"Many Canterbury men know that a tough trans-alpine crossing can be a harder test of competence in unorthodox travel and stubborn endurance than a deal of high climbing" - John Pascoe, one of the fore-fathers of early Southern Alps exploration, in Unclimbed New Zealand, 1939.
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| Starting up the Waimakariri River |
Mountaineering can sometimes become
obsessed with summits. Transalpine trips on the other hand embrace the core of
what mountaineering is about – being and moving in mountains. A transalpine
trip that completely avoids any summit and instead weaves an aesthetic line
through them makes a statement that achieving a summit is not always the point
of being there.
Now that our goal is about movement rather
than conquest, how can we maximise our enjoyment of that movement? For me that
is finding the lightest way to thread through the mountains. This has led me to
explore different gear and strategies to move as lightly as possible.
Fastpacking is the name given to that
hybrid activity of trail running and tramping. It's popular in America and
Europe owing to well-developed trail infrastructure, and is slowly taking off
in NZ, particularly along the Te Araroa trail.
Why not apply this style to transalpine travel in the Southern Alps? Since transalpine trips generally involve simple alpine terrain, some compromises in equipment can be made. Running shoes instead of boots, aluminium crampons and a light axe, ten metres of cord with sling harnesses and a 13L pack to ensure nothing excess is brought along. Trailpinism. Extending this setup to multi-day traverses is the logical progression.
But first, we must look back to the past to
understand how to move forwards.
Grant Hunter in his book 'Who Was First?'
recounts that the first to explore the Southern Alps were the Maori, in the
search of a trading route for pounamu. Then came the European surveyors in
search of the best pass for a road (Arthur's Pass) in the mid-late 1800s.
Recreational trips didn't come until later, as clearly a lengthwise traverse
served no purpose in the age of development.
The first recorded trip from the
Waimakariri to the Tasman was in Christmas 1934 by Canterbury Mountaineering
Club (CMC) members Burns & Townsend. In their account, they acknowledged
man's innate desire to walk long distances even as fast land transport was just
taking off, and they heeded to a prophesy given by the very first 1932 edition
of the Canterbury Mountaineer: "Perhaps in future years a club party
will set their time and patience in a trip over the ranges between Arthur's
Pass and the Tasman Glacier".
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| Observation Col |
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| Refuelling in Cattle Stream |
So the concept of Arthur’s Pass to Mount
Cook has been a part of CMC lore since the very formation of the club. Back
then the Mount Cook village was just known as the Hermitage, after the historic
hotel first constructed in 1884, and provides a fitting destination to satisfy
one's cravings after a long journey.
The early eras of CMC trips were focused
mostly in the local Canterbury Ranges, as unreliable vehicles and rougher roads
made for much slower regional travel. Canterbury mountaineers embraced their
local mountains and knew their backyard like the back of their hand, without as
much distraction of further afield ranges or exotic overseas expeditions. The
Coronavirus pandemic now pushes us back to this former time where travel
opportunities are limited and combined with climate change we also try to
reduce our travel-related carbon emissions. It is here we realise just how much
adventure is on offer in our local mountains.
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| Scrambling around waterfalls in the lower Unknown Stream |
The 1934 route taken by Burns &
Townsend was entirely in the Canterbury Alps - "the icefalls, jungles
and gorges of Westland were left severely alone." Their route crossed
the landmarks of Whitehorn Pass, Unknown Col, Ragged Range, Rakaia River, Butler
Saddle, Erewhon Station (food drop), Havelock, Forbes, Twilight Col, Godley hut
(food drop), Classen, Tasman Saddle, Hermitage. Their trip took 12 days' worth
of travelling time. A pretty good effort for the first traverse.
15 years later in 1949, McCabe and Morse
decided to up the ante, considering that Burns & Townsend had taken a route
quite far from the Main Divide at times, they took a route closer to the higher
Alps. Instead of crossing low down in the Ragged Range they took Observation
Col at the head of West Mathias. From the Lyell they sidled around McCoy Col,
Rangitata Col, down into the Frances, then over Disappointment Saddle, skirting
the edges of the Garden of Allah & Eden. Instead of Twilight Col, they took
the higher Terra Nova Pass north of D'Archaic into the Godley Glacier, and from
there the same route as Burns & Townsend to the Hermitage.
Over the next 50+ years dozens of parties
have travelled a similar route to McCabe & Morse, most parties spending
about 12-15 days with 1 or 2 food drops along the way.
