Back across the Strait

As Helen mentioned, I headed to the South Island for a long weekend with Max. The original plan was to try a new route on the South Face of Tappy (the highest mountain in NZ outside the Southern Alps) in the Inland Kiakouras but we failed to source a 4WD to borrow for the back roads to get up to the trail head. Instead we headed to Nelson Lakes to attempt a new route on the South Face of Travers.

We left Wellington at 3am but slept the whole journey to Picton where we picked up Rob's car (who went with Helen to Ruapehu) and drove an hour and a half to St Arnaud, the entrance to the Nelson Lakes NP. The sky glowed orange behind us as we drove up one of the biggest wine producing areas in NZ heading west from Blenhiem and we made it to the waterfront at St Arnaud by 9:00.

To save 3 hours of tramping Max had organised a water tax to the lake head. A great way to start off the trip.

That still however left 7.5 hours of walking along the scenic Travers valley fully loaded before arriving at the Upper Travers hut just before dark. A popular summer trampers route who head over the Travers Saddle and back to St Arnaud via the Sabine Valley.

Arriving at the hut and looking up at the East Face of Mount Travers. The next morning we went up to check out the obvious icefalls directly under the summit but they were out of condition.

Looking back down the Travers valley from the hut

Max under the South Face

We traversed round the mountain after checking out the icefalls and arrived under the massive South Face. Unfortunately the face wasn't holding enough ice or snow to justify an attempt so we headed up a couple of hundred metre long couloir (just out of view on the left) to create what we think may be a superiour winter alternative start to the South Ridge.

Alternative start to the South Ridge

With our main objective out of the question, we spent the afternoon at the hut deciding what else to do. In the end we decided on popping over Rainbow Pass into the next valley along and looking at the West and South faces of Kehu where there's reputably reliable ice.

We left the hut at 5:00 the next morning and headed up to the head of the Travers valley under a blanket of stars. Rather than follow the pole route up to the saddle we climbed the left hand of a series of couloirs leading to the wide plateau on the southern end of the saddle. The snow conditions were fantastic and we made good progress up what we dupped 'Table Couloir' (in reference to the similar route on the Aiguille du Tour) to avoid the rising sun deteriorating the north facing slopes. We topped out on the plateau just as the moon was setting to the west and snatched a bit of refreshment before heading over Rainbow Pass and down the slopes at the head of the Rainbow catchment, slowly traversing around to the West Face of Kehu.

Sun rising over Mount Iris.

We headed up a wide couloir and branched off a narrowing one heading up to the right. Snow conditions continued to give fantasic cramponing.

After a few short icy steps as the couloir narrowed we finally had to get the rope out for a short crux section.

Me on the summit as the cloud makes a brief appearance.

The couloir topped out, rather unexpectedly, but extremely aestheically, directly under the summit of the west peak of Kehu.

The west ridge leading up to the summit of Kehu itself. Tappy (our original objective for the weekend is just visible on the horizon).

View across to Travers while descending the NW slopes of Kehu on route back to the hut.


Looking down the Travers valley on the way back to the hut.

Leaving the hut for the walk back down Travers Valley. 'Table Couloir' is the leftward and narrowest heading up to the horizon.

We decided to walk all the way out to Lake Head Hut that night, reversing our 7.5 hour walk in the same day as our alpine route. It was of course dark by the time we got there.

The next morning we set off again at 5:00 to be sure to make it back to St Arnaud and onwards to Picton in order to get an earlier ferry back to Wellington (we didn't take the water taxi this time). It turned out that the earlier ferry wasn't till 13:00 so we had loads of time.

Back at the jetty at St Arnaud after a fantastic couple of days and a great way to start the winter! Soon to be continued up at the North Island Volcanoes.