“On a Mish” #56 Can’t Cross That (Part One). Long Charlie Spur(2024m). Whakaari / Richardson Mountains. Mt Aspiring National Park. 20.1.2014. Something we definitely have no control over when wandering in the wilderness is the weather. Sometimes it rains, and sometimes it doesn’t. If it does it shouldn’t be upsetting, you just have to carry on walking and learn to enjoy the pleasures of a stroll in the rain. However, rain is water and water doesn’t simply disappear. It hits our mountains and rolls down the hills into the rivers. The more rain the bigger the river, so extra care is needed when dealing with watery barriers after heavy rain…
I had a rare opportunity of multiple days in a row without work glacier guiding for the first time in a while. To coincide with my days off was fine weather, and instead of staying in Aoraki Mt Cook Village I headed south to revisit an old favourite of mine, the magnificent Rees.
My original plan was to have another go at climbing Mt Earnslaw(2830m), but even before getting to the start of the route up the mountain via the Rees Valley Track I knew there had been a lot of rain over the last couple of days. The rivers rumbled and the waterfalls tumbled. With rain still falling I set off on foot up the valley, hoping it would clear soon. It didn’t but I didn’t let that spoil my wander up the valley, and with my hood doing it’s best to keep the rain out. I already didn’t like the look of the Rees River which was bubbling brown bank to bank. “I can’t cross that”. Because the Rees River needed to be crossed to access Mt Earnslaw it looked like I would need a plan B.
After pushing on past the normal crossing point I knew that getting across today would be a risk I didn’t want to take. I got to Twenty Five Mile Creek, and as I was now soaked from the rain, I decided to head up to the old hut site and have a break from the water. Escaping the rain would be easier said than done due to the hut being in a deteriorated state.
The place had seen much better days, and the poor old building only offered a little bit of shelter as the roof had been hit by a falling tree and collapsed at some stage a long time ago. Due to better huts being around the damage has never been fixed. Also, at some stage someone had decided to use bits of the hut as firewood instead of collecting actual wood outside. Sadly, thanks partly to funding, and secondly because of inconsiderate hikers, this is an unfortunate fate that some of our huts have faced.
The hiss of constant rain turned to drips and drops, and slowly the clouds cleared, and the sun appeared in the Rees Valley. I finally got a chance to admire the beauty without getting wet, and along with the beauty there was the constant rumble of the Rees River in full flow…
