Mt Adams, Labour Weekend 2003

Story and Photos by Caroline Duggan

The original plan was to go hard out from Arthur's Pass all weekend - a busy plan of Rolleston (Rome Ridge), Avalanche and Mt Cassidy. However crap snow conditions, marginal weather forecast and the appearance of the word 'Extreme' in the avalanche report had us consulting our outdoors consultant and following his recommendation of Mt Adams.

After leaving Jeremy in Christchurch to play cars we (Maria, Alan and Caroline) spent the night in the club lodge at AP and were up early-ish on Saturday and off to Hokitika for fuel and last minute shopping (toilet paper, fresh food, water). Seeing as we are usually out of our trips too late to enjoy such things as cafes we had our café stop before hitting the hills - that way ensuring it did actually happen.

Cake and coffee consumed it was off to just south of Harihari. Chatted to the farmer, confirmed the track had some kind of markers, repacked in the hot sun (discarded ropes, harnesses, anchors) and argued over who was carrying the tent and how much water (Caroline was carrying the tent until Alan told her 3 times that men are stronger and tougher than women).

A late departure from the car of 1.30pm and a slow start meant we had a very late lunch still in the river, where we were passed by a group of 5 from Chch (great - they could clear the route up the ridge for us). The ridge was 800m straight up, with the help of a few steel ropes and plenty of tree roots (for the numerous vertical steps).

The campsite (at about 1100m) had a great outlook although lacked flatness and water (we carried 11 litres up between us). We arrived just before 8pm, set up camp and enjoyed a gourmet green chicken curry before retiring to our cramped and sloping tent.

On Sunday we had a late start of 7.30am and hit the snow proper about an hour or so later. Then it was on with the crampons (very useful on steep snow grass and loose slate) and a step-step-whack-whack motion as the snow softened up fairly quickly and we had 'balling-up' problems all day. We got a brief glimpse of Elie before cloud descended over the main divide. And then a few hours later we were on the shoulder peak (2194m) which was the edge of the Adams Wilderness Area. Unfortunately Mt Adams itself was about 300m away along a narrow ridge (with large drops and crevasses down either side) and 14m higher. We did make it to the proper top (2208m) and even more we beat the other team there.

Then it was a slow descent as the clag came down and the snow got really soft, stopping at the last patch of snow where we left our cooker and billy to make more water. Back at camp Maria and Caroline were keen to pack up and head down to a lower camp (there were 2 we spotted in the bush - still no water but flat at least) or even all the way out (we hadn't done a torch bash on the trip yet) however Alan was tired so we cooked up our meagre rations and went to bed.

Not a lot of sleeping was done from midnight on as the rain got heavier and we lay there thinking about the narrow river we had to walk down the following day. We packed up in the sleet/snow, after a breakfast of a small ration of water and the remaining toffee pops, and left at 6.30am thinking of Cafe de Paris in Hokitika. By the time we got to the car the sun was shining (always good weather on the West Coast - it just stops at the hills), unfortunately the cafe was closed (is that what Labour Day is for?) and so it was back to the airport via ham sandwiches in Springfield and impatient Canterbury drivers.