The Tramping Report

Mid Hill & Jordan Saddle

An hour's tramp from the Cora Lyn car park and we broke out of the pine forest.

The fantastic scene sparkled in dazzling sunshine. I took photos more to remind myself I'd been there. A camera couldn't really capture the scene we saw and felt.

Gareth, Cyril, Honora and I had driven up to Arthurs Pass village the night before and stayed at the Christchurch Tramping Club house. We needed an early start for the long day it would take traversing the Mid Hill ridge from Lagoon Saddle to Amphitheatre Creek in the Avoca River.

The track around the flank of Mt Bruce to Lagoon Saddle is very wet and muddy.

For the enjoyment of the groups that are tramping the ever more popular Cass - Lagoon track, it really does need boardwalking for the full 2km+ distance.

The waters resting in the gentle fold of Lagoon Saddle are one of the scenic gems of the Arthurs Pass area.

Beyond them our restful walk came to an end. The ground rose, gradually at first but increasingly steep in a 600 metre climb to the end of the Mid Hill ridge. I admit 600 metres is not much of a climb in itself for a fit group, but we'd already gained the same height in the walk up from Cora Lyn.

The final climb to the crest of the ridge needed hands as well as feet. However our worthy summit was nameless so Gareth dubbed it End Hill.

We had magnificent views from here right round 270 degrees. The look of the ridge onward wasn't so inspiring though.

The ridge along to Mid Hill looked jagged and cut by numerous notches. It would be slow travel.

Honora led from the front and probed for a way through. In the end we decided to save time and bypassed the section by traversing under it on snow slopes on the south side.

We summitted directly onto the real Mid Hill 1831m and exchanged congratulations.

From here the ridge stretched away for 2 km rising and falling only gradually around the 1800 m contour. It was easy travel the whole way over shattered boulders .

The magnificent views were a continuous distraction.

At the end of the Mid Hill ridge a spur ran down to a saddle at the head of Amphitheatre Creek. We discovered we still had boundless energy and ran down it too.

We slowed to pass close by a NZ Falcon sitting on a rock studying us unperturbed.

Fine scree led us down into the head of Amphitheatre Creek. The gully here is a giant earthquake rupture in the side of the mountain. Vast scree slopes shimmered in the sun high above us. Below late afternoon shadows spread a hazy gloom.

Muddy water ran through the small stones in the gully and fine gravel rained continuously from above. Afternoon convection currents swirled dusty wind about us.

We hurried on. The team were raising dust to get down to the valley.

Amphitheatre Creek spilled into the Avoca. We paced down river to the Basin Creek hut as dusk settled the day to rest.

Rain spots blew over the range as we left in the morning. It was good to be having an easy day of it.

We walked back up the valley and turned up Galilee Creek to Jordan Saddle. The sun shone out again as we descended the pleasant staircase of Jordan Stream.

Plea to DoC about Ranger

I sent an email to Bryan Jensen, Waimak Area Manager for DoC, about Ranger Biv. I've no idea if can do any good but I'm not the sort of person to give up without trying.

Hello Bryan

I was concerned to see reports Ranger Biv was included in the list of facilities to be removed from the eastern AP area by end October.

I know I'd seen Ranger Biv inaccurately listed as 'derelict' on a department list, but I'd passed on my concerns about this at a couple of "usergroup" meetings.

Based on that I believed it's status would be reviewed and corrected in due course as it appeared be a simple clerical error (confusing Ranger with Waterfall perhaps).

Separate but related to that, I'm also aware a number of people interested in Ranger have been discussing the possibility of joining an inspection/maintenance agreement covering that biv, similar to agreements reached on the West Coast. This was in recognition that Ranger was not covered for maintaining in the recent ROR round.

Sadly people interested in Ranger had been bypassed by the club/DoC discussions during the ROR so any concerns were never heard.

Are you able to negotiate at your level or if not could you please advise at which level this could be discussed.

Cheers

Frank

Mt Richardson

Mt Richardson is an Easy day's tramp under anyone's grading system. It sounded ideal when Honora suggested we tag along on this club trip. Other times I might prefer something more adventurous. However I'd been just a bit frazzled by the past few weeks build up to Graduation the day before, so I needed a nice mellow leg stretch with some nice friendly easy going people.

Just two car loads headed off from the meeting place at the Carlton Service Station. Alice Yung came along with us. I'd known Alice for quite a while but we hadn't been along on the same tramp before now. The other car had Andrew and Stephen (Stick) Nichols, John Shrewsbury and Andrew McCain. Jeff Rogers met us at the Glentui carpark.

The day was sunny but a bit cool. That worked out ideal for the stroll up through beech forest on Mt Richardson.

