Summit rock of Chittenden with Travers range behind.

"30 years of bee keeping and this is the first time I had to feed the bees sugar through November to keep them alive", the honey man said to me as I tried unsuccessfully to buy honey. The spring has been too cold and wet for the trees to pollinate hence no food for bees and no honey for me.  That has been the nature of this spring , miserable, some sort of balancing act by nature to make up for the overly warm first 6 months of the year. The Earth's crust has also decided to do some balancing of its own with the major Earthquake in Kaikoura on the 14th of November reshaping the surface of the Northern east coast of the South Island. The bad weather and the earthquake has affected the lives of many and also my own plans this spring which involved a traverse of the Kaikoura ranges. Now it officially summer but the weather isn't cooperating - rain , wind and even another front sweeping through from the Antarctica with snow expected down to 1400 meters locally again for the weekend!

 Spring was going to be my main season this year - not much to show for it but have been up in the hills during a few of the better spells of weather. Below a photo essay of some outings during the last 6 weeks. 

Angelus ridge - on the loose rock.

Heading up the pass between Angelus ridge on the right and Mt Angelus on the left.  Angelus ridge was days objective. It is rarely climbed and being off the beaten track, and not a particularly attractive ridge line of peaks, composed as I found out of extremely loose rotten rock.

One of the many waterfalls on the way up the Hukere valley - a lovely walk even under the leaden skies. 

Approaching the peaks around the head of the Hukere valley.

Climbing high above the Col one gets a different angle on Lake Angelus which looks almost volcanic 

Steep loose rock and scree was order of day on Angelus ridge. Mount Hopeless behind.

The ridge line was wide but very broken and almost no rock was attached to any other making for very slow going.

Although slightly lower , Mount Angelus to the West looked far more attractive than Angelus ridge ,  This Eastern face looks interesting and a project for the future maybe. 

Water falls cascade off the end of the Hukere valley

Despite the over cast and often light drizzle throughout most of the day the dull colored mountainscapes had a charm of there own.

Arthur range

November 30th last day of spring but still plenty of snow on the Arthur range.

Going for a Gentleman's hike in the Arthur range with Bill.

Spring thaw makes these interesting snow and rock "crevasse's" in the Karst country on Mount Arthur - some like these you can walk through.

First day of summer and December and still a chance to wander in the snow. 

Good trekking higher up.

Cotterell peak

Jono purposefully making his way up the Hamilton river.

The Hamilton river breaking out into wide rocky flats as we walk to the higher peaks several hours in.

Finally leaving the river.

Below Cotterell peak.

Jono prepares to attack the lower slopes.

Cotterell peak was a nice consistent snow climb.

Summits getting closer!

Jono on top - Mount Travers behind.

Lake Rotoiti in the distance.

Mount Travers 

Looking along the summit ridge with Mt Hopeless to the left of Jono. Was good to have company for once!!

Mount Chittenden

Jono had to head back to work but I continued up to Connors creek hut for the night and enjoyed my best nights sleep in a long while.

While walking up the Conners creek route,you keep your eyes peeled looking for Chittenden which remains hidden until finally coming into a small grass clearing where it looms up unmistakably right in front of you. Although the track has been recut and is much easier than before nothing has been done about the mountain and it remains just as tough as it looks. 

 Steep tussock gives way to steeper rock which is fortunately quite firm than a snow basin which is still rising as steeply as anything on Cotterell the day before finally zig zagging up steep snow fields to the Top.

Cotterell peak now lies below me on the summit of Chittenden.

Looking South , the impressive Mount Una in the Spenser mountains is center rear  view behind the other mountains.

Spiny like the back of an ancient dinosaur the "easy" descent route over the ridge line to 2167 filled me with trepidation - was very tired I think and that eats the morale. I descended very slowly to the low point on the ridge then decided to attempt to down climb/slide into the Begley  valley, something new I

 It was difficult finding a route but with alot of zigzags finally hit the easier scree at the bottom and started the long hike right around the Southern side of the mountain to Conners col. Bluffs forced me ever lower which meant a fairly long but easy climb back to the col. Pretty exhausted by then and gave up any idea of doing the Chittenden 2142 double and headed straight back to Conners creek hut and the bike for a nice cool one outta of the stream. A beautiful hours ride in the twilight 30kms from the nearest other human was the end of a great 2 day outing

Cotterell peak has risen back above me on the descent.

Some rather fine un-named peaks rise high above the Begley valley to the West.

Bluffs below 2167 to the South of Chittenden  forced me ever lower which meant a fairly long but easy climb back to the col.  A beautiful hours bike ride out in the twilight 30kms from the nearest other human was the end of a great 2 day outing,

Jake takes a break on the way up Mount Chittenden , Nelson lakes national park.

