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.
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. 
I am enjoying reading about your trip. Tis beautiful but not something I would care to do. Your trip did seem to be jinxed with trying to lose equipment. The person whose name starts with "Deb and ends with B" should not have googled but curiosity won out. Now you know why mum can't wait to get the ok text after trips.
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