I walked with the two Andrews and 'Stick'. They were keen to get to the view so we got there 10 minutes ahead of the others.

Honora walked up with Alice, John & Jeff and we all met at the trig just on lunch time.

There was a cool breeze blowing from the west. So shelter was preferred over view for our lunch spot. We stopped and nestled down in the tussock at the bush edge just 50 m beyond the trig.

After lunch Jeff headed back down the way we'd come up.

We carried on along the ridge to complete the loop via the bypass track.

This is the best part of the tramp as the vegetation changes and the views open out, with the snowy ranges to the west and the green plains in the east.

The beech trees along the ridge are gnarled and wizened and the ground is dry and dusty shattered rock with little soil.

Further on there are only old whitened trunks of long dead beech trees standing up here and there among low scrub and short tussock grasses.

This was all forest covered until thirty years ago when a fire unleashed by carelessness swept through, destroying it all.

Sadly, with beech's slow reclamation rate it'll likely be several hundred years before it's entirely covered in beech forest again.

A little further along we turned off the ridge and the track brought us back into the forest again. The air was warm and sweet with the smell of honeydew as we descended to the valley.

We were back at the cars at 2.30 pm.

Someone suggested driving into Oxford for afternoon tea.  We found a cafe there with outdoor tables.

That made for a very pleasant finish to a really enjoyable day. It was a good walk with continuous friendly conversation right through.

"Poor example" of CTC skills

On 24 July I stuck my neck out and wrote about Wilderness magazine showing a group crossing a river using a strange and dangerous rivercrossing technique.

See No way to cross a river and then back button to here.

The August issue of the magazine had a letter from Russell Chilton of Ashburton commenting on the photo:

Poor example
... The method shown in the photo gives next to no support if one person in the group slips and falls. In fact, it is downright dangerous. I am disappointed that an "experienced" group of trampers should even think of using the method shown, let alone submit a photograph of it to your magazine...

I met Russell at a Mountain Safety Council training weekend at Craigieburn few years ago. He's a very experienced MSC instructor and a hunter and well qualified to make the comments he did. So I was glad to see him sharing the same concerns I had.

Wilderness magazine Editor Colin Moore added a note at the end of Russell's letter that he didn't think the group actually crossed the river linked up like that.

I don't know why he wrote that as my information, from people who were there, is that they did.

I didn't mention the connection with the Christchurch Tramping Club in my original post. I might as well have though as most of the people in the photo are well known in the outdoors as as being in the CTC.

Alan Ross has openly defended their decision for being linked up for the rivercrossing the way they were.

Well I don't know, Alan.... loyalty is a fine thing but....

I haven't come across anyone who knows of that technique being recommended on any rivercrossing course the tramping club, or anyone else, has run. So it really has the appearance that it was just dreamed up at the time.

All I can say is it doesn't do the club any good if it wants to have a reputation for competence in the outdoors.

The shame of all this is Honora is putting a lot into making sure the best training is available in the CTC. And maybe it's just the club's long-of-tooth and longer winded that are letting the side down.

John Hayward Hut and back

I love the walk up the Kowai to John Hayward hut, nestled on its terrace at the foot of Mt Torlesse.

On 19 Oct 1991 I'd biked out from town and walked up to visit the hut. I was just into cycling then but that walk rekindled my love for tramping

Today we only had Sunday morning to spare as we wanted to be back in town to inspect an 'open home' at 2.oo pm. Tagging along for part of Erik's trip seemed much more friendly that just going off somewhere by ourselves.

Our arrival made Erik's team up to twelve. Erik, Jolanda, Joy and Alastair I'd tramped with before, but Helen, Colleen, Tim, Andrew, Brent and Ken were new tramping buddies for me.

We drove out through Springfield and parked at the Lone Pine carpark at the bottom of Porters Pass.

The sun was blazing strongly in a warm and windless day as we set off up the Kowai.

Ahead of us, the looming shingle pile of Torlesse shimmered hazy blue at the head of the valley. Only a thin line of winter snow remained on the lee edge of its summit ridge.

An initial walk across grassy flats with scattered patches of matagouri scrub brought us to the stony Kowai river bed. I usually prefer to walk on the higher terrace track but it made more sense on such a warm day to cool the feet criss-crossing in the sparkling stream.

It only took an hour and a bit to get to the hut. We sprawled there on the grass for a chatty snack.

That was as far as Honora and I were going. Erik planned taking the team up onto the Bob's Knob ridge. We left them to it and turned for home.

On the way out we met a young Danish man walking in to climb Torlesse.

It was a shame to have return to town early when it was such a perfect day. However Honora and I had made a decision that promised other exiting possibilities for us, and the mountains would still be here next weekend.

