Mt Cook Basecamp Jan 2010

Mt Cook Basecamp:  An entirely factual account of five days in Heaven

The Angelic Host comprised Neil and Liz (leaders), Helen, Karyn, Angus, Steve, Ian ,Don, Murray, Dennis and Recording  Angel  Jack.

There are strange things done in the rain and the sun by the folks who walk the tracks.
The Aoraki trails have their doubtful  tales where fiction vies with the facts.
The occasional  fib may escape the nib to provide what veracity lacks
But that truth will out you should never doubt... unless it’s a tale of Jack’s?       *

The story has to start with the weather. The spring and summer had dragged on drab and drizzling. We left all that behind at Burkes Pass. From then on it was sunshine for 5 days, with little wind. Mount Cook at its very best.
 
We stayed at Unwin Lodge on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Good backpacker accommodation. Being a basecamp accessible by car, we dined in potluck opulence in contrast to hut food. On the Wednesday night it was on with the Glad Rags and off to the Old Mountaineer Restaurant , where Angus was informed by the bar staff that he did not need an ID card.

And , oh, I nearly forgot, we did some tramping. Monday afternoon, Mt Sebastopol’s high steps and steep slopes soon separated the sheep from the goats. A high price was paid for Christmas over-indulgence. Superlative views. Tuesday it was Mt Wakefield, steep at first through sub-alpine scrub, then upwardly undulating and eventually rocky. An 8-hour day of views all round. Nobody reached the final summit, some got closer than others but all were satisfied. Karyn proudly rang her mother to say she was high on Mt Wakefield: Mother replied that she had never bothered with Wakefield as it was “too piddling”!
 
Wednesday was the rest day: an 8km walk up the hot Tasman Valley  and another steep climb on to the Ball Ridge for lunch and many photos against the backdrop of the Caroline face of Mt Cook, with all its glaciers. On the way in, a pair of falcons gave us a display of high speed aerial warfare. It only took a few seconds until one got a strike on the rival and knocked him out of the air into the bush, alive or dead
.
On Thursday any fondly imagined new-found fitness was tested in heaving big packs up to the Mueller Hut at 1800m. Steps again, followed by rocky track. Don led Angus, Dennis, Ian and Neil to the Annette Plateau in good snow and on to the summit of Mt Annette at 2235m. Others climbed the rocky Mt Olivier, 1930m, just behind the hut. Jack minded the hut.
 
The Mueller hut looks out on the whole array of glaciers on the NE side of the Mt Sefton range, not to mention Mt Cook. We sipped Pinot Noir as we watched Mt Cook merge from white to gold to rose, then finally grey as the sun set behind us. We were lucky enough to catch the last of the season’s Mt Cook lilies and the white native gentian on our way down next morning.

Thanks to Neil and Liz for the meticulous planning and patience in herding cats for 5 days. A fabulous trip: heavenly you might say.
 
*Apologies to Robert W. Service

JW