3rd time is the charm and karma is a bitch. All of these things are true.
The first attempt up Mt. Owen lasted all of 3 minutes. The second, two days. Finally, on the third attempt, I can claim that I have summited the highest mountain in the Kahurangi Range!
This time I took my bestie, Bev, along. I have to say, it has been an amazing joy to find such a great friend that is so fun to get out and do stuff with. As much as I like solo hiking, I will confess there is a different level of experience when you are hanging out with a great human being, even if he gives you shit for being disorganized.
Being that both of us are retired, we have the ability to wait for a good weather window. We were going to leave Friday, but decided to delay a day since Saturday and Sunday were looking like they were going to be cracker days. That, and the Dart River was running high and I didn’t feel like getting swept away in my Ute while fording the river.
I picked Bev up at 8:05. We were going to go at 8:15, but Bev demanded that we go the long way around through Wakefield so he could get a coffee at the famous pie/coffee place there. Evidently, they have some of the best pies in New Zealand…or so I have been told.
We got to the bakery and ordered some coffee. The place was rockin’ with everyone out and about on a Saturday. I will say the pies and pastries looked pretty amazing. All of a sudden Bev said “I forgot my poles.” Bummer. Big Bummer. It was a big bummer for Bev on a number of fronts.
First, he forgot his poles and we were going to have to go get them. Second, it gave me an opportunity to give him shit. I warned him that this was definitely showing up in the blog since he gave me so much grief from Rees Dart. Oh, karma is a bitch 🙂
He texted Bee (his partner) and she agreed to meet us halfway. We boogied back and then finally were on the road to the Courthouse Flat car park. I continued to give him grief the entire time. One of the best rides of my life. He seemed unamused by the state of affairs. At least he had his poles.
We got to the Dart River ford and the river was still running pretty high. What was more impressive was the huge pile of rocks that had been washed across the concrete ford by the last storm. I was glad I had my Ute and was really glad we had delayed a day to let the water drop. It must have really been raging to move that much earth in such a short time.
I had assumed it wouldn’t be too busy, but when we got to the car park, there were already 8 cars parked there. Uh oh. We both were hoping that the hut would at least have some room that night.
We got ourselves sorted and headed out on the trail. It was a bit chilly, but not too bad. The hill was no less steep than the last time I had climbed it. We slogged our way up through the gorse and ferns at the bottom. You do get some good views along the way, but mostly you are worried about just dragging yourself up the hill.
We got to the meeting point of the two trails and took a bit of a break. It is only 2.9 km to that point, but you climb 550 meters. I had stated it was 450 m last time, but that was wrong. It is steep either way.
Bev noted that it was “almost” as steep as the Lodestone hike. Hmmm, gonna have to go and do that hike to see, but at some point it is just steep regardless.
We reached the high point at 1282 m and took a break to enjoy the view. Both of us were still wondering if we would have to sleep on the floor without a pad.
Next up was the descent down the Staircase. You first pass through a nice section of beech forest and then a fenced off area. Both Bev and I were wondering how it would keep mice and stoats out, but then saw the sign that stated it was for bigger stuff — wekas, pigs, goats, deer and old guys on a tramp.
Although there are a few scrambles down the Staircase it isn’t that bad. Although I did nearly lose my lens cap taking the pic to the left. Thankfully a fern stopped it from plummeting to its death.
We made it through the rooty section and got to Blue Creek were the trail takes a trip up the stream bed. There were three young people there taking a break. Obviously, we were hiking significantly faster than they were. Without saying anything, both of us instinctively picked up the pace thinking the same thing: “get there before they do so we can get a bunk.”
We got to the Granity Pass hut and noted that there were still a couple of bunk spaces left. Whew. The other thing that the increased pace up Blue Creek did was cause us to beat my previous time of 4 hrs and 24 minutes by 2 minutes. This made Bev happy. Not that he is competitive or anything 🙂
We started to unpack and get set up. Bev was standing next to me as I was rooting around in my pack. I said “Oh shit! I left my pack out last night and something got into it!” Bev, being the very compassionate and caring man he is, expressed great concern. I reached in the pack and pulled out a water bottle full of fine Australian shiraz. “Damn, somebody put a bottle of wine in my pack!” That was good for a laugh.
As we suspected, the hut filled up completely once the three young students showed up. Well, it was overfull actually, with 13 people for 12 bunk spots. There were two younger couples that were up rock climbing, a solo woman from Nelson who was doing the peak the next day, a couple that Bev had some work connections with (small world here), the three students, and somebody I can’t remember now. Doh!
We made dinner with our lovely Shiraz and chatted with everyone. It was a nice group. The rock climbing couple from Takaka showed up after dark after watching the sunset. They had doubled up their mattresses the night before when the hut was empty and had assumed people would just grab one, but 2 of the students had plunked themselves down without a mattress. We finally rectified the situation, but they were so sweet they didn’t even complain. It got dark early, so everyone was in bed quickly. Overall, for being chocker block, it was a good group and I got an ok night’s sleep.
