Leader: Brian Renwick
“This looks a lot easier than I remember!” Two seconds later, the guardian of Moss Pass punished Brian for his rash remark. With perfect Monty Pythonesque timing, he took one step down and promptly arsed over, sliding a few metres down the steep, loose gut amid a shower of rubble; the guardian exacting a tribute of a little skin and blood. After establishing Brian was ok, they all had a big laugh about it. Talk about cockiness coming before a fall…
Some trampers bag peaks; others bag huts. This was to be a pass-bagging trip: seven passes between 1785 and 1870 metres elevation. The first four days we followed Te Araroa from St Arnaud to the Waiau River, knocking off Travers Saddle and Waiau Pass on the way, then hanging a right to ascend to Lake Thompson. We had chosen day three for our first rest day, ambling up from West Sabine Hut to Blue Lake, arriving at the hut before moderate afternoon rain set in, which became heavy in the evening.
Soon after arriving at Lake Thompson and setting up camp, we were joined by three other trampers who had just come over Thompson Pass.
Day five was to be a toughie. We quickly gained Thompson Pass after breaking camp, and climbed the knob to the southeast, our highest elevation of the trip at 1880m, just eclipsing Waiau Pass. From here we dropped down into the D’Urville basin and started our traverse to D’Urville Pass. This went well, sidling across scree, light grass, and the occasional rocky bit. One of these “rocky bits” just kept getting steeper, necessitating removal of packs and passing them down. We finished off by a shortcut up a broad steepish gully and traverse across and up almost to D’Urville Pass, all on good rock, to avoid a boring scree grunt. This was a challenge, and good fun!
After the obligatory photos at D’Urville Pass, we trudged down the scree to the wee tarn for a snack, and checked out the next stage to David Saddle. There really seemed to be only one way to go: an ascending sidle to pass under a near-vertical rock face. Soon after, we picked up a line of cairns, but they seemed to lead across and down to the Matakitaki, perhaps a shortcut to avoid the steep gully below the tarn which we had ascended in September on good cramponing snow. After a bit of scree and rock scrambling we found ourselves at the notch, at the base of the rock face. From here, a direct traverse took us to David Saddle, where we stopped for a late lunch, about 2:15pm.
Up to this point, we had found the day sufficiently challenging to be interesting and mostly enjoyable, but then it took a turn for the worse. We descended the scree, looking for cairns to the left to indicate a route into the West fork of the D’Urville, which I had followed upwards eight years earlier. Nothing sighted, but Ian found a line of cairns that went down some uncomfortably steep ground towards the D’UrvilleForks.
Decision time; which way to go? We opted for the line of cairns, but soon lost them. We could see a route down, albeit steep, so went on and eventually found ourselves among rough vegetation on the terrace above the main creek. All traces of the trail I had followed eight years earlier had disappeared.
After further descent, we spotted a cairn, then a big orange triangle at the bush edge. The track was initially quite challenging and we had to scout around a bit “Does it seriously go down this steep, slippery creek?” Well yes, it did, but then it got into the bush proper and from there it was plain sailing.
After the trip, I found a recent write up of the new route on routeguides.co.nz. Lesson: don’t assume nothing’s changed; do your homework.
We arrived at Upper D’vUrville Biv at 5:40pm, later than expected, but pressed on to George Lyon Hut, arriving just before 9pm, rapidly running out of energy and daylight! After a dip in the D’Urville, Madeleine was rejuvenated and happily cooked her dinner, apparently none the worse for wear. Frankly, I was just about stuffed!
Day six continued fine, climbing up to Moss Pass in the cool of the morning. We had a pleasant break at the creek just before leaving the bush. Then over Moss Pass, where I met my nemesis, and on down to Blue Lake.
Day seven was our second rest day, just a stroll down to West Sabine Hut, also to recharge before attempting Gunsight, our final pass.
We took a shortcut, following the old Travers Saddle Track and then up the avalanche gully to the bush line. This worked well, and we set off across and up heavily grassed slopes, dotted with spaniards to keep it interesting. Madeleine was often lost to sight when the grass was well over her head. As we gained height, the going became easier; scree and light grass, sidling beneath the occasional rocky bluff, before reaching the steepish 200m gully leading to the pass.
The climb to the pass was quite enjoyable. We stuck to the true left, being half on stable scree and half on stable rock, and frequently on both at once.
After high fives on top, then down on mostly horrible steep scree to a prominent notch close to the Mt Cupola bluffs. We continued down, close under the bluffs, the theory being that the spring avalanches would suppress the spaniards. It went as hoped, but eventually we had to cross a sizable section of spaniard-infested tussock slope which exacted more tribute, and gained Cupola Hut at about 1830. The views of Mt Hopeless in the changing evening light were rewarding, and again in the morning light.
Last day was a pleasant amble down Cupola Creek, followed by hot conditions down the Travers to Coldwater Hut, where we treated ourselves to the 3pm water taxi, having tramped about 130km including over 6000m of climbing (and 6000m of descent!) in nine days.
Participants: Ian Morris, Madeleine Rohrer and Brian Renwick (scribe).