En Route to Avalanche Peak
En Route to Avalanche Peak
Monday, January 6, 1997. I caught an early bus from Christchurch to the town of Arthur’s Pass where I visited the Department of Conservation office for maps, information on conditions and weather reports. I met, Mark, an Australian, who had just arrived in New Zealand and had taken the same bus. After hearing some recommendations from the DOC officer, Mark and I decided to team up for a overnight hike on the Avalanche Peak route. This was a good choice for a first outing because there was a hut midway through the route so we only had to carry a couple of days of food and a stove. We left our extra gear at the hostel and away we went.
The trail started with a steep climb up the side of Avalanche Peak and I was soon breathless. After a couple of hours I was crawling at a fatigued pace; Mark seemed hardly tired by the steep hike. He told me that while he had just arrived in New Zealand, he was in his present state of physical conditioning only after several weeks of hiking elsewhere. I noticed that Mark’s pack seemed a lot more compact than mine. I was carrying a sleeping bag, a warm layer, a rain jacket, food (Mark was carrying the stove), and not much else. By what Outback know-how was he able to travel so lightly? By the early afternoon we reached the summit of Avalanche Peak. The view was great but we didn’t hang around too long because we started to get chilly. Next we hiked along the ridge line. We would eventually descend to the Crow Valley and then head back on a course paralleling our earlier route, following the base of the ridge rather than its top.
Ready to swan dive from the summit of Avalanche Peak
The officer back at the Department of Conservation had made a point of telling us that along most of the ridge the slopes end in bluffs and that there was one safe place to descend: a scree slope stretching all the way down to the river valley. DOC had taken the special step of placing two stakes in the ridge to mark the top of the safe slope. As we made our way along the ridge line we could see the steep drop-off on either side. In some places we could see all the way down to the river.
We reached an area with a long scree slope and Mark said that he thought it would be a good place to descend. I reminded him of what the DOC officer had said about the bluffs; Mark replied that he thought it looked like it was not a dangerous descent. I suggested that the place marked by the stakes was not very far off and that it would be a scenic hike. Mark said that he really wanted to go down right where we were. I told him that I was not willing to descend anywhere other than the place designated by DOC. Mark insisted on his chosen route.
You might think that the tone of our debate had become argumentative but it was actually genial; we could have used the same tone had we been discussing whether to add peach or raspberry flavor crystals to the pancakes. In hindsight, perhaps if I had been more reproachful I might have persuaded Mark to take the safe route. He had seemed a sensible fellow until now but we ending up parting ways with a handshake and I said, "I’ll see you on the other side."
I hiked along the top of the ridge and eventually spied the two metal poles jutting from the rock. The scree slope extended a few hundred meters down to the Crow River. I initially felt uncomfortable negotiating the jagged shards of rock but I was able to work my way over to channels of smaller chunks where I could slide a short distance with each step and maintain control. After forty-five minutes I had made my way to the boulder field where the scree slope met the river. Now I hiked downstream until I came to the Crow Hut.
There were some New Zealanders at the hut already. I knew that Mark’s chosen route was a short-cut and Mark should have gotten to the hut first so I asked the New Zealanders if they had seen a lone Australian. They had not. I then related the day’s events and my concern that Mark might now be lying in a pool of blood at the base of a cliff. One of the New Zealanders, jokingly alluding to the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia, replied "Well, it was only an Australian." I debated whether or not to go in search of Mark given my chances of finding him. Fortunately, just before dark Mark staggered into the campground.
Hiking out via the Crow River Valley
He was pale and weak and had a blood-stained shirt tied around his lower leg. One of the New Zealanders was a first aid instructor and undertook cleaning and dressing the deep gash, revealed when the shirt was untied. I took Mark’s pack and rifled it looking for some warm layers for him to put on. He did have a light sweater. What else was he carrying? Among other things he had a set of juggling balls, two books, a towel and a drumstick...a drumstick!? What possible use could one have for a drumstick on a hiking trip?
It turns out that the spot Mark had chosen to descend did indeed lead to a high cliff. He found soon himself in a place where he couldn't go back up. There was vegetation growing out of the side of the cliff so he lowered himself down through it. As he was descending he banged his leg against a sharp rock and got the deep cut. At this point he was getting freaked out so to calm himself down he took his camera out of his bag and took a picture of the wound before he wrapped a shirt around it.