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| Negotiating the Lyell Icefall |
Modern Traverses
In the last 2 decades, the revered art of
gravel-bashing has fallen slightly out of favour, with many more groups opting
for detours into the wild West Coast valleys. This trend is perhaps also due to
climate change rotting away the glaciers & snowfields of the Canterbury
Passes to reveal yet more loose greywacke, and a desire for more remote
wilderness travel offered by places like the Mungo, Whitcombe, Bracken,
Gardens, Perth and Whataroa. These areas were made considerably more accessible
from the 1960s onwards when deer culling huts, tracks and footbridges were
established in many Westland valleys. Many of these huts have been adopted and
revived by the Permolat 'Remote Huts' group. Detours to these wilderness areas
doubles the length of the trip to 25-30+ days, due to slow gorge & bush
travel and worse weather.
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| Sam crossing the Rakaia River |
Folks have then pushed the boat out even
further with traverses of the entire Southern Alps, some during tough winter
conditions with skis in the mix. A few notable traverses which all of which
stuck pretty close to the divide in the Arthur's Pass - Mt Cook section, and
were milestones in their own ways are:
•
Graeme Dingle & Jill
Tremain's 3 month winter traverse in 1971 - recounted in Dingle's book 'Two
Against the Alps'
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Craig Potton, Robbie Burton,
Peter Burton and Paul Roy over the 1980 summer - recounted by Potton in his
2016 book 'So Far, So Good'
•
Steve Bruce and Warren Herrick
in 1981 - an epic 5 month traverse entirely on the Western side of the Alps;
one of the most accomplished of the traverses ever undertaken
•
Michael Abbot’s 1989-90 solo
Southern Alps traverse was also a landmark trip, which broke the solo barrier
•
Richard & Kevin Ackerley's
'Pathway to the Setting Sun' in 1994, from the North Island's East Cape to the
West Cape of Fiordland
•
Erik Bradshaw's Ski Traverse of
the Southern Alps in 2011
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Lydia McLean, Allan Brent,
Alexi Belton completed a Te Wai Pounamu Traverse in 2016
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Tom Hadley, Torea Scott-Fyfe,
Maddy Whittaker, Conor Vaessen, Southern Alps Traverse in 2020-21
Criss-crossing the Main Divide certainly
enhances the adventure with contrasts between East & West coast
experiences, each with their own challenges. In 2013, three friends and I spent
33 days traversing one such Westland variation including walking the length of
the Gardens to the Great Unknown and dropping into the Perth. This was one of
my formative mountaineering experiences.
There have been many more creative
traverses completed since. Climbing the highest peaks en route, skiing or
packrafting through Fiordland. This type of DIY create-your-own-adventure is
part of New Zealand's DNA.
The frequency of long traverses has
increased also. In the 1980s there would be a major traverse every 3-4 years,
then from about 2004 there have been trips almost every year. According to
Shaun Barnett, that may be as much about people becoming inspired by previous
stories, more easily spread via internet and social media, as it is by advanced
equipment or new ways of travelling.
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| Lyell Icefall |
Sport Alpinism
Though a central element of alpinism is the
pursuit of virgin terrain and first ascents, there is also much to be said for
repeating a great or historic classic and trying to improve on the original
style. In the 2019 American Alpine Journal, Colin Haley describes what he coins
Sport-Alpinism: "Sport-alpinism is essentially the art of creatively
inventing new challenges when the most natural challenge—simply ascending the
face of a mountain—is no longer difficult enough to truly inspire a climber or
demand all of his or her skill. Climbing solo, climbing fast, traversing
multiple peaks, enchaining multiple routes or climbing in winter are all
dimensions of sport-alpinism."
In the theme of Sport-Alpinism, once the
natural challenge of simply traversing from Arthur's Pass to Mount Cook was
achieved, people have continued to push into new dimensions: winter - the ski
traverses; harder terrain - the west coast traverses; distance - the entire
Southern Alps and more; solo - Michael Abbot's 5-month odyssey. There is only
one dimension that has not seen as much attention: speed.
How light & fast could you traverse
from Arthur's Pass to Mount Cook? We wanted to find out.
Inspiration
After spending some time traversing more of
the Canterbury valleys during a 3-week ski traverse in the spring and reading
of all the history about those early expeditions, I became inspired to attempt
a similar line focused more on the Canterbury ranges, but in a lightweight
style. Instead of 33 days, as my first trip had taken, or 21 days as the ski
version spanned, the goal was to complete the route in 6 days, crossing 6
passes between 6 major catchments.
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| Sam in the lower Unknown Stream |
My companion was Sam Spector. He had contacted
me for beta on a similar trip, so I convinced him to join me on the route I was
scheming. All of a sudden it was on.
To achieve this, we needed to wait for a
perfect forecast since any rain would put a crossing of the Rakaia, Godley or
Murchison rivers in jeopardy. With the typical multi-week trip you can't pick
your weather, you need to set a starting date and take what comes. But if the
trip is short enough, you can wait for a good forecast. I think the ability to
be flexible is a major key to success in mountaineering.
