Tuesday 11^th. March. 

From Arthur’s Pass I had originally intended to climb just Avalanche Peak, but an Aussie I met walking into the Rob Roy Glacier Track told me about a circular route with a fantastic ridge between Mount Bealy and Avelanche Peak. I had discussed this with my landlord and the DOC, and got a proper map.

The day dawned clear, and I set off at 9.00 pm having previously let my landlord know my intentions.

 

Mount Bealey

The first hour soon steeply (always is on an NZ mountain) up through White Beech Forest.

This is no tourist track and so is not an engineered but an organic track developed by walkers over time. It is a real rock and roots track and more enjoyable for that; hands on in a few places.

 

The final hour to Mount Bealey above the tree line, and you can see the ridge route on the skyline.

 

Also notice a blanket of cloud creeping up the valley towards the village from the West Coast: something to keep an eye on, but I reckon the East Coast sunshine will prevail.

 

A long 1^st. lunch stop rest to soak up the sun and admire the views.

 

 

Carry on along the ridge steadily, taking a couple of hours as plenty of scrambling over every little pinnacle and some big steep drops in many places (impossible to photograph) but there is no shortage of hand and footholds.

 

 

A long 2^nd. lunch stop rest to soak up the sun and admire the views.

 

Mount Rolleston with Glacier

Avalanche Peak to right of the picture on my ridge walk

Another long 3^rd. stop at Avalanche Peak before a relatively leisurely descent: it is still rocky and steep.

I used my Garmin GPS for the first time today and it had no problem changing over to NZ grid, it had seemed nearly automatic when I had reset it in the Village the evening before, and checked it with the map. It recorded a 9 hour day with 3 hours not moving, and 2000 metres of ascent. I know it over reads the ascents so from map and past experience I reckon, from the village at 760 metres to Mount Bealey at 1836, Lyell Peak 1828 and Avalanche Peak at 1833 and all the ups and downs between, about 1600 metres of ascent.

One of my best days out in the mountains. The ridge is as good as most of the best Scottish Ridges. If this had been in Scotland it would have been a well populated and polished classic. I saw no one for 7 hours until I reached the tourist known Avalanche Peak.

Back down: cold drinks and shower then off to the pub for a celebratory pint and a great plate of fish and chips, followed by promised pint and chat with landlord Bob, originally from Calgary, for acting as safety backup if needed.