7 days later I was back up the Rakaia river only this time on the South bank. I was in a race today against a southerly front, as it turns out mother nature won. However I was gifted the pleasure of dancing in a Winter wonderland.
It was an early start to make the most of the daylight hours. All geared up I left the car at 7am under torch light.
I had a solid plan for today’s excursion. Aim for the summit of Black Hill (2,067m) and if the front came through early or if conditions on Black Hill were poor, peel off and summit Donald Hill (1,525m).
I made great time reaching the top of Turton’s Saddle by 8am. Continuing along the track, before peeling left and heading up Ensor Stream and the North-West ridge of Black Hill.
As I crossed the stream, Black Hill was blanketed in cloud and the snowline being around the 1800m mark. Not 5 minutes later, I felt the first snowflakes fall against my cheeks. Within a minute I felt the air temperature drop and the sky’s began to DUMP snow. I had never seen anything like it. It put the biggest grin across my face and I continued up the hill. After 10 minutes, the ground had an impressive layer of snow on it and what was brown dirt and tussock 15 minutes ago was now a white winter wonderland landscape.
It was at this point I decided to drop down off Black Hill and climb up to Donald Hill.
The ascent up was hard enough thanks to just how thick and large the tussocks were I was trying to navigate through! Adding snow into the mix made for a slippery technical climb but one where I kept smiling as the snow continued to fall.
Finally cresting the ridge I was greeted with a large open plateau covered in snow. With no obvious summit I pulled out my phone to use my GPS to confirm I was at the summit.
As I dropped my bag, the snow stopped and it was deafening how quiet it was. No wind, rain, snow. Silence.
Photos taken, food consumed. It was time to head back to the car.
The descent was unfortunately not as pretty as the further I dropped in elevation, what once was snow turned into rain.
After getting back onto the track I still had an hour to walk out in the pouring rain. It is on days like these were I am thankful for the gear I have. My Stoney Creek jacket was absolutely bombproof all day.
Finally getting back to the car, I stripped off and turned the seats into a Chinese laundry hanging my wet gear up to dry.
Although the walkout was uneventful, it wasn’t until I jumped in to drive off that my phone decided it had had enough and died on me. This made for a very quiet drive home without music!!
After getting a prognosis back in town, it had gotten some water damage and very limited data could be recovered. Good thing I back everything up to the cloud and my hard-drive!
After writing this up, the front that had pushed through over the following days was the storm that flooded South Canterbury and damaged the Ashburton Bridge. I did some research and there was a weather station up near to where I was walking. It recorded over 400mm of rain over 3 days!?!
Now please don’t think I was stupid going out in what I knew to be a big storm. I was prepared, had taken the correct measures to ensure I was safe, looked at the weather and was comfortable with what I was going out in. Additionally, what I was walking in was essentially PFFP – Pre-Frontal ForePlay. Not the main storm.
#42 Donald Peak – 1,525m, 19.1km, 5 hours 27 minutes.
Might some time before I get back out but when I do I’ll be smashing out a few!!
Till next time,
Cam.