December 2001 - New Zealand (cont.)
Tuesday
Tuesday was going to be a big day, with an alpine start at 4 am. The key to successful
mountaineering appears to be big breakfasts, which can be quite a load full in the middle
of the night. Anyway, after a big muesli with banana we headed into Gertrude Valley,
eventually reaching the Gertrude Saddle at 1500 m. It was obviously a smart choice to
do as much of the rout as possible in the cool night. As soon as the sun hit, the going
was getting tougher and it was looking like a hot day.
Our objective was Mt. Talbot (2117 m) via the East Ridge. 2000 m is not an incredibly high peak
but when your hut is at 800 m it is still a 1.2 km climb (about the same as from the hut to Mt
Aspiring). The East Ridge is mostly alpine rock with some very interesting and challenging
sections. One pitch of steep angled smooth slab of granite was particularly intimidating.
"Just follow the rope straight up," was the not very helpful advice from Paul Rogers. The
way up the ridge was surprisingly long, with the summit not in sight until after 1 pm.
The summit ridge was the way I love it - snow covered and knife sharp. As so often
happens, the true summit was only about the third along the ridge and we reached
it around 2 pm.
After the customary hand shaking, back slapping and picture taking we continued down the
other side of the ridge, thus doing a GT (a Grand Travers, in mountain speak) of Mt Talbot.
The initial descent from below the summit was the best part of the climb - a 400 m bum
slide down a steep snow slope! Super fun! The rest of the way out however was good old
hard walking, pretty much retracing the steps of this morning. We discussed world politics,
the Jewish/Palestine issue, American hypocrisy in general and other interesting topics on
the walk out. Paul is well informed and opinioned about many issues and our wide-ranging
discussions (from Monty Python to the Cuban missile crisis) were a great enjoyment and
enhancement of the whole trip.
The walk to the hut itself however got less enjoyable the longer it took and I almost got
lost on the last bit. Cursing and complaining to myself I eventually found the way back
to Homer Hut. It was a 14-hour round trip and I was rather DEAD upon arrival. A big pasta
dinner, some Christmas cake and the prospect of a comfy bed was all that kept me alive
Nick Cradock and his client had also arrived at the hut after a long climb and Nick was
cursing the client for having left behind his bag after a 60 m abseil! We had a good
laugh, a few glasses of red wine (mountaineering can be quite civilized) and went off
to bed.
