19 & 20 July 2003 - Begley / Hamilton Leader: Peter Wise
The weather forecast for this mid winter trip looked a little iffy with a cold front coming through and snow forecast down to 500 metres. As it turned out, the snow was just a few flakes and the front appeared late morning on the Saturday and vanished again some time Saturday night. Sunday was brilliant sunshine most of the day except for the cold valley shade in the Hamilton. Seven hardy souls set off from Nelson in three vehicles, leaving one car at the gate in the Rainbow and continuing on to the big bridge in the two 4x4’s. Shirley and Dion then did a car shuffle back to the Hamilton Valley where they left Dion’s 4x4. Having sorted the vehicles and the packs out we then set off up the Rainbow Valley which was fairly easy going and into a rather spectacular gorge just before the Begley confluence. This gorge had very impressive ice formations on its cliffs so plenty of photographs were taken before we continued on our way. We arrived at the Begley hut late in the afternoon. This hut has been well maintained and we had a good fire going but the door needed to be open if the hut wasn’t to fill with smoke! Needless to say, this hut wasn’t particularly warm. By morning our toes, fingers and boots were frozen. They didn’t defrost till we had gone some distance down the track toward the pass we were to cross. About mid morning saw us on top of the pass with the help of crampons and ice axes. A short stop here for a bit to eat and a rest then it was down into the Hamilton in the sun until we got lower in the valley. More river walking mainly in a dry river bed for the first hour or two then onto a track back to where we had parked Dion’s 4x4. Here we waited for about 45 minutes while Dion and Mike went to retrieve the other vehicle. A good trip with a happy bunch. Those who took part were: Dion Pont, Ruth Hesselyn, Shirley Arnst, Mike Drake, Carol Crocker, and Mark Stevens.