Now I'm 2 weeks behind! Good thing I only went to the National Bouldering Competition last weekend! It was great, but this was fantastic. Took a trip with a friend and his flatmates to Mt. Cook national park. The weather was looking a little cloudy on the weather report, but ended up being great. Splitting gas among 4 friends makes for a cheap trip too! Had some of the best trail mix ever (basically candy..). Fun, fun trip. I'll be hard to surpass the beauty in that park. It's not quite as standout pristinely captivating as Mt. Rainier is in one monument, but looking at Mt. Cook with the dry grass blowing and glaciers hanging over your head is as out of this world as I could imagine anywhere.
 |
| Clouds on the way down to Cook! The drive was maybe 4 hours of very crampt car. Aparently Japaneese people are a little shorter on average??? 5 6 foot + guys was pretty crampt. Pretty scenery though! |
 |
| Lake Tekapo.. Color unedited. About 40 minutes from Mt Cook village |
 |
| Board with all the huts and capacities, fun to be able to see, and ours was empty! I was amazed at first, but then we looked at the logbook up there.. it'd been about 2 weeks since anyone had been there. Amazing how empty the National park around New Zealand's highest, most spectacular peak is. |
 |
| Started the tramp (walk, really at this point) along the glacial fill of Hooker Valley toward the lake and glacier. Hooker glacier is easily one of the largest in New Zealand, and flows right up to Mt. Cook. Makes for some nice views facing the other way! |
 |
| Lake at the moraine of the Mueller Glacier. Lookin up generally toward our hut and climb for the evening! Off to the right is Mt. Cook and the next bit of the track. |
 |
| Cook! |
 |
| Always the navigator :) |
 |
| If you look close, you can see the hut way up there! |
 |
| Day shelter in Hooker valley, getting better with panorama shooting slowly! need toget the edges lined up a little better still, hard with all the mountains. |
 |
| Ansel Adams Hut. Reminds e of the Chapel of Transfiguration in Grand Teton National park. Amazing spot. I could have just stayed here, but the next morning at a mile high was so fantastic. |
 |
| The hut's view down to lake Tekapo, Mt Cook village is right there too. I took so many pictures, it was hard to know what to put up. The color and images never quite look as good as real, it was so fantastic. |
 |
| Our own little glacier for the day! (The Tewaewae). The names here are harder to pronounce than our Native American place names in the Northwest. |
 |
| Huge old boulder right by the hut, you could bivvy in there too, there was the outside wind break and a cave inside that would be cozy even in a snowstorm! We still opted for the hut |
 |
| We took a moment to look around the hut, but the clouds were heading away and we had about 2 hours of light left, so we headed straight up the hill right after we dropped our packs. The snow was a day old and everything was slick so it was a bit of a climb. Snow on the way down was a little sharp.. not that any of us slid at all. Ended up having a great hike and booked it down for dinner. |
 |
There's the hut from afar! Mt Cook does a radio broadcast every night to tell all the huts the weather and check that everyone got in ok. Little solar battery charger and wall mount radio worked out quite nicely. We didn't get asked if we were there due to some technical problems, so we got to call and chat with a ranger much more concerned that we have an awesome following day. Sweet as! I took the honor of saying "Sefton Bivvy, over and out"
More pictures will follow! I hit my limit for a post and need to go enjoy the sun while it's still summery! |
No comments:
Post a Comment