Leader: Pat Holland

Eight punters gathered early morning at Richmond for this old faithful trip that had been organised by Chris Louth but who had to pull out due to a MTB injury. Waimea Tramping Club also had members milling about in the carpark for their trip. This caused minor confusion!

It was an uneventful drive to the Graham Valley. The Flora car park was moderately full, as behove the beautiful mild weather. So, we set off, on the grand track through the beautiful beech forest, reaching Mt Arthur Hut in 70 minutes for a break. Spurred on by a young couple carrying a five-month old child, we headed on steadily up the ridge, admiring the superb views in all directions.

The party got a little spread out, as David led the charge towards the summit. The breeze from the west was brisk at altitude, so we decided to pause for a lunch break in the shelter of the massif below the summit. Pat exhorted the unobservant to go back along the track 50 metres where the hole through the NE ridge opposite was in-line as a small hole with a glimpse of blue sky beyond. This passage was the target for the afternoon.

All the party completed the summit (1795m), then  David and Mary decided  to return via the main track. Tthe other six headed down this narrow, rocky northeast ridge. About 200m down, we went off to the left on a ledge. After a little backtracking, we located the narrow passage (about 12m long) through the ridge. Getting to and through this required some careful footwork. But soon we were onto rubble on the eastern side below the ridge.

The limestone rocks are quite rough and do not move as much as standard scree so the steep initial descent was straightforward. The route through the karst into Horseshoe Basin was not obvious but we followed our noses down the limestone and tussock slopes, generally traversing a little to the west and sidling under Pt.1550.

We had to watch our footing near the frequent tomos. After about an hour of this rough travel, the wild spaniards became more of a nuisance but some cairns came into view and soon we reached the poled track over Gordons Pyramid.

It was a bit of grunt in late afternoon, climbing the 100m vertical of track from the basin to rejoin the main track – and the waiting David with Mary.

Down we all loped to Mt Arthur Hut, then to Flora car park at a more sedate pace, as befitted a rather energetic but wonderful day. It was an 8.5 hour circuit including infrequent stops.

Climbers were: Patrick Holland, Grant Derecourt, David Cook with Troy Dixon, Mary Hsu, Joe Tiller, Angela Leichsenring and Glenys Henry (visitors).