As he continued to crash down through the bushes growing out of the rock face, he must have disturbed a nest, because three birds attacked him. He grabbed one of his drumsticks out of his bag and used it to try to ward off the birds. In flailing away at them, he dropped the drumstick. By the time Mark had lowered himself beyond the vertical section, he was in a partial state of shock. He slowly picked his away over the boulder field and along the Crow River until he made his way to the hut.
With a clean dressing on his wound, warm clothes on his back, a hot drink in his hand and a hearty helping of pasta in his belly, Mark was soon in good spirits. The hike out the following day was pleasant and scenic. Back in the Arthur’s Pass Backpackers’ Hostel we relaxed and let our feet heal.
I took another hike in Arthur’s Pass. It was a four-day hike starting up a river valley, crossing a mountain pass called Tarn Col and going out through the Edwards River Valley. This time I went by myself.
New Zealand has several routes designated as Great Walks, routes considered to be the country’s most scenic. While many visitors come specifically to hike one of the Great Walks, I had decided to avoid them because my guide books said that they could be crowded in peak season. I traded notes with some trekkers who had been traveling for a while. They spoke highly of a particular Great Walk, the Kepler Track, and said that it was not crowded and was worth a visit. I caught a bus to the town of Te Anau, near the southern coast of the South Island.
It turns out that Te Anau is one of the good caving areas. At the Te Anau Department of Conservation office I saw a brochure for a commercial cave called the Te Anau-au Glowworm Cave which is apparently inhabited by insects which emit a bluish-green glow so that they can attract other insects for food. I didn't feel like paying to take a short guided tour of such a cave; however, at the DOC office I also learned that there was a trail branching off of the Kepler Track leading to some caves.
The Kepler Track is 67 kilometers and typically takes three to four days to hike. The first day involves climbing up to the top of a ridge near the summit of Mt. Luxmore. The trail follows switchbacks up the side of the mountain and skirts several high limestone cliffs. At 1,471 meters, Mt. Luxmore is not especially high but the ridge drops off steeply to deep valleys and lakes, providing spectacular views. On the trail I ran into a Swiss fellow named Stefan and a Japanese named Yasuyuki. The three of us hiked together to the top of the ridge. Unlike the route-finding over boulder fields and scree-covered slopes of Arthur’s Pass, the Kepler track is a luxury hike. One need not concentrate on where to step but can simply follow the well-maintained trail and gaze out across the mountains of the Kepler Range. Stefan, Yasuyuki and I reached the side-trail to Luxmore Cave in the late afternoon.
Boat ride on Milford Sound
The trail ended near a depression which ran diagonally across the slope of the mountain for a couple hundred feet or so. There was one big walk-in entrance. The depression also had areas of water erosion and a few openings which might have been crawl-in entrances to the cave. We also saw other similar gullies roughly in a line which might have been a system of limestone erosion. The entrance started as a ten-foot high passage that gradually decreased in diameter. The walls were initially regular limestone with cracks but gradually assumed an unbroken white streaky crystalline appearance.
After some distance, the big passage forked into two smaller ones. Within these passages we found a variety of formations. Luxmore Cave’s decorations included drapery, soda straws, wedding cake-like formations and helictites. A white crystalline deposit with streaks of red and brown covered most of the wall surfaces. The floor of the cave had trickles of water running over it and was mostly smooth with some places with loose rock.
Much of the remaining passage was high enough to walk through crouched over with occasional areas requiring crawling on hands and knees. All of the passage was either horizontal or downward-sloping the further we went into the cave and there was no breakdown passage. In a few places the ceiling opened up into a high corridor. The passages branched a couple more times. My two colleagues had not gone caving before and did not feel confident proceeding wherever a passage turned into a belly-crawl or a squeeze. We started back for the entrance after we had followed the branches as far as each one continued as easy walking or crawling passage.
That night I stayed in the Luxmore Hut and the following day I hiked along a ridge with impossibly scenic surroundings. After another night in a hut, I hiked back to the Te Anau backpacker hostel. I had budgeted a fourth day for the Kepler track and with the extra day I took the quintessential tourist trip for the area: the Milford Sound boat ride. The following day I caught the bus to Mt. Cook for the one fixed appointment of my vacation.
Part III — Mt. Cook — Peak Bagging Expedition (346Kb)
Copyright © 1999 Bruce