On McCabe & Morse's 1949 trip, of
course they didn't have forecasts, so they walked into Carrington with 60 pound
packs, only to be hut bound for the next 4 days in torrential rain, eating most
of their food. Luckily, they had brought a rifle and over the next week
subsisted on venison steaks, a Canadian goose, and hare soup. Folks had more
patience and ingenuity back then.
Thanks to Rakaia helicopters, we had food flown
into Lyell Hut with the CMC hut building crew, and the same pilot took food
into Mathias Hut with a load of hunters. I already had a stash in St Winifred
hut, or so I thought - it was eaten by the time we got there! Three food drops
for a six day trip meant only carrying 1-2 days of food at any time. Cheating?
We waited for the elusive "6 day high" all through December, and
finally it arrived. A full week of clear, calm weather.
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| Rangitata Col looking over the Gardens |
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| On the saddle between Mt Tyndall and Mt Baker on the Gardens |
The route
In general we chose a route similar to the
early expeditions, taking variations for expediency and to explore different
valleys. From the Waimakariri, instead of the common Harman/Whitehorn crossings,
we decided to shoot directly over into the Burnet stream past Barker Hut. We
followed the traditional Unknown Col into the Mathias and Observation Col into
the Rakaia and arrived at Lyell hut in the evening of the third day to find the
CMC hut crew busy at work on the new hut. We enjoyed a delicious 20 year old
Speights that had been uncovered from the old hut, cooled by a nearby stream.
Halfway in distance, but not in effort.
Up the emaciated Lyell glacier, we were
able to go directly up the Lyell icefall amongst a jumble of seracs, a strange
place to be in running shoes. From Rangitata Col we looked over the Gardens
glistening and had no intention of dropping into the Frances glacier. With
perfect weather we took the high route from Lambert Col over Tyndall &
Newton, weaving around Perth Col and Schrund Punk to find an easy but exposed
traverse (for running shoes) to Disappointment Saddle. It was a glorious line;
we were quite fortunate to be there.
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| Over the Garden of Allah |
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| Eating a hot meal in St Winifred's hut |
Having crossed Terra Nova a few months prior, we chose a different crossing to the Godley, this time up the Forbes and over Twilight Col, leading us directly to Eade Memorial Hut. Now into five days of high pressure, the rivers were all low and the air was warm. We followed the footsteps of the Alpine Kids over Mt Acland into the Aida Glacier, feeling the burn, but it was all downhill from here right? Wrong. The long tumble of moraine down the Murchison Glacier would gift us a further 1200m additional vertical to test our resolve.
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| At the head of the Murchison Lake |
At the end of one of NZ’s greatest moraine bashes we were
grateful to find food in Liebig hut as all we had left were sweet chili coated
peanuts. Long trips are not meant to end easily, confirmed by the endlessly
undulating crossing of the Tasman moraine and Husky slip. Walking out beneath
the towering Caroline Face of Aoraki reassured us that we had arrived in
Hermitage country, bringing one dream to an end.
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| Welcome to Aoraki / Mt Cook village |
Final Words
There is something beautiful about choosing
your own path, your own style, like an artist painting a deft red line through
a topographic canvas, and the evolution of traverses between Arthur's Pass and
Mount Cook and beyond is testament to this. Those early expeditions were
explorations of the land, today they become explorations of the mind. What is
possible?
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| The route |
In summary the route taken was:
Day 1: Klondyke Corner - Waimakariri River - Carrington Hut - White River - Barker Hut - Col above pt 1529 - Burnet Stream - Wilberforce River - Unknown Stream Hut (40km/1700m)
Day 2: Unknown Stm. - Unknown Col - North Mathias River - Mathias Hut (food drop) - West Mathias Biv (29km/1500m)
Day 3: West Mathias - Observation Col -
Cattle Stream - Rakaia River - Mein's Knob - Lyell Hut (food drop) (31km/1900m)
Day 4: Lyell Gl. - Rangitata Col - Lambert
Col - Mt Tyndall/Newton Peak - Schrund Peak (col to east) - Disappointment
Saddle - Havelock River - St Winifred Hut (34km/2900m)
Day 5: Havelock R. - South Forbes - Pt 2094
- Separation Stm. - Godley River - Eade Memorial Hut (27km/1600m)
Day 6: Eade Memorial - Mt Acland - Aida Gl.
- Murchison Gl. - Tasman Gl. - Ball Road - Mt Cook Village (51km/2600m)
Total: 200km distance, 12,000m elevation gain.
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| Gear for the trip |
