“On a Mish” #286 The Sound of Winter (Part One). Gertrude Valley. Fiordland National Park. 5.10.2019. The Darran Mountains are a spectacular sight to behold during the summer. Tall towers of granite keep your neck twisting and turning looking around at the sheer steepness on offer. When free of snow and without heavy Fiordland rain the place is a sightseer’s dream and photographer’s paradise. However the mountains are a different beast in the winter time, alive with the rumbles of snow, rock and ice tumbling down the mountainsides. Easy slopes above massive cliffs make for perfect avalanche conditions, and it is the sound of winter in the Darrans that you need to be wary of during the cold months…
The Milford Road takes a fair beating during the cold months, and it is not uncommon for the road to be closed for a couple of days in a row while experts assess the avalanche danger. Unfortunately avalanche accidents were the way the road workers learnt not to mess with the snow-covered Darran Mountains during the wintertime.
I recently read an account of a 1930’s late winter trip into the Darrans via then half built Milford Road. The road was under construction at that time and lacked the famous Homer Tunnel, at this stage the men were still hacking at the hard rock.
The weather and conditions underfoot they encountered while staying at the camp near the tunnel site involved a lot of snow and a lot of hard work. It seems that hard work was the normal way of life back then and the danger of avalanches wasn’t on anyone’s mind. Time and accidents have definitely changed people’s approach to the same location, and the Gertrude Valley is now lined with signs that warn walkers of the dangers in the area. Both the author and the road workers stayed within the designated ‘safe’ route through the steep sided mountains to the worker camp. They wanted to climb some of the virgin peaks above Lake Adelaide via the Gertrude Valley, and everybody seemed very relaxed about the possible danger that the signs warn of these days.
The disasters that took lives hadn’t happened by this stage, and unfortunately avalanches would take the lives of some of the men building the road and the winter work would change forever. Luckily the writer / mountaineering legend survived the adventure into the snow-covered danger zone. Oh how the times have changed!
Due to returning to Christchurch each winter I hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing the Darran Mountains wearing their white winter coat for many years. But this year circumstances had placed me in Te Anau during the end of winter / start of spring, and I had my opportunity to bathe in the beauty of an ice and snow covered wonderland.
Joined by Dylan (another Fiordland fanatic) we left Te Anau early-ish one morning inbound for what we hoped would be a photographer’s dream.
The dull light in the early morning prevented us from seeing the mountain tops and this meant we had to wait patiently to see how much snow was lying above us. As we made our way past the Earl Mountains on the Milford Road the sun had definitely arrived in Fiordland and we could see we were in for a treat.
By the time we got to the Gertrude Track the sun was up and shining bright above. Also above us was old winter snow getting ready to take a journey down to the valley floor. As we got ready to hit the track we heard the first rumble of an avalanche…
