29 February 2008

Aspiring to 3033m

This is the trip the mountain crew (GAME, Crusher and Funk master Fresh aka Flynn) did for our 778 trip. We
d
rove to Wanaka with Ray and caught the 2pm chopper into Bevan col. It was a short walk across the Bonner Glacier to Colin Todd hut. Too many peps were in the hut and were way to hard for huts anyway so we walked up above the hut and bivyed out.

Tuesday was the big day that we were attempting to summit Mt Aspiring so we got up at 4.30am and set off at 5am. Our route was the NW ridge in its entirety with grade of 2+. There was a large amount of ridge travel on rock with some bouldery moves on the way. The first couple of hours were done under the light of head torch before the sun came up.After 4hrs we came to the ice cap that involved three glorious pitches of simul climbing on hard snow/ ice and then we were in the summit 3033m above the sea (and most rivers). The weather was perfect with not a breath of wind and warm temperature. check out the sweet view!!!!

We chilled out on the summit for about half and hour before descending the same route. The whole climb took us 12hrs which is a reasonably standard
time. We bivyed our for another night to prove that were are infact as hard as Crushers six pack. The next day we crossed the Bonner Glacier and walked down into the West Matukituki valley. We stayed at Aspiring Hut that night for the tourist factor and games benefit before cruising out to the car the next day which was my birthday yay happy birthday to me!!!!! It was a sweet trip. Yeah boy