Category: Alpine

Travers Sabine

Who the fuck would build a hut in an Avalanche path, let alone stay in one?

Welcome to John Tait hut. This is the spot where Marty, Laressa, and Max would have to spend the first night of our 5-day trip after flying in from Wellington, getting a hire car, then catching a boat across lake Rotoiti.

Stupid humans, Shit Weasels are much smarter, I slept in the toilets which are outside the danger zone.

The toilets are also far enough from the hut that you can’t hear Marty snoring. This is a massive bonus as he sounds like a demented walrus!

Toilet in the safe zone

Snow Shovels are for skids

You’ll probably see a shovel on the back of someone’s pack and think that they are responsible. Ask any mountain climber and they’ll tell you the shovel is for digging your comrades out after an avalanche or making a snow cave.

The truth is that they are actually to do Skids when the snow is soft! We all had a good play in the snow above Cupola Hut.

Rescued again

Logged out of here by Laressa

Most people think that Laressa is responsible. She has a reputation for looking after people. However, you may want to reconsider this notion. She signed all of us out of Cupola hut without noticing that I was missing. It was only when Max joked about putting me in the river for a wash that they noticed I was missing!

Max had to run back up to the hill to find me, it got quite emotional…

The Famous shit weasel

As we arrived back at John Tait Hut a very cool man named Wok asked “Where is the Shit Weasel?”

He already knew of my travels from the Hut books in the Tararua ranges. He showed us a UFO video and welcomed us to visit him in his Tattoo parlor in Nelson.

On to travers hut

Twats

After a traumatic day we arrived at Travers hut before darkness set in. I slept by the fire with Max to avoid Marty. Whilst I prefer toilets, frozen ones are not fun.

The next day we set off over the pass to find waist deep power snow…

Max and me smashed a path through the snow for the others to get suck in!

Love the Snow

More Skid Marks

Marty takes a shit at West Sabine Hut

West Sabine Hut to Speargrass Hut

It was a long day and Marty’s was really starting to stink so I had to jump him, Laressa was getting a tad whiffy too but I was not getting any affection from her.

MOre love for the shit weasel

I got heaps of attention at Speargrass hut. Max was worried that I was going to be kid-napped!

Footnote: Shit Weasels are only interested in epic fit trips which are entertaining. You’ll not find any Leisurely Humdrum strolls on this site. If you are offended remember. I don’t give a shit, but can dish plenty out.

Alpine

Mount Taranaki

There are good reasons why I post so many last minute trips. The main one being you have no control over the weather. Planning an exact date weeks in advance normally leads to disappointment.

There are not many weekends where Mount Taranaki offers perfect blue skies, minimal wind and low risk avalanche conditions. The trick is to have a plan, then wait for the perfect time to present itself.

Taranaki Meetup Trip details can be found here…

Marty, Stirling, Rendy, Myself and The Shit Weasel were all available for the mission to summit Taranaki.

We drove up after work on Friday, parked up at Dawson Falls carpark, then walked about 1 hour to the Waingongoro hut for the night. We had it to ourselves which was sweet.

Up to Syme Hut

It’s decent hike up to Syme Hut. We got there for lunchtime, dumped all the overnight gear inside, then had a quick break and a feed before continuing…

Heading up

The South face does not get as much sunlight as the rest of the mountain which tends to make the snow harder, especially the higher you get. It’s a great workout for your calf muscles and good for some toe pointing practice with your crampons.

Once you hit the slope behind the hut it’s a relentless grind up to the summit.

Marty taking a breath

The slope just goes and goes…

About half way up. Syme hut in the distance below.

Summit

Hitting the Summit

The last little section before the summit is probably the trickiest part and you hit it when you are gassed out! Here’s a video clip of me hitting the Summit:

We had a beer on the top to celebrate, plus had the luxury of lounging around on the top without getting cold.

Marty and Rendy were not far behind and I got some sweet video shots and photos of them both.

Next comes the fun part of going down…

I could have stayed up longer, but it’s a good idea to get back down before the sun sets!

There were a total of 3 groups up on the Mountain this weekend. Our party of five, four experienced Koreans and another group of three.

We made a good call as we were the first to hit the Summit and the first group back to the hut. The Koreans were not far behind us.

I was keen on doing some skids on the way down. I took the crampons off far to early and ended up hurtling down the hard ice at high speed. The Shit Weasel came flying out of my backpack pocket and and overtook me!

I had to speed up to save him.

A very lucky shit Weasel gets saved on the Mountain!

Ouch,Ouch, Bounce, Ouch!

I really should have known better and waited for the softer snow. I speed up bouncing down the hard ice , overtook the Shit Weasel, then folded my legs around him whilst pulling off a sideways self arrest!

