From the beach to above the clouds

A while back I told you how I had joined some clubs on campus. The one that I was most excited about and had joined with about half of the other campus was CUTC, also known as the Tramping Club. Up until this point I really hadn't done anything with the club except use them for a few pieces of gear, independent trip ideas, maps, and some general pointers. But this weekend there really wasn't anything planned with my friends, so a few of us decided that we would finally do a tramping club tramp! There weren't too many trip options, but one did look appealing. That trip was the Avalanche Peak trip. This was a peak located in Arthurs Pass and the guys had done it earlier in the season with rave reviews. The meeting made it look manageable, but there were rumours of bad weather... no good. But hey, a lot can change in 4 days. Fingers crossed.

Later that night Damon and I were talking about how awesome it would be to see a sunrise, so we decided that we would wake up early Friday morning, catch the 6 am bus to Sumner and see what happened. Along the way Megan and Juli were caught up in our little trip. Long story short, somehow Damon and I ended up staying up all night doing who knows what. I think papers, talking to drunk people, standard stuff. Bleary eyed the next morning we met up with the other two and off we went to the beautiful Sumner beach at an ungodly hour.

Sunrise on Sumner Beach

We got there just in time as the sun was rising. It was beautiful. The colours that morning were phenomenal. After enjoying a glorious sunrise we decided that it would be awesome to hike to Taylors Mistake. Juli hung back, but Damon and I took Megan for her first cliff walk. The walk was amazing at the early hour we did it at. Seeing all of the colours on the clouds and watching the town below slowly wake up was very enjoyable. Before we got to the beach, we stopped to show Megan where we cliff jumped. Then we remembered that people would go swimming in the tidal pools on the other side of the bluff, so we investigated.

Looking out onto the Pacific Ocean on the Cliff Walk

The climb down was pretty fun. Not difficult, but there was some climbing and jumping around on boulders and what not. Once there, I tested the water with my toe and of course it was freezing. No one wanted to go swimming anymore, but I had my bathingsuite on so I was going for it! Getting in slowly was not an option, only a cannon ball would do because I wasn’t sure of the depth for a dive.

It was so cold.

Tidal Pool Cannon Ball

I’m talking you can’t talk and it knocks the wind out of you cold. But it was a lot of fun. Kinda scary, but I knew nothing in the pools could hurt me. It was really cool to swim in a tidal pool with a few little fish and cool waters while around you the surging tide is crashing on the rocks sending a spray everywhere. A very cool experience.

We never made it to the beach because we had to get back to uni for Megan’s class at 1. On the way back Damon and I fell asleep on the bus. We practically ran Taylors Mistake and after a night of no sleep and a morning of swimming, I was tired! But did I go to sleep? Nope. I stayed up and did some work, but Damon passed out instantaneously I think.

The next day was Avalanche Peak, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I was up for it. But I woke up that morning (after someone had a party in my flat the night before keeping me up...) and went for it. Bananas.

Second Sunrise I saw in a week

The sunrise was spectacular, I swear the picture looks photoshopped. But as we drove to Arthur’s Pass, the weather started to get dodgy. By the time we pulled up to the parking lot, it was drizzling pretty well. But I was in it for the long haul. So on with my jacket, on with my pack and away we went. The start of the Avalanche Peak trail is very steep and rocky with slabs of granite just in the middle of the trial you have to climb up. It would have been okay, but in the rain there were points where it was really difficult to get a foothold. We passed by some sweet falls and nice vistas out onto the valley. At one point we had a killer view of Devil Punchbowl fall across the valley. After about 2 hours we made it past the bush line and from there we hiked up the spine of the mountain. Even in the rain, the views were amazing. I’m sure on a clear day you would be able to see so much in the surrounding area. We even saw a rainbow! But the higher we got, the lower the clouds seem to get and eventually we were just in a cloud bank seeing nothing but grey mist at every turn.

Hiking up the Trail

Sun filtering in on the mountians opposed to us

The Rainbow

Hiking up to the Summit

The going got tough for sure with lots of rocks and boulders on the trail the closer to summit we got. To be honest, the summit wasn’t much of anything. There was no plaque or cool structure to say ‘Hey! You’re here!’ just lots of clouds :/ As we were hiking back from the summit, Nicole shouts “GLACIER!” and we looked as a bank of clouds lifted and shifted ever so slightly to all a glimpse of the Crow Glacier that we in fact did not know was there. As we all fumbled for our cameras, the clouds swept back over. But we were all delighted to see the clouds lift again and we were all able to snap a quick picture. Unfortunately, my lens was misted and fogged and all of my clothing was damp (so I couldn’t wipe the lens off) so my pictures were all pretty bad. But none the less, take my word that it’s pretty amazing to see a glacier so close.

Crow Glacier

The way down was just as difficult as the way up but in its own way. We went down Scott’s track which was longer, but not as steep as Avalanche Peak. Going down on a dry day requires careful footing in general and using muscles that you don’t normally use. At first you’re grateful that you aren’t going up, but that changes quickly. And in this rain and the naturally rocky slippery terrain added pure terror of falling. My main objective was not to take pictures, enjoy the views but rather to not break my body. And there were some jumps in there, tiny rock falls little water falls to navigate. When we got into the trees it was easier though because there were trees and bushes that we could utilize to aid in the decesnt. Us girls developed at pretty awesome technique involving grabbing a tree and swinging around it to get off small ledges and jumps. That was a lot of fun, made us feel like Tarzan.

When we finally finished the descent, we were so happy. But we still had a 2 hour drive before we could change into dry warm clothes. Thankfully I was wearing a polypro base layer and my pants were synthetic because my rain coat from LL Bean was in fact not as water proof as they said. In fact my jacket did an outstanding job at keeping water in and not allowing it escape from under my jacket. Oh well.

Over all the hike was pretty good, I’m sure it would have been outstanding in clear weather, but this was still good. As always, it’s the people that you’re with that make something awesome. Thanks to Nicole, Emily and Juli, we had a fantastic girl’s hike! Needless to say though, I slept like a rock that night, best sleep ever?

Click here for more photos!

P.S.

Some music that people in NZ really really like is Dub Step. This is a type of music with a strong beat, its also called D and B (short for drum and bass). Mt. Eden is one of my favorites, especially this song.