As a part of my current aspirations to become a mountaineer, and climb Mount Cook before I turn 28, getting basic skills in the snow, and actually attending a course is something that should have been on my mind early into engaging with this hobby.
Working for the first 6 months of my university degree left me with not a lot of time for engagements outside of work and classes. I remember vividly signing up at the start of the year for the Canterbury University Tramping Club (CUTC) at the begging of the year, only for trips and hikes to go past with me not being able to attend because of my commitment to work. However, after leaving that job, this left my second semester’s calendar open. I hoped on the first opportunity to attend the CUTC snowcraft trip.
The experience I gained on this trip is something I feel I should not understate. Although I had gone about my experience into tramping and mountaineering as somewhat of a solo traveler and someone who quite smugglishly believed I could learn most of the required skills by myself; having others around to correct my movements with crampons and actually go through the rhythms of practicing the skills I had read and watched about made the strongest difference in my learning.
I have used both crampons and an Ice axe a few times prior to this trip, however after attending the course I realise all the nuanced mistakes I had made prior (such as one or two times where I did not remove my crampons when I really didn’t need to be wearing them).
On the first day we summited Hamilton Peak (1922m). Stupidly I had only brought one pack with me, forgetting my day pack at home. This meant while everyone else climbed swiftly, I lugged a 2.8kg (base weight of the pack with nothing in it), 60L seam sealed winter pack with me up the mountain.
After climbing the peak, we proceed to slide back down the mountain on our pack liners. Foolishly I didn’t quite put away my water bottle (which I had just bought for that trip) which then slide 1000m down the mountain. Just as I thought we’d never see it again, we found it sitting in the river at the bottom of the mountain’s face. My brand new Macpac water bottle, now covered in scrapes, which I am thankful for as they now hold a memory of this great trip.
The next day was supposed to be easy, have some breakfast and leave the lodge we stayed at. However, as we got up the next day, our lodge where the night before was dry as a leaf, was now blanketed with snow. Overnight it had snowed nonstop and the news of the morning that the pass between Arthurs pass and Christchurch was going to be shut. A few groups left in a hurry to try their luck at escaping before the road closed (they made it through). However, the rest of us decided the best course of action was to wait it out overnight and try leave the next day.
As we bunked in, one group left to go clear out the local general store of all the pasta and food supplies, while the rest of us watched movies, tried our skills at climbing around tables without touching the floor, and did a few day walks in the surround areas.
I ventured on a day walk by myself – I don’t think I’ve ever walked a track in deep snow by myself before. Even though it was an easy walk, there’s something about being out in this weather alone that is both mortifying and beautiful. With the clouds down, knowing that the weather can change in a second from clear sky to a snowstorm, the blankets of snow falling from trees as you walk, the crunch as your boots fall into the snow bellow you a little further than you expected. Theres an indescribable feeling to it where everything seems just right in nature, but as a human you feel like it’s an environment you’re not supposed to be in. I think this is what has driven my attraction to the snow, the mountains and outdoors, going places where over time, humans have detached from.
The next day, the snow wasn’t looking any better, we spent maybe an hour scraping snow off cars, and another 2 or so just getting them from the lodge back down to the main road.
While we waited for the rest of our cars to get down to the main road, we saw few cars heading in the direction of the closed pass. One car coming from the pass stopped to chat on his way away. As he approached us in his car, maybe 100m away a strong smell entered the cold thin air. As he pulled up, we were met with a bearded man, a beer in hand and a pipe in the other who swiftly informed us he thinks the pass was open.
Taking his word once the final car came down the hill from the lodge, we launched our expedition to try escape through the pass. Luckily for us it was open – at least somewhat. We drove through noticing 2 or three cars stuck in the snow; people who had tried to escape the night before and obviously gotten stuck without snow chains.
Although this was the first and last adventure, I was able to go on with CUTC in 2021, I hope to attend more trips and make more memories in 2022 with the adventurers apart of CUTC.
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