Raining hard and a great day to catch up with the blog. Final preparations are under way with just 5 weeks to departure on 7th July. There seems to be endless administrative/bureaucratic details to attend to not to mention a string of minor things to buy and get ready for the actual trip from toothpaste to pitons. Training has largely been very local with a number of bike rides with Brad last week and a couple of trips last week up Mount Arthur , one in the middle of the night which is always a great change of perspective. My special bike should be ready soon so looking forward to testing the light weight design on a hike soon.
Two weeks of nothing much to report except that finally most of the administrative details are sorted and hopefully all being well we will depart around 8th July for the Baltoro Glacier. Down at the Motueka beach on Saturday I could see a line of glistening snow peaks in distance and set out early Sunday morning for a quick mountain hike , 10 odd hours or so to Angelus summit and back. In the last weeks Zendo has arranged a new and very vital sponsor , 40 below www.40below.com who will provide overshoes booties , drinking bottles and covers for us. Not so worried about cold toes now !!
Conners Creek and Mt Chitterden (2205m) is a favorite as its one of the easiest and fastest ways to access a higher local peak in the Nelson Lakes. A quick ride up the Rainbow valley followed by the hike up Conners creek leads to the base of Chitterden. Our plan was to camp on or near the top but after a late departure we only made it to about 1800 m and camped in a small glade before attempting the Mountaintop the next morning. After several attempts on the face and various gullies with full packs we finally conceded , dumped the packs at 2100 m or so and climbed the ridge-line to the top for some magnificent views before the long scramble trek and bike back to Rainbow car park a solid 12 hours later. Great training with Bill (Gandulf) and quite the different weather from the last couple of outings.
