“On a Mish” #11 Summer Snow (Part One). East Face of Ocean Peak. Mt Aspiring National Park. 16.1.2012. You can pack clothing for any weather, but can you weather any situation that weather can throw at you? Aotearoa is a place where a day can deal out every card in its hand and you need to be able to deal back equal if not better hands. I thought I was going to go and simply climb Ocean Peak near the RouteburnTrack, however the Summer Snow had other plans…
For years I had taken happy clients around Ocean Peak in a clockwise direction. The mountain towers over Lake Mackenzie and is circled until you are on its east side and at the very beginnings of the famous Routeburn Track. The terrain offers excitement in any sort of weather conditions, but is probably easiest seen during the summer months. During winter all faces of the mountain are avalanche prone and this means a huge part of the Routebrun Track is also under constant avalanche risk. It isn’t impossible to hike the track in winter, but the risk factor is turned up to eleven.
I had planned to go to the track and then climb Ocean Peak in the middle of the New Zealand summer, January. Surely then I wouldn’t have to worry about the risk of an avalanche like you would in winter? Surely!
Between trips up the Greenstone and over onto the Routeburn Track I drove to the eastern end of the track near Glenorchy with a small amount of climbing gear. I knew some weather had blown through, but my forecast was for clearing skies and plenty of sunshine. Everything was dark as I drove on the highway between the guide flat in Queenstown and the track head, and this was probably best as the sights seen from the road always slow me down!
At the start of the track I threw my pack on and as if a reward for my early-ish start, I arrived at the beginning of the dawn chorus. The impressive amount of native birds back then is even better these days, and if you are keen enough (and get up early enough) you can enjoy a step back in time to before the pest invasion.
With only a light daypack on I could move quickly through the forest in the lower reaches of the river (Routeburn) and it wasn’t until I got to the Routeburn Flats that I got my first view of the mountains. Mountains that had a lot more snow on them than first expected…
