Jake takes a break on the way up Mount Chittenden , Nelson lakes national park.

 The usual suspects

  Whilst going on our velo mountaineering trip to Mt Princess earlier this year Mike and I had one of our long philosophical rambles as we often do and one particular ramble involved the great walks of New Zealand. Mikes statement was that the "Great walks" represented the best of New Zealand to view - my own counter was the "Great walks" (of which I've only done a couple so actually didn't have grounds to comment) represent commercial touristic interests rather than what is really good out there if you are only willing to put a good effort in. Mikes rather good reply is that part of begin good is being accessible and the great walks are readily accessible - the stuff I'm talking about is not.

 Well with my small season starting over the next couple of months of which the beginnings have been further dogged by bad weather I realize much of what I do is on that issue of accessibility. With rarely more than a 24 hour period to head out in accessibility is the key issue and the usual suspects keep turning up, Mt Arthur on weekdays while kids are at school and Angelus on weekends if I get a chance. A longer harder usual suspect is Mt Chittenden and or Point 2142 in the Nelson Lakes National park from Conners creek which in one long 14 to 15 hour day which encapsulates the best of what can be done - great walk accessibility style. Nice bike ride , great walk and a couple of alpine mountain's!!

Conner's creek , early morning on a frosty marsh, the Chittenden looms into view.

Brent climbing a steep snow gully

Chittenden from Conners col , we failed to get up and although the others were going well I had a most uninspired day - "We had only just started the climb proper up Chittenden and I was leading into a deep drift with a few will o wisps flying around and the instant conclusion was "if its this bad here it must be really bad higher up! (on a good day one would conclude , "great all the loose snow has blown down here!") I wasn't keen to go on , Jake was ok but concurred with my decision but its hard turning back - or in this case sideways up the steep couloir and onto snow fields across to what I call Conners creek col".

With Jake and Brent on Conner's creek col. From there our consolation peak Point 2142 was in sight, - the pyramid behind. It was a long but straight forward slog to the top. 

Brent , enjoying the view on top!

I was struggling but felt good to get up anyway 

Down the North east face of 2142 we roared down a great snow /scree descent to 1100m on the river which was the highlight of the day. 

Iconic New Zealand Mountains scene , river below , than steep forest gullies leading up to the snow.

up on to Mount Angelus October 1, in the mist all day , spring is making a thaw .

Bumped into a certain Brad Tinsley who's spending a couple of years hiking up and down whatever and wherever he can in New Zealand , hes roughly halfway through his trip and was hoping to go fishing soon to enliven his diet!

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Ice cream from Mt Arthur summit.

looking down the east side of the Arthur range

Eastern aspects of Arthur.

Linna heads up Arthur on the last fine weather day we had in awhile.

Nice late winter climb together.

There's an old saying "if you've have a good summer than you'll have a good winter"' and although winter coughed into life rather slowly this year and also rather late it arrived in full force to complement the long hot summer that's been.  This gave a chance to finally to do those snow days and most especially pull on those skis that have been lying around but out  action for 20 years or more.

The Snow arrives - finally but in style , Linna and Leo jumping for joy.

Skiing - taking the  traditional approach , mainly hard work out with long climbs often thru forest to higher slopes followed by brief largely out of control runs on the odd slope - sweat, blood and tears style. Not a groomed trail , chairlift , helicopter or ski bunny to be seen!!

Skiing a  little similar to cycling , immensely difficult going up but a breeze going down , at least sometimes! Certainly in deep fresh snow conditions its the fastest way to go - although still slow compared to summer time when one can run.

It seems in winter most outing are even less social and more solo than in summer but in mid July and just before the serious snow began Dave came out to Mount Angelus with me - it was the perfect winters day in the Nelson lakes National park , warm almost windless and we meandered around for a good few hours.

Dave makes a good model on Angelus summit - seems the sun always shines when Dave's around or perhaps he only comes out when the sun shines?? 

Always a good day mission and great training, to Angelus and back fits in well with short winter daylight hours.

Meandering

No snow but an ice lake in early July.

A month later on a solo trip looking out from the summit of Mount Angelus down to Lake Rotoroa the snow conditions were quite different as were the meteorological conditions and this was a rare break in snow showers and claggy cloud that day.

Leo and Linna up for a hike on Mount Robert

I can't say skiing really interests me much as a stand alone activity but the opportunity it presents to range quickly over deep snow terrain is very attractive and therefore a great tool for mountain adventures in winter . Skiing with a heavy pack does present some center of gravity problem's  though!!