No VIP Section:
Let me take a small side step. I have come to really love the hut system in New Zealand. It is unique and provides something special even if it that takes a while to get used to its benefits and quirks. There are no VIP sections and most of them you can’t even reserve. The Granity hut had a classic set-up where there were two big platforms that everyone slept on — 6 per platform. You get your mat and your little space, that is it. Everything is shared. It is very egalitarian in nature. The only requirement being that you are able to haul your butt up some big steep hill. You won’t get the best night’s sleep ever and sometimes people do stupid things like cook dinner at 10 pm, but generally there is a really positive vibe and gratefulness amongst those in the hut. Coming from a culture where everything is for sale and VIP status is held above all, it is refreshing to be in a place where everyone is pretty much equal. It creates a sense of community and gratitude.. I know I complain about the crinkly bag ladies and the snoring now and again, but I have come to appreciate those experiences and hope the hut system never goes away in New Zealand. It is truly a kiwi treasure.
Onward.
The young students, who had been a bit nervous about the climb, had left the hut around 5 am. Bev was happy when I told him we didn’t have to go on the usual Roger “6 am, get ‘er goin’” time and that we could lollygag since we had all day to go up to the summit and back to the hut. After a leisurely coffee, we headed out around 8 am. It was pretty chilly.
I have suffered with Raynaud’s syndrome for quite a few years now and it is really difficult for me to keep my hands warm. When I used to snowboard in Colorado, I had to finally break down and get gloves that were meant for summiting Everest to try to keep from being in agony.
The last failed attempt up Mt. Owen resulted in 2 to 3 hours of agonizingly cold hands and about a week of problems after the fact. I was determined to find a solution that did not involve Mt. Everest style gloves. I did some research and found rechargeable hand warmers online and thought that they might work — not too heavy and slim enough to fit in my gloves. This was my first test run with them. They were a little clunky with the hiking poles and it took me a while to get them dialed in, but they worked pretty well. It makes me feel like a dork, but at least my hands stayed out of the pain zone 🙂
It was a gorgeous day and once we reached the sun, my hands thanked me. We reached the tarns where I had camped the time before and a woman was camped there. She had stopped by the hut the day before and said that her boyfriend was running up the next morning. As we were talking with her at the tarn, he showed up. It took him 2 hrs and 20 minutes. Wowzaa. Slightly faster than my 6 hrs. I’ve got some work to do.
The tarns had a beautiful crusting of ice that made for some good photos. We filled our water bottles and headed up into the more technical section of the climb through the crevassed limestone toward the summit.
Overall, it wasn’t too bad, but there were a couple of crevasses that made me stop and think a bit before leaping over them. It wasn’t a long leap, but the consequences of not doing it correctly would not have been fun — being wedged into a 40′ deep crevasse was not on my agenda. Having a big heavy camera strapped to your chest didn’t help either. After a while I took off my gaiters and stashed the poles away; they were providing no value through the scrambles.
About 90 meters from the summit we met the students coming back down. They were happy they had made the climb. We were at about 2 hrs 45 minutes; I think it took them over 5. It was going to be a long day as they were heading all the way back to the car park.
The top of the mountain is a little easier going, but still full of cracks and crevasses that need to be negotiated. The woman and the speedy dude were up on the summit as we approached. It made a nice visual.
It was totally calm at the top. There was a cool fog hanging in the valleys down by Murchison. Bev and I hung out, eating some food, marveling at the view and taking pictures.
After about 45 minutes, it started to get cold, so we headed back down to the hut. The traverse through the technical section was much easier the second time. Amazing how knowledge of something makes it easier to navigate. I was definitely glad I did not try it on my own in the fog and the rain.
The hut was empty. Just Bev and I. It felt a little weird after the hubbub of the night before. It was pitch black by 6:30 and the temptation was to head into the sleeping bag, but sanity prevailed and we managed to cobble together a deck of cards from the pile of stuff in the hut and played rummy for a while. We doubled up our sleeping mats and both fell asleep happy to have done another amazing hike together.
We had a leisurely morning having coffee, packing up, and cleaning up the hut before heading out. Mr and Mrs Toasty kept my hands warm while we navigated the slightly slippery sections of Blue Creek. After slogging up the “Staircase” we headed down the super steep ridge. It was a tad treacherous as it was a bit wet and the clay was like ice in a few places. But we made it to the car park unscathed.
I know I talk a lot about being grateful, but since being in New Zealand, I have had a new appreciation for life and what it brings. To have a wonderful friend to go hiking with is a treasure. To live in such a beautiful place is a privilege. To be healthy enough to make it up to Mt. Owen is amazing. My life is not perfect and does not come without struggles and challenges, but what I have found is the more I focus on being grateful, the smaller those challenges become.
It’s a pretty simple formula for happiness.
It is not always easy to execute on, but the path is pretty straightforward and not nearly as steep as the climb up to Mt. Owen.
wannabekiwi.com 
Let me know what you think!