The great OUTC Aspiring take over

By

Party: Rowan Cox, Lottie Armstrong, Imogen van Pierce, Liam Pyott, Maddy Whittaker, Torea Scott Fyfe, Olivia Truax, Erin Houlihan, Lucas Zeller, Cara Lembo

It had been two days since I'd finished my 1400km walk of the South Island. I'd been back in civilsation for what I decided was two days too many. It started as a casual conversation with Liam. 
Liam: "Want to go climb something?"
Me: "Most definitely....what about Aspiring?"
Liam: "Yeah sounds good."

Somewhere in the two days between that conversation happening and us driving to Rowan's in Wanaka, the trip changed from a two-person climb to a full-scale OUTC cluster. Lottie and Imogen were driving from Christchurch and Erin, Cara, Lucas and Olivia materialised from somewhere. We got up early to drive out to Raspberry Flat in order to avoid the road blocks that we'd been notified would be going up at 6am for the Wanaka Challenge. However, they were up at 4am! We politely removed the road cones and headed for the hills. We were not going to be stopped!

As we started up the Matukituki, Rowan was quick to lay down the ground rules. "If anyone has to stop to tie a bootlace or something, we're leaving them behind." And so began the journey of getting 10 people up the waterfall slabs and to Colin Todd. It was a wonderful time, catching up with everyone after a summer of separate adventures.


Bevan Col waterfall slabs (Imogen van Pierce)

Aspiring (Imogen van Pierce)

Halfway up towards Bevan Col, Lottie and Rowan had a slight disagreement about route choice. Rowan was determind that his way was the way, while Lottie stubbonly insisted hers was better. And so Rowan and Liam took off one way and the rest of us the other. We arrived at Bevan Col hot and sweaty and miles ahead of the boys. With a pool of beautiful snowmelt water and an iceberg to swim laps of, the mass skinny dipping began. Rowan's expression upon arriving to find seven girls sans clothes was something I won't forget for a while.


Torea swimming with an ice berg on Bevan Col (Imogen van Pierce)

The Bonar (Lucas Zeller)
Lottie the mamma duck leading the charge (Rowan Cox)

Cara approaching Colin Todd (Lucas Zeller)

View from Colin Todd (Imogen van Pierce)

Upon arriving at Colin Todd we were delighted to be welcome by Jane Morris and a client. We spun some good yarns about her good ol OUTC days, admired the 80 year old client who'd given the NW Ridge a solid crack and headed to bed. I slept wonderfully.

We'd split into two teams for the climb - Lottie, Torea, Rowan, Imogn, Liam and myself were getting up at 2am to climb so we could walk out the same day. Cara, Olivia, Lucas and Erin were getting up later and were going to walk out the following day.

To be honest my memories of the NW Ridge are that it was pure type one fun. People say the Buttress is the crux, but I didn't even notice navigating around it in the dark. It all flowed into one delightful scramble.

First light from the NW Ridge (Rowan Cox)


We summitted just after first light. It was atrociously windy. Any exposed piece of skin stung. Buffs were pulled down quickly for a photo and then back down we headed, clag closing in just as we ran into team 2 on our way down and their way up.

The Bonar as seen from the summit 
Torea, Maddy, Liam, Lottie and Rowan on the summit (Imogen Van Pierce)

The Volta (Rowan Cox)

Shapes in the mist (Rowan Cox)

Maddy and Imo descending from the summit cap (Rowan Cox)

The Buttress (Rowan Cox)

We arrived back at the hut to find two blocks of Whittaker's from Jane Morris and a note!  It read  "OUTC Crew: Good to see the club is going strong. Here's a little something to keep you going! Jane M." Liam decided to stay and walk out with the crew the following day (since they were driving back to Dunedin too). We demolished one, left the second for team 2, got out the compass and set off in the clag following a bearing towards Bevan Col.

The lovely note left for us with two blocks of Whittakers from Jane Morris (Rowan Cox).

The walkout blurs into one. It got dark sometime between Aspiring Hut and the carpark. A huge moon rose over the Sharks Tooth and we plodded onwards. 21 hours after leaving Colin Todd that morning we got to the car.

Rowan drove for about 15 minutes and then swapped out. Within about 30 seconds of tapping out he was asleep. Torea was also asleep in the backseat. I drove slowly back to Wanaka, so smashed that I could only drive at 60 km/h in a 100km/h zone. Back at Wanaka, Torea and I crashed on Rowan's floor. No sleeping mat, just straight on the floor. It was one of the best sleeps I have ever had.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drawn Upwards

By
Image
Crossing the divide into the Landsborough (Easter 2019) (Maddy Whittaker) Our mountains, how they bend and fold. Glaciers flowing from rock to ice to me. This past year I have been mesmerised by the scale, the shapes, the way light plays upon the ice and the patterns the wind whittles in the snow. I used to think it was a strange force that draws us upwards. But now I understand that this force is not so strange at all.  Some moments seem to burn brighter than others. The first time I saw the Bonar glacier, clambering over the top of the Quarterdeck, the golden moonlight and pink rays of first light washing the snow in a magical glow. The first time I scrambled upon warm granite in the Darrans, impossibly steep rock expanses rising straight up out of the sea. My first New Years in the hills, running through golden tussock, my memories tinged with the overexposure of golden hour. My first trip deep in the bowels of the Landsborough. Water cascading everywhere in a wild joy
Read more

The West Coast Névés: A Hard Earned Battle on Foot!

By
Image
The West Coast Névés (Lottie Armstrong) Party: Maddy Whittaker, Imogen van Pierce, Lottie Armstrong, Jamie Gardner, Rebecca Vella King and Conor Vaessen Times are certainly changing. It turns out walking from the Fox Township up the Fox Glacier to Pioneer Hut is not what it used to be! On Waitangi Day, six of us set off from the township and 14 hours later arrived at Chancellor Hut, the first day of our four day trip on the West Coast névés. The crux of the entire trip was getting to the start of the actual Fox Glacier - the point where not all that long ago a road used to go to. Now the road has been claimed by the river which runs hard against a series of bluffs - which involve hundreds of metres of vertical bush bashing to get around including a rock chimney in the forest and some pack hoisting. It is certainly an inspiring country. From the swift opaque waters full of chunks of ice in the rivers to the constant rockfall around the glacier - there is no part of this la
Read more

North West Ridge of Mount Aspiring

By
Image
18/2/2020 -  19/2/2020 Party: Torea Scott-Fyfe, Tom Hadley I'd just arrived back in the South Island and Torea had just finished 12 days of fieldwork when we met in Wanaka. There was 2 days of workable weather ahead of us and we were both ready to get stuck into some mountains. Tom: “Hmmm well the Raspberry flat road is open again”, Torea: “Oooh yes we could climb some domes”, Tom: “Hmmm how about climbing the big dome...?”, “Yes let’s climb Mt Aspiring!”. The next morning, we set off with light packs and lighter legs from raspberry flat at 8am, jogging and walking along the expanses of the Matukituki valley. The open grasslands soon turned to beech forest, then to scrub as we carried on. We arrived at the waterfall in 4 hours time and began the push up to Bevan col. After negotiating slabs and bluffs, the expanse of the Bonar glacier spread itself out before us. We moved our way through gurgling blue crevasses to arrive at an empty Colin Todd hut, how good! At 5am the nex
Read more