Avalanche Peak to Mt Bealey - 19 April 2015

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 159

Avalanche Peak to Mt Bealey - 19 April 2015

There is a very good reason why Arthurs Pass is such a popular area for tramping and a trip up Avalanche peak is one of THE classic tramps of the area. I had been over Avalanche Peak before, back in '03, but I hadn't been on Bealey before, so was very keen to give this trip a go. A good party of 13 trampers left the DOC information center just before 9:30am on an almost perfect Sunday morning. The first 300m of the Avalanche Creek track was tackled at a frenetic pace and soon had the breath hard and the sweat flowing and it wasn't too long before clothing was shed. Things slowed down a little after this and the first rest was had at the bushline as we regrouped and snacked while enjoying the view towards Arthurs Pass itself. Off again and we soon clear the scrub and snow grass dotted with patches of the fresh snow from earlier in the week and hit the rocky stuff. It is all very firm under foot and the route well marked as we climb with the views getting better and better. Another stop is had in a small basin to regroup again before tackling the last part of the climb. Avalanche peak itself is quite a small peak and was already well populated with a group of Young Americans("Allright") as our party invaded and we jostled for photo spots. The views from here are outstanding and breathtaking and fabulous and my photos just cannot do it any kind of justice. The Americans departed and we settled in for some lunch, hoping the clouds rolling in over the tops from the West would keep at bay while we traversed the tops to Mt Bealey.

 Dropping off Avalanche, out next stop was Lyell Peak, which was accessed by some fairly easy tops travel before the exposed rocky section between Lyell and Bealey. For some in the group this was their first experience on exposed rock like this but no one baulked and all traversed it in pretty good time so a good break was had on Bealey.Dropping off Bealey and over point 1760 we stopped to regroup above the scree that was to take us down to Rough Creek. Uncle Roddus, one of the best scree runners in the club, blitzed it in no time and gave it a scree rating of 8.5/10 and sat down at the bottom to wait for the rest to catch up. The rest of the trip was a boulder hop and some short bush bashing down Rough Creek back to the Cars which the first of the group made at about 4:50pm. Time 7 hours 30 minutes, distance 13.4Km, ascent total 1524m.

Peveril Peak - 11 April 2015

Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No. 158

Peveril Peak - 11 April 2015

Peveril Peak is the southern most bump on the unnamed range that overlooks the eastern bank of the Poulter River. Permission was obtained from Mt White Station for us to acess the mount via a vague farm track from just past the Poulter bridge. Eleven bods started off from the cars around 10;30am on a mild but overcast day with the clouds nestled snugly on the top of our destination.  The promised forecast was for clearing as the day progressed and sure enough the clouds lifted as we ascended. After rounding Little Peveril peak we popped up onto the terrace behind and had to do a bit of scrub bashing to get to the stream bed we used as our access to avoid the low but thick scrub that covers that side of the hill. This worked fine until we struck a small waterfall and it may have been easy enough to scramble round it but the rocks and ground were very loose and after a couple of us tried to negotiate it and dislodged several rocks at our fellow trampers, this approach was abandoned and we had to back track down about 65 meters to find a way out of the stream bed. from then on it was a scrub bash through the knee to waist high wet scrub and then it didn't get much easier on the next stony section as the footing was soft and loose and made for reasonable hard work on what was a pretty steep slope. The party had split into two groups at this stage as it looked like the slower ones might not make the summit in time before our turnaround time to allow us to get back to the cars before dark. Once above about 1500m travel got a lot easier, with the clouds mostly broken up by now and the views pretty impressive, we made much better time to the summit with the first arriving about a quarter after 2pm and myself staggering to the top some 20 minutes later. The wind was quite strong and cool at altitude and wind breakers had been donned further down the hill, but apart from some clouds obscuring the views up the Poulter we had a pretty good vista as we ate and chatted and waited to see if the rest of the group would make the summit. Which the eventually did and with still plenty of time to get us back to the cars before dark. The route back was pretty much as the ascent except we dropped into a sort of shingle shoot that had some reasonable scree patched and allowed us a quicker decent than the scrub before crossing the aforementioned scrub and dropping back into our original creek. Got back to the cars at 5:30pm after 13km and 1480m of climbing. 7 hours.