Mount Somers

From Mount Cook we headed north to Mount Somers, on the edge of the Canterbury Plains. Loaded up with full trad climbing gear, cooking and sleeping stuff and 3 days of food, we tramped for 2.5 hours up to the Pinnacles Hut to go climbing on the fantastic Rhyolite columns of Mount Somers.

The first afternoon we did a few short climbs and a lot of bashing around the hillside trying to get between the crags. The next morning we woke up to a complete whiteout, which much to our disapointment lasted all day, so we were hut bound and tried to pass the time playing cards, doing crosswords and getting the coal burner lit in our private mountain hut. The following day, it stopped raining but we got a bit wet hiking up to the crags through the bush and it wasn't till just before lunch that the clouds lifted and the sun (tenatively) came out and we managed an afternoon ticking some classic (strenuous) crack, corner and arete climbs before tramping all the way back to the van, arriving about 21:00.