 The usual suspects

  Whilst going on our velo mountaineering trip to Mt Princess earlier this year Mike and I had one of our long philosophical rambles as we often do and one particular ramble involved the great walks of New Zealand. Mikes statement was that the "Great walks" represented the best of New Zealand to view - my own counter was the "Great walks" (of which I've only done a couple so actually didn't have grounds to comment) represent commercial touristic interests rather than what is really good out there if you are only willing to put a good effort in. Mikes rather good reply is that part of begin good is being accessible and the great walks are readily accessible - the stuff I'm talking about is not.

 Well with my small season starting over the next couple of months of which the beginnings have been further dogged by bad weather I realize much of what I do is on that issue of accessibility. With rarely more than a 24 hour period to head out in accessibility is the key issue and the usual suspects keep turning up, Mt Arthur on weekdays while kids are at school and Angelus on weekends if I get a chance. A longer harder usual suspect is Mt Chittenden and or Point 2142 in the Nelson Lakes National park from Conners creek which in one long 14 to 15 hour day which encapsulates the best of what can be done - great walk accessibility style. Nice bike ride , great walk and a couple of alpine mountain's!!

Conner's creek , early morning on a frosty marsh, the Chittenden looms into view.

Brent climbing a steep snow gully

Chittenden from Conners col , we failed to get up and although the others were going well I had a most uninspired day - "We had only just started the climb proper up Chittenden and I was leading into a deep drift with a few will o wisps flying around and the instant conclusion was "if its this bad here it must be really bad higher up! (on a good day one would conclude , "great all the loose snow has blown down here!") I wasn't keen to go on , Jake was ok but concurred with my decision but its hard turning back - or in this case sideways up the steep couloir and onto snow fields across to what I call Conners creek col".

With Jake and Brent on Conner's creek col. From there our consolation peak Point 2142 was in sight, - the pyramid behind. It was a long but straight forward slog to the top. 

Brent , enjoying the view on top!

I was struggling but felt good to get up anyway 

Down the North east face of 2142 we roared down a great snow /scree descent to 1100m on the river which was the highlight of the day. 

Iconic New Zealand Mountains scene , river below , than steep forest gullies leading up to the snow.

up on to Mount Angelus October 1, in the mist all day , spring is making a thaw .

Bumped into a certain Brad Tinsley who's spending a couple of years hiking up and down whatever and wherever he can in New Zealand , hes roughly halfway through his trip and was hoping to go fishing soon to enliven his diet!

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Ice cream from Mt Arthur summit.

looking down the east side of the Arthur range

Eastern aspects of Arthur.

Linna heads up Arthur on the last fine weather day we had in awhile.

Nice late winter climb together.

There's an old saying "if you've have a good summer than you'll have a good winter"' and although winter coughed into life rather slowly this year and also rather late it arrived in full force to complement the long hot summer that's been.  This gave a chance to finally to do those snow days and most especially pull on those skis that have been lying around but out  action for 20 years or more.

The Snow arrives - finally but in style , Linna and Leo jumping for joy.

Skiing - taking the  traditional approach , mainly hard work out with long climbs often thru forest to higher slopes followed by brief largely out of control runs on the odd slope - sweat, blood and tears style. Not a groomed trail , chairlift , helicopter or ski bunny to be seen!!

Skiing a  little similar to cycling , immensely difficult going up but a breeze going down , at least sometimes! Certainly in deep fresh snow conditions its the fastest way to go - although still slow compared to summer time when one can run.

It seems in winter most outing are even less social and more solo than in summer but in mid July and just before the serious snow began Dave came out to Mount Angelus with me - it was the perfect winters day in the Nelson lakes National park , warm almost windless and we meandered around for a good few hours.

Dave makes a good model on Angelus summit - seems the sun always shines when Dave's around or perhaps he only comes out when the sun shines?? 

Always a good day mission and great training, to Angelus and back fits in well with short winter daylight hours.

Meandering

No snow but an ice lake in early July.

A month later on a solo trip looking out from the summit of Mount Angelus down to Lake Rotoroa the snow conditions were quite different as were the meteorological conditions and this was a rare break in snow showers and claggy cloud that day.

Leo and Linna up for a hike on Mount Robert

I can't say skiing really interests me much as a stand alone activity but the opportunity it presents to range quickly over deep snow terrain is very attractive and therefore a great tool for mountain adventures in winter . Skiing with a heavy pack does present some center of gravity problem's  though!!

Isabelle in a snow cave

Having laid off Mount Arthur for awhile with the snow arriving its been on the menu 3 or 4 days a week while the kids are at school , nice views from the summit - sometimes.

Climbing up the east side of Winter peak , there's enough snow on the Arthur range to fill all the higher gullies and Karst "crevasses"  making wandering around a delight!!

footfall

"I'll be back " an audacious Kea mountain parrot after checking out some ski poles.

Mount Owen Massif at Dawn from Bushline hut.