Huts being removed

DoC announced at its 'user group' meeting for tramping clubs on Wednesday that it intended removing nine huts and bivs by the end of October. These are:

• Mingha Biv
• Ranger Biv (derelict huh? - see these recent pics)
• Waterfall Biv
• Thompson Biv
• Upper Cox Biv
• Top Cox Hut
• Nigger Bush Biv
• Townshend Hut
• Possumers Hut

It's difficult not to believe there's some method in the haste. It was the same with No. 1 Hut at Lake Taylor and Greenlaw Hut up the Waimak. In both those cases DoC rushed to pre-empt the counter proposals it knew were being developed.

Old Man

The Old Man Range runs east from the summit of Mt Taylor. At the end of the ridge is Old Man Peak (K35 784 422). It's not easy to get to but at 2221 metres it deserves a prominent position on the list of Canterbury's foothills.

The original plan for the weekend was to climb Mt Harper, up the Waimak in Arthurs Pass NP. A forecast nor'wester had Richard looking for an alternative further east. I suggested Old Man.

I've been there before but I have a very strong need to go back.

A good team had signed up for Harper and we only lost one in the switch to Old Man. We were: Richard Wills, Emma Richardson, Lukas Frei, Gareth Rapley, Andrew Tromans, Jonathan Carr, Max De Lacy, Honora and me.

We drove down to Mt Somers and parked at the Woolshed Creek carpark. The weather was cool and overcast for the walk in to the old Mt Somers Hut.

I hadn't thought I'd get to see the old musterers/trampers hut again. It's being replaced by a 26 bunk tourist quality facility, to be put in this summer.

After a lengthy snack break at the hut we pushed on. The pace increased a bit, following the flat stream bed to the head of Woolshed Creek. The tussock slopes there slowed us down again and we arrived on Peache Saddle all together. The Old Man Range loomed a long way across the valley.

On the ridge Honora and I pointed out the route down and across the Three Creek basin to the hut. There was no holding them back now. Everyone took off....

The party of nine split, taking 4 or 5 different lines sidling the hill and then descending different spurs. For a while it seemed much of a muchness which group was in front. However Honora, who for a while seemed to be trailing the field, used her route-finding know-how to get the jump on everyone and suddenly appeared far ahead in the distance. She was already crossing the plateau while everyone else was still descending the hill. Max took off like a scalded cat, in pursuit. He only managed to catch her 100 metres short of the hut. I got there third and the rest straggled in. Richard led from the rear, coming in 20 minutes behind the 2nd last to the hut. It was classic CTC stuff.

Three Creeks Hut is a basic tidy musterers hut. It doesn't really look that old however its true age is shown by the pages of a 1922 English Daily Mirror  newspaper stuck to its walls.

We settled in for a pleasant evening of the usual domesticity and chat.

The morning plan was to get up at 6.00 am. I was impressed that by 5 past everyone was up and dressed.

Outside, the dawn sky was an ominous dirty pink to the east and the nor'wester swished about the hut.

There were discussions about what time people needed to be away home. This led to 10.00 am being set as the turnaround time.

A bit after 7.00 we headed off. The route crosses the stream from the hut and follows and old 4x4 track. The track zig-zags all over the place and isn't marked on the map. Honora and I knew it well so we were able to take a short cut from the back of the bunch to way out in front. It must have been quite distressing for Max.

He stuck with us until the road stretched away straight and direct up the hill.

The nor'wester gusted increasing strongly as we climbed. My legs were suffering. I've had too many weekends away from the hills in recent weeks. I didn't want to give up on Old Man for myself but started recognising that I wasn't going to be part of any desperation push for the summit.

The whole team bunched up and discussed the options. I said nothing. The majority decided the approaching turn-around time meant the summit was off, today.

Our high point was 1410 metres.

I'm sure some were disappointed.

It was a learning point. I guess we all wished we'd pushed for the summit bid on Saturday. I still have to exorcise the mountain for myself. I'll go back and some of the others might want to finish it off for themselves too.

We walked to a knob at the end of a spur jutting out from the side of the mountain (K36 802 402). It gave us a good look up at Old Man, and the long way back.

We turned for home.

It's different when Honora and I are out by ourselves. Then we continuously adjust our plans and so not getting where we originally set out for is not often an issue. But I get a bit sad when others are along and we don't achieve our goal.

We got a good scree run down from the knob and that perked me up. Lunch was back at the hut.

On our way out, rather than crossing Peache Saddle, we crossed the range further east and found an excellent scree back down into Woolshed Creek. That's definitely got to be the standard return route.

On the way home we stopped at the Railway Tavern in Rakaia for a meal. I'd reccommend that to anyone. It was friendly, a good price, comfortable surroundings and a good basic fare menu that's ideal for the end of a trip in the hills.