature dropped below freezing.

As a complete aside, it may be interesting to note that there is a rainforest directly below these glaciers... it also might not be so interesting.  I'll let you decide.... this time.  Here, to the right, we have Dr D to the left, Dr B in the middle and Dr D Jr to the right (Dr D on the left is not Dr D Sr).  At this point, as I prepared for my pose, I chose to throw my fancy pants carbon fibre ice tool down the slope.  Who needs it anyhow.  Note to those concerned, I did manage to retrieve it intact. 

So here we were at the top of Halcombe, when we heard a big crash.  In this picture, you can can "maybe" see rockfall and some smoke.  As it turned out, the other side of the mountain was quite worse off.  Google Plateau Hut rockfall for more info.  Then again, don't if your name starts with Deb and ends with a B.  Anyhow, it got quite warm on the way down from the climb. This means that snow bridges across crevasses lack strength of any kind.  This made the trip back to the hut quite long and tedious.  We all fell into at least 1 crevasse at least once.  Let's just say that the person leading wasn't picking the smartest route... and no, it wasn't me.  I'm too lazy to walk through crevasses.  With this, I'll explain to the ill-informed reader that most crevasse falls are minor.  Out of the entire trip, I think the worst fall was to the waste and no required rescue was ever implemented.   

Mount Halcombe

Our first mountain for the trip is denoted as Mount Halcombe.  This route is fairly straightforward, accept for one crux that involves rock climbing skills. After a nice private night with just our group, we headed off.  As some would say, climbing is just _.  It's best done between two consenting adults in the dark.  Yes, I'm referring to video games.  

For me, the first climb is always a little nerve-racking.  I am always concerned that I forgot something vital. Do I still know how to tie a clove hitch? The other tricky thing is determining what clothing to wear.  It's cold in the dark, but can get bloody hot when the sun shines on the snow/glacier. 

I'm always amazed at how beautiful the mountains are.  One of the spectacular aspects of New Zealand is that the Southern Alps are so close to the Tasman Sea, which you can see in this picture, looking down the Fox Glacier.  I suppose this has the best of both worlds between those who like the beach and those who like the mountains... or at least in my opinion. 

Our first major obstacle on the route was a crevasse.  We just jump in one by one.  Just kidding.  We actually moved to the side of this crevasse to get up to  some exposed rock.  The real challenge was knowing that I had just developed a blister on the first day because we walked sideways up a mountain for a long way, but since when have I ever gone mountaineering without developing a blister? 

Water Closet

After returning from the cold foggy day, we ate, ate, slept, and ate.  I soon learnt that the lavatory had a beautiful view of Mount Tasman.  As you can see the clouds were rolling in, making it difficult to navigate, but luckily navigation from the latrine to the hut was not difficult.... except for the slippery slopes with a cliff on one side and a crevasse on the other.  However, not to worry, we setup a rope between the hut and outhouse. 

One of the events that was funny and not funny  at the same time is that one of the climbing members uses glasses.  He happened to buy a pair of very fancy glasses that would protect the UV rays when they were out, but otherwise acted as normal glasses.  The frames and lens were both expensive.  As he poured out the dish water, his glasses happened to jump off of his face.  Unfortunately the compost heap is not easy to get to, so he ab sailed down (rappelled).  He managed to find half of the frame. 

It would have been funny had he been able to find the glasses intact.  As a complete change of subject, the sunsets were gorgeous from the hut.  I couldn't imagine another place I'd rather be, just other people that I'd want there with me (i.e. family and friends).

Blisters and my first day on the glaciers.

We arrived at the Pioneer hut with 2 choppers, one being a Squirel.  The other chopper had most of our gear (minus crampons and an ice axe) and it had 2 other members of the mountaineering club that were climbing on their own for the week.  The one guy had just climbed Tasman and Aoraki, which sounds fantastic to me. 

 

Here we have the pilot dropping us off. It's actually quite disheartening to see civilization take off just like that, but nice at the same time.  We could really feel the gale force winds as they blew the top off of some of our food. 

There was no relaxing when we arrived, especially since we caught the first flight in the morning.  We had straight for Pioneer col with plans to climb Grey Peak.  In the picture, we have one member of the party probing for crevases.  notice the large one to the left and right.  I am happy to say that I only ever fell into one at waste level and the rest were at knee level.  We did have one guy fall into his armpits. These experiences helped me realized that crevasses aren't as bad as one may expect, as long as one excercises a little intelligence.

The pictures are in a a strange order.  In the lowest one, we have the group walking to the hut from the landing pad.  Yes, that is a crevasse in front of the hut, hence why we are roped together.  In the picture above it, the weather was turning quickly with the winds.  By the time we reached the col, the wind was nearly blowing us over and the wind chill was horrendous.  So we headed back to the hut, which is fine for a first day, in my opinion.  My loose boots on this day haunted me for the rest of the trip due to the blister I obtained. 

Foxy

Back from a blogging hiatus.  Work has been too busy.  I enjoyed a mountaineering trip from the 18th-22nd of January with the Melbourne Uni Mountaineering Club.  To the left is food for 5 men during a 10 day span.  The beauty of this mountaineering trip is that we had a helicopter to take us near the hut that we would stay at.  Therefore, we had steak, wine, dessert, etc... It was much different from my usual U.S. trips, where I bring tuna, noodles, and many bars of all sorts. 

After arriving in Christchurch in the early morning, we drove to the Porter Lodge at Fox.  Embarrassingly, I left my wallet in Melbourne, but luckily, I packed away my NZ bank card.  It wasn't the ideal thing to forget.  It did mean that I couldn't lose it on the trip.  We were grounded for the first day due to bad weather in the mountains.  Therefore, we focused on packing properly, eating, drinking, and reviewing the weather for the week. 

We awoke early on the following morning to catch a ride with Heli Services out of Fox.  The helicopters are limited to sight rules of flying.  Therefore, they need high visibility and good contrast.  There were minimal clouds, giving great visibility.  However, gale force winds and the early sunrise made it difficult to land on the glacier.  Our pilot did manage to find a location, slightly further from the hut than usual, but still close.  We stayed at the Pioneer hut, which had numerous crevasses between the "helipad" and the hut.