raggles.kiwi

(Almost) Mt Murchison

We, an optimistic group of 5, headed off to Klondyke late on Friday with 4 of us intending to climb Mt Murchison and 1 catching a ride up to do some hunting in the vicinity of Carrington Hut. It was pretty cold with snow right down to the road making for a pretty wobbly drive down the carpark track.

The snow in the riverbed caught everyone by surprise, with everyone going arse over breakfast time at least once in the first 5 minutes. We wandered up the river, using stars for direction for a time before getting out the compass and GPS for assistance. It was slightly more challenging finding the optimal route up the wide Waimak valley than I was expecting with no moon out. After about 40 minutes of walking up the riverbed Brandon queried how much longer before we got to the track as his feet were getting sore in his barefoot shoes! Needless to say a footwear change was hastily arranged upon receiving the news that it was riverbed all the way. Carrington Hut was reached in good time, and following a quick brew we were all in bed, struggling to stay warm.

We started at a fairly casual hour on Saturday, heading for Barker Hut. Caroline's boots required defrosting with hot water before they would accept her feet. The soft powder snow made for relatively slow going, adding on a couple of hours to the regular journey time. Because of the snow and our late start we had little time to get any further than the hut. While the others attempted some transceiver practice, I headed up towards Mt Murchison to plug some steps as I knew the snow was too dry to freeze over night, hoping to make our morning a bit easier.

Sunday morning three of us headed up the hill at 0630 (Kate had decided to stay parked up at the hut), and got up onto the glacier for sunrise. Progress on the glacier was better, but it still took us four hours to get up to Kahutea Col. The couloir to the summit ridge was nice and icy, but we would have had to pitch it, and decided that the time it would take to make the final 100m to the summit was more than we had planned for. We would be at least two hours late meeting Brandon back at Carrington as it was.

The trip back to Carrington was much faster, but unfortunately Caroline's feet had become slightly frostbitten, a combination of wet and cold feet and tight crampons. We walked the last few hours in the dark, and caught up with another group just as they were about to leave the carpark - a good thing as my car's battery was too cold to start under it's own steam.