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Ski Touring at Aoraki Mt Cook - October 2004

During late October Niklas Werner, Paul McCullagh and Mike Peat went ski-touring in the Mt cook area. The plan was hatched by Mike during the autumn - before skiing was on the minds of less dedicated folk. Various options were considered but eventually we settled on the idea of flying into the upper Murchison Glacier with the intent of skiing out over Tasman Saddle and doing whatever was both interesting and sensible based on the weather presented to us.

With el-cheapo early bird flights, each flying different airlines, we rendezvoused in Christchurch on Saturday 16 October. From here we bought our weeks provisions then drove on to NZAC Unwin Hut at Mt Cook in a borrowed car. In a town with two pubs we somehow stuffed up our intended ale session with Grant (the man from Unwin) Pearson, with each of us going to the other pub and thinking we had been stood up!

Another day and a half of snow, rain and espresso at the village dawdled by with hourly phone calls to the airport to check flying status. Finally the cloud lifted enough for us to get the call that they would try to fly in about an hour - action stations - last minute packing and sorting of gear and we tore into the airport carpark with dust, gravel and burnt rubber spewing from the car tires. Touchdown 2pm upper Murchison yeehaa... we had flown in with Neil, Anna and Mike from Christchurch who were also ski-tourers, and about 300kg of equipment! A few foments later and the aircraft was gone from sight and the drone slowly faded leaving us in dead calm stifling heat and pin dropping silence. Feeling a bit like beasts of burden we shouldered monstrous loads and began skinning in knee deep sticky powder toward the hut. We arrived at the hut physically spent, but after and hour of recovery and rehydration we set out for a liberating (packless) ski down the steep face below the hut and on down the Murchison a wee way.

We had about six inches of snow overnight and strong wind to boot, the morning brought marginal improvement but the weather was still rather threatening. We decided on a relatively short climb up to Starvation Saddle to check out the Mannering Glacier headwall. As we climbed the visibility improved and the wind was dropping, with a more optimistic outlook we modified the plan to a full ski down the Mannering if things still looked ok once we got to the saddle. Unfortunately the headwall was a lee slope and looked like it needed a day or two for the new snow to settle before it would go. Our disappointment at not skiing the Mannering was quickly forgotten once we were carving our way back down the Murchison to the hut in perfect packed powder.

We made a dawn start next morning on a perfect day skiing down the Murchison in ankle deep light powder. We were on our way toward Mt Sydney King at the head of the Aida Glacier. As we stopped to fix skins at the bottom of the Aida the main divide summits were bathed in the glow of sunrise, from the pinks of the lower peaks to the golden hues of the higher summits. We made good time - even as the snow deepened we forged on, no doubt inspired by the strong country around us. A few suspect slopes were crossed one at a time, but our luck held. A few more hours and we could ski no further, the summit was 50m above. Five minutes of plugging thigh deep up a steep snow slope and we were there. Views of D'Archiac standing proud above all around it. The Godley, the Classen - hop off point for Gotleib Braun Elwarts classic ski-tour via the Murchison, Tasman, Rudolf and Franz Josef Glaciers (a long day out)! Having fully soaked up the view we set off down, skiing in knee deep powder with a huge smile inside and outwardly whooping for joy. Such a day has to be celebrated in style so once back at the hut we polished off our bottle of Laphroaig which had been tentatively started a few days earlier.

Next day we were humping heavy packs again - we had to get over Tasman Saddle. We started just before dawn to get the worst behind us before the day heated up - this worked a treat and we took only 4hrs to make Tasman Saddle Hut. I was suffering from a nasty cold and decided to rest up for the rest of the day while Paul and Niklas skinned up and climbed Mt Aylmer, enjoying a nice run back to the hut.

Elie de Beaumont was next to draw our attention, two other parties in the hut (including a guided party) had been beaten back by deep snow and nasty schrunds - we went anyway. Leaving early we made good time on ski to the base of the steep climb up to the Elie/Walter saddle, here we left the skis and plugged thigh deep toward the saddle. We got to the nasty schrund that had beaten back one party, the only bridge looked weak but with care I thought it would hold. I crawled across taking care to move slowly and spread the load, it held and Paul carefully crawled after me while I made a axe belay in the steep sugary snow above. Next came Niklas with Paul watching him, with reckless abandon Niklas stomped over resulting in a massive collapse of 5m width and 30m length of the bridge. With weak belays on the steep slope above Paul and I were wrenched from our feet and dragged toward the chasm, saved from being swallowed by the rope cutting deep into the overhanging snow. Fortunately the schrund was tilting out from the slope at about 60deg which meant that we were able to lower Niklas down a few metres and then belay him as he climbed up the opposite wall to safety. Now separated by the 5m wide chasm, after a quick discussion of reunification options we decided the best option was for Niklas to clip into a snow stake and untie from the rope so that Paul and I could find another route around the schrund and climb back to collect him. About half an hour later we were together again and resumed the climb. Further schrund difficulties were soon encountered and we eventually decided to abandon the climb about 200m below the summit as we had insufficient equipment (one axe, screw and stake each) to safely negotiate the hazards.

Rather disappointed we returned to our skis, but it was not long before trouble found us again. Paul buried a ski tip in a turn and badly pulled a muscle in his posterior region which made lifting his leg difficult and painful. We were back at the hut by about 3pm and decided that with Paul's injury, skiing / walking back out to the village the next day as planned wouldn't be a goer so we called up Mt Cook Airlines and jacked up a flight. Due to soft snow conditions at cornice wall (the landing site near the hut) we had to get lower down the glacier to the pick up point. To minimise pain and further damage to Paul we came up with the cunning plan of skinning down (skins grip the snow on gentle descents) this meant that he didn't have to lift his leg and could therefore carry his own pack. So off we went descending at the maximum rate our skin gripage would allow in a series of zig zags.

In a flash we were back in civilisation, beer, luxury food, showers and clean clothes - all good stuff. The fact we were out a day early enabled us to watch the NPC final. Our initial optimism after an early Wellington try was soon eroded as Canterbury gradually got on top of our boys. Another round of beer? We spent the following day relaxing and rock climbing at Sebastopol, before departing for home. Next year we'll be back again for more skiing and another crack at the NPC!

Mike Peat