Princess Bath - 27th January 2013

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.130

Princess Bath - 27th January 2013

Princess Bath is a small alpine lake that sits about 400m below the summit of Mt Princess next to Lake Tennyson, out behind Hanmer, in the St James Conservation area.

This was a trip I had wanted to do with the CTC a couple of weekends ago, but had to shoot down to Cromwell and so climbed Ben Lomond instead. So I sent out an email to see if anyone was interested in doing this trip and ended up with three of us heading up to the start of the St James Cycle trail on a stunning Sunday morning. We left the car about 10 am and headed off along the Cycle track for about 10 minutes, past the locked gate, before striking off across the sometimes boggy and grassy flats towards the base of Mt McCabe. It was quite a distance to the start of our climb up McCabe from the car and after a short stint in the forest we battled our way up to the summit through the long snow grass.

First lunch on McCabe allowed us to enjoy the views of Lake Tennyson and our destination as well as revealing to us the good drop in height before we climbed back up towards Princess Bath.

The ridge got steadily more rocky and challenging as we ascended to about 1900M before we found the scree slope that would take us down to the Bath.

Lovisa was feeling the heat of the day and was keen to head on down for a dip in the lake and Andrew was keen to do likewise, but being so close to the top, Uncle Roddus was keen to have a go at the summit, and so kept climbing while the other two dropped down to Princess Bath. The climbing got more and more challenging as I got closer to the top and I was aware that it was going to take longer than I hoped and that it was getting a bit to difficult for me to tackle safely on my own, so I backed tracked along the tops and dropped down to the lake in the hour that I said I would be gone.

The next question was as to the route we were going to take back. One option was to travel back along the  ridge on the opposite side of princess Stream but none of us were all that keen to climb back up to point 1906, especially me, after my rock climbing near the summit. While I was having second lunch, Andrew found the route off the lake following the water leaving the lake. We followed the cairns down before crossing a shingle scree that took us down to the stream. The walk down the valley involved some minor scrub bashing and long snow grass before we found a good animal trail that took us down to the lower reaches of the valley.

The long trudge back to the car along the St James Cycle Track took us about an hour with us arriving at the vehicle about 5:45 pm, having walked 18km and climbed about 1100m

Trudging across the tundra towards our destination way off in the distance.

Lake Tennyson

Closing in opn our target.

Climbing Mt McCabe.

Gteat view if the lake, A perfect day for excellent photographs.

Uncle Roddus on Mt McCabe.

Lovisa and Andrew with a great view of the upper Clarence valley and the route we took on the Pask Hut trip last spring.

Things starting to get a little rocky.

Our first view of Princess Bath.

Another stunning shot ofr the Upper Clarence.

Princess Bath.

Andrew and Lovisa heading down for a bath in the Bath.

And another shot of the upper Clarence.

Uncle Roddus at Princess Bath.

Heading down the Princess stream.

Nice shot looking back up valley to Mt Princess.

Mt Somers - 20th January 2013

Uncle Roddus tramping Diary: Tramp No 129

Mt Somers - 20th January 2013

After speaking with Richard earlier in the week to confirm that the trip had indeed been moved to Sunday for weather considerations and arranging our meeting place near Glentunnel, I picked up a call from our leader just as I was walking out the door to ask if I could actually meet at Darfield to sort cars and pick up another tramper. This was all due to the sudden appearance of several extra bods wanting to come on this trip, on such an excellent day, that the original numbers had swelled to 16 trampers.

 Four car loads arrived at the Sharplin Falls car park about 9:40am to find our numbers swell to 17 with Max already waiting for our arrival. Several comments were made to Richard for putting on such a perfect day and how unusual that was for one of His trips.
We set off hot on the heels of a smaller group from the Avon tramping Club about 10:am and with a brisk pace being set, soon passed them before we had a viewing stop at Dukes knob, where we tried to see how many bods we could cram onto the rock viewing knob. Off we set again with the pace being fairly quick as we dropped down again to Bowyers Stream. After a scrog stop beside the stream in the warm sun, the next stopping point was the waterfall that  falls beside the track as we walk under the rock overhang(I'm sure we all know the one). It was here that a certain club member who quite often tramps with his shirt off (especially if there are young ladies on the trip)(I'm sure we all know who), decided to show off by taking a cold shower under the aforementioned waterfall.
Next stop was the saddle looking down on Pinnacles Hut where we decided to have lunch and again most of us scrambled up onto the rock to bask in the sun and enjoy the views. At the hut, two of out number decided to head up to the summit via the pinnacles route behind the hut, while the rest of us continued on to the next saddle where we then followed an occasionally cairned route up onto the tops. Afternoon tea was had at the summit in good conditions and a light breeze before we headed off on the long slog Down Staveley hill, which in good company didn't seem to take too long at all. Back to the cars around 5:30pm.

The track along Bowyres Stream.

The que for the swing bridge

The aforementioned Waterfall.

Cooling off.

scrambling for a lunch spot.

Mt Somers behind Pinnacles hut.

Pinnacles Hut and the Saddle from which we made our assent.

Heading off track.

The asent.

A rock.

The work at the gym is paying off

Max with Winterslow in the background.

Uncle Roddus with the Canterbury plains in the Background.

Uncle Roddus again.

And at the summit.

The route back down.

Ben Lomond - 12th January 2013

Uncle Roddus Tramping diary: Tramp No 128

Ben Lomond - 12th January 2012.

Was planning on doing a club trip this weekend but instead had to make an impromptu trip to Queenstown to take the Mother-in-Law home as Mrs.Roddus, who was suppose to do it, wasn't feeling too well. As the weather forecast for Saturday was looking good for that part of the country, I decided to leave on Friday afternoon and spend Saturday doing this climb, which I didn't get to do last time I was down that way.

The Track starts almost down by the lake near an old historic power station and first follows the route of the water pipe that feed the station from a dam further up One Mile Creek, through some lovely native bush before we get into the pine forest further up where we intersect several mountain bike tracks. One has to stay alert to all the signs and make sure they take the right track. After another 150 odd meters of moderate climbing, we clear the forest and continue to follow a very well formed track up to the saddle at point 1316. The gradient of this track is quite easy and so quick progress was made in reaching the saddle in just on 2 hours, including photo stops. At the saddle I stopped for morning tea buy hunkering down on the lake side of the saddle to shelter from the brisk wind blowing over the saddle. After refreshments, I started of on the last 400 odd meters to the summit following the more steeper and rockier track to the small monument at the top. Time to the top including break and photos, 3 hours. The wind was light enough to allow me about 25 minutes at the summit enjoying the views and chatting with the 4 other people who were up there at that time. As we had all come up early we missed the heavy traffic at the top, which I passed on the way back down, which helps explains why the track is so well formed. I bolted back down to the saddle in very quick time and was sometimes almost jogging back down the track to the forest. By the time I reached the trees My legs were getting a bit sore and my boots were starting to give blisters, so things slowed down a bit after that. Still got back to the car in about 1 hour and 30 minutes and made for an overall time of almost exactly 5 hours and quite sore legs the following day. Not bad though for a climb of 1400M.

The old powerhouse at the start of the track.

The Track followed the waterpipe from the dam.

Sorting out which path to take.

The view of the summit from just past the tree line.

The saddle

A nonchalant Billy Goat near the saddle.

A closer view of the summit from near the saddle.

Looking back along the track.

The view out the back of Ben Lomond.

Lake Wakatipu.

Uncle Roddus on top with Queenstown and the Remarkables in the background.

Another Goat I met on the way down.