The result was a bruised right buttock, elbows and shoulder blade!

The rest of the team were far more sensible and made it down unscathed.

I love bright colours in the snow. Rendy really pops in Pink!

The final group ended up coming down in the dark. One of them was not confident with the hard ice and was not sure footed with her crampons. The Koreans spotted this and gave them a rope.

Two hours after we returned they were still up there! We could see the torches still high up and I was having discussions with the Koreans about a rescue mission to get them!

Fortunately they got back before our chosen deadline time. I was feeling quite beaten up after saving the Shit Weasel and really wanted a quite night!

Sunday

It was an early rise to watch the sunrise. Pure magic to watch the sun pop up from behind Ruepehu. Then back into the hut for a coffee or two to warm up.

More Skids!

Sliding is always the quickest way down a mountain! But we had soft snow this time. Arguably I could have started higher up, but was still feeling tender from the previous day!

Please note: Alpine trips are only suitable for those that have previous experience using ice axe and crampons. Risk management is vital to have an incident free trip.

There will be some blog posts coming soon that cover Snowcraft courses for anyone interested.

Alpine Nelson Lakes Tramping

Angelus Hut in the Snow

Laressa, Marty, The Shit Weasel and myself set off to Nelson Lakes for a 3 day weekend organised by the NZ Alpine Club.

All 15 of us had attended the Snowcraft level one course on Mount Ruapehu back in July. This weekend was all about practicing what we had learnt and putting it to good use.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is niomi-and-jamie.jpg — Naomi & Jamie (One of the few photos I took on Friday)

The forecast for Friday was not great, but not bad enough to stop us going. The biggest issue we had was waist deep powdery snow. I got my foot stuck in the snow at one stage and needed some help in getting out. Thankfully Naomi was there to help dig it out with her ice axe!

It turned out to be very hard day slogging through the snow. We were putting in big efforts for small distance gains.

Then came the wind along the exposed spots on Roberts Ridge, it was a challenge to stay upright at times. We were all quietly relieved when got to the shelter of Angelus Hut under torch light!

I pulled out my old trick of sneaking a mattress from the the dorm room to sleep by the fire. It was a double win, not only was it warm, there was also the bonus of not suffering Marty’s snoring 😜

Day 2: Angelus Peak

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pana-ice-axe.jpg — Saturday Morning

Derek (the hyper energetic organiser) was the first one up. The sky was clear and we both decided it would be a good idea to climb back up the ridge to watch the sunrise whilst the other were still sleeping.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pana-derek.jpg

One goal I had for the weekend was to get a decent photo of Angelus hut. The previous week I discovered that our Meetup cover photo was not taken by anyone in our group. It had simply been taken from the internet so had to be updated.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is angelus-hut.jpg — Angelus Hut with Derek doing the Jesus thing on the roof

We were back to the hut for breakfast before setting off on our mission to summit Angelus Peak.

After the previous day it was an absolute joy to have sun and hard snow. On went the crampons and off we set.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is dena-and-wiiiim.jpg — Dena and Jack early Saturday Morning

It’s a good climb up and quite steep in places. I was quite keen on taking the direct route by crossing the frozen lake, but the others were not sold on the idea! 🙄 I got out voted so went around and everyone was in their comfort zone.

We took the direct route to the top, it’s breath taking!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is jack-summiting.jpg — Jack about to hit the Summit

The view from the top was simply amaze-balls. It’s a magical feeling being on a mountain and the smile on The Shit Weasels face said it all.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is byrus-1.jpg — The Shit Weasel looked very happy having made it to the Summit of Angelus Peak

Going up is all about cardio. Going down however can be about getting loose, especially if the terrain allows for some skids:

After all the fun it was back to the hut for lunch and more fun.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is vodka.jpg — The Shit Weasel likes Vodka!

The Shit Weasel hit the Vodka early and proved that Tramping and Alcohol can be a great mix, despite what the WTMC thought police may try and tell you!

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pash.jpg — Everyone loves the Shit Weasel!

Day 3

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pana-gorge.jpg

There was a front due to come in on Sunday so we were keen to get an early start. I don’t think anyone wanted another day like Friday. The good news was the snow was still firm and the weather was great to start off with.

It’s amazing how much difference the conditions can play. We were back at the car park before 12pm. Our speed was about 3 times as fast as the trip in and felt effortless in comparison.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is front.jpg — Front coming in towards the end of Roberts Ridge…

A frigging awesome trip. A huge thank you to Derek and Niomi for making it happen, along with a nod to everyone else for being great company and making it a special weekend.

If any of you are keen on Alpine trips I highly recommend the NZ alpine club. I’ll make sure a post gets put up about the Snowcraft course soon. Feel welcome to introduce yourself to me if you have any questions about getting involved in this type of trip.