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. 

Spring is in the air

Spring is in the air... or at least was in the air.  When I was walking by the park near my place, I noticed a gaggle of yellow flowers and my instant thought was dandelions.. but to my surprise, they weren't.  I thought about laying down in the grass... but then remembered that I'm allergic to grass...hmmm..  I also was strolling by the Palais Theatre on my way to the grocery store and noticed numerous middle-aged folks... many of which were wearing leis.  I thought that these look like Parrotheads... and they were!  Jimmy Buffet was playing on a Sunday night.  I also thought I should include a picture in the suburb where I bought my car.  The train stops on top of a hill with a beautiful view out into more suburbs.  Luckily it cooled down again: my allergies subsided, I didn't sweat on my walk to work, and I could ferment beer outside of my fridge... allowing me to continue using my fridge for food :) 

Anchors Away

I was across the street at the beach, when I saw this funny sight.  There is a yacht club right across from my place and I always have to step over the railroad tracks leading from the club to the abyss.  For the first time, I saw them in use.  I enjoy the man on the ship, captaining his way up the rails.  Since they blocked the road during this procedure, I figured that it was a good time to take a snapshot for your enjoyment. 

Protest

I participated in my first protest.  The Aboriginals were protosting the insertion of a gas refinery on their land in the Northern Territory, so they held ceremonies across the entire coast of australia.  It involved the burning of eucalyptus leaves.  They are concerned about how the refinery would impact the wildlife.  Don't worry mum and pop, I'm not becoming a hippie ;) 


I burned a cigar in the honor of the ceremony.  It was being held just outside my apartment on the beach.  One of the things I found funny was that during the ceremony, the hippie parents that were there would let their children run wild, which was actually a bit disruptive.  While one of the aboriginals spoke, the child would play with the sticks, putting them in the fire, throwing sand at the fire, etc.. I thought it was interesting that the parents would support something, yet disrespect it at the same time. 

Any better?

We'll try a raspy voice and a slow and steady voice to see if these are any puzzles.