Isabelle in a snow cave

Having laid off Mount Arthur for awhile with the snow arriving its been on the menu 3 or 4 days a week while the kids are at school , nice views from the summit - sometimes.

Climbing up the east side of Winter peak , there's enough snow on the Arthur range to fill all the higher gullies and Karst "crevasses"  making wandering around a delight!!

footfall

"I'll be back " an audacious Kea mountain parrot after checking out some ski poles.

Mount Owen Massif at Dawn from Bushline hut.

Nostalgia and wistful thinking are in league during the winter with tales of the past turning in ones minds to flights of fantasy in the future, The past 3 seasons have seen me either in the Western Himalayas or Karakorum's , biking , hiking, and climbing. fulfilling some of my past flights of fantasy. It's an area no bigger than the Southern Alps in New Zealand but a whole world of vertical difference!. The Northern subcontinent is one of the most fascinating places on Earth where one finds such a diversity and often a clash of races , linguistics , philosophy, religions and in this current era politics but the dominating factor is the landscape and terrain itself  which have shaped the human minds and cultures there. Towering over all are the mountains - results of that titanic clash between the Northward thrust of the the Indian continental plate and its massive collision with the Eurasian plate thrusting the Earths surface skywards whilst the forces of water and gravity try to destroy them. It make's the World of Humans far below seem as petty and insignificant as I daresay it often is.

It was a privilege to spend some time in that world and apart from memories the remains of those voyages remain in photographic form. Though I am  no photographer, with the benefits of modern technologies I am able to snap hundreds of photos on the  basis of that eventually some must be good. Here in mid winter with little else to do I sorted out some of the best images of the vertical world to put in blog form.

Sublime Masherbrum 7821m , like a bejeweled fairy tale ice castle this peak soared heavenwards, no amount of photography could capture its true beauty.

Masherbrum from another angle hiking down the Baltoro.

Ethereal Rakaposhi, or Dumani, 7788m , if there was one mountain to compete with Masherbrum in terms of beauty it is Rakposhi - here the west face , the largest mountain face on Earth rising almost 6000m above the valley below.

The incredible West face of Rakaposhi!!

Nanga Prabat 8125m - mountain of superlatives , the largest mass on the Earths surface , rising the greatest vertical distance with the largest mountain wall , the Rupal face at 4600m. Its mountaneering history is superlative as well, no other mountain has such a history of triumphs and tragedies and hence its descrpition as the"Killer mountain" or the  "Devil mountain". The only Superlative that NangaPrabat does not have is highest altitude but as its also growing faster than any other terristial mounatin it will own that one day too!! 

Nanga Prabat at dawn - 

 "this mountain is a Paradox , at once so completely pure but also so brutally harsh" - French mountaineer, Elisabeth Revol

Looking up the Hispar Glacier from the Rush ridge. The high point is Snow lake at 5100 m , Far beyond in Silhouette K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum 4 and Gasherbrum 2. I changed this too Black and White as the scene reminded me of photos the first explorers had taken of these areas over a century ago.

K2 - Mountain of Mountains ( from Broad Peak Base camp)

Gasherbrum 4 7925 m from the Baltoro Glacier. 

Broad Peak - actually 3 peaks Broad Peak North 7490 m, broad peak Central 8011 m and Broad Peak main 8051 m.  This photo taken from northern end of Goodwin Austin Glacier at its confluence of the Savoia Glacier.

Chogolisa 7668 m, a beautiful snow mountain above Concordia. Photo taken from Broad Peak Base Camp. 

Rush Lake 4600 m at Dawn, Karakorum's in the Hunza behind.

Spantik or the Golden Pillar 7027m.

the Zanskar mountains of the Great Himalayas, Kun and Nun behind.

the same Mountains but from the East - opposite direction of the previous photo. This Photo is taken in Rungdom.

Kun 7077 m

Nun 7135m

Mustaga Ata 7509 m  from Krakol lake on the Karakorum Highway

Shispar Sar 7611m from the Karakorum highway, a spectacular Pyramid.

On the ridge to Mount Siguniang in the Qionglai mountains of the Sichuan alps. It's not in the Himalayan ranges but they are part of the great mountains of central Asia. I spent 2 weeks in this beautiful alpine area in 2014 and this photo of man meeting mountain provided a fitting ending to this photo series.