Mount Alarm is defined by early winter ice at dawn during the ascent of Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku

An International expedition!!

"First, you must cross the ditch before you can mount the obstacle", so wrote French missionary Pierre Vittoz some 65 years ago before leading an international expedition on the first ascent of Nun 7120m in the Kashmir .

 Nothing much has changed during the interim, indeed the bureaucratic ditch of organizing international travel is much greater now than 20 years ago in the heyday of easy international travel. Currently, the international political climate is one of fear, suspicion, mistrust and the closing of borders making trip planning rather more complex than it recently was. This is particularly true of the mountain areas of the World who have resisted the “civilizing” and colonization efforts by the lowland mass's the longest. As the opportunity has come up to take a trip once again to Central Asia this July and August the difficult political climate has equal challenges with a difficult meteorological climate. July and August are the middle of the summer monsoon for most of Asia making the Western areas, sheltered by the Himalayas the only suitable areas for travel.

Planning lightweight, fast and highly mobile exploratory Central Asian expeditions in the style of Longstaff a century ago and then brought to its pinnacle by Shipton and Tilman over 50 years ago remains my objective. Originally this year I had the plan to ride south on my bike  from Xining in Qinghai  (China) south going to close to the Tibetan border (Tibet is closed once again to independent foreign travel as it has been in most recorded history) where there is a mass of almost totally unexplored glaciated mountains and take go take a look . These mountains are low by Central Asian standards with none exceeding 6000m.  Although this area is sheltered from the worst of the monsoon it has become clear that in July and August it rains most days and that will be exceptionally cold rain mixed with snow on the vast Tibetan plateau where the lowest elevations are still above 4000m. Being a large watershed meant there are many river crossing just to get in there and with September being the only month of the year giving any real “easy” travel one quickly realizes why there are not even any photos of these mountains yet alone accounts of travel in them ( the Source of the Mekong is on the western perimeter and has seen a visit and a Japanese group claim to have climbed the highest mountain in the area somewhere to the East of the major mountains although geographical information does not correlate with their account which only leaves even more mysteries to be solved)  . Certainly, this remains a good project for the future.

My thoughts have now turned further West to a project I have had in mind for sometime, Velo – mountaineering in Kyrgyzstan.  Cycle tourists have waxed lyrical about the great cycle touring there and easy camping and with 158 separate mountain ranges covering 80 per cent of Kyrgyzstan the prospects of some good scrambles are endless. The country has two of the great mountain ranges of the World, the Pamirs and Tien Shan mountains bordering it and two of the largest Glaciers draining into it, the Fedchenko glacier at 77kms long and the Engilchek Glacier at 60kms long.  Although its on well-traveled territory I remain philosophical as in the words of Longstaff – any unguided climb is like a first ascent.

Here In New Zealand winter has begun and it been certainly cold but with only sporadic snowfalls so far. The first local snow fall I managed to catch with Brent and we took our children for a night camping on Mount Arthur . I had a quick run on that familiar range the next day for training before setting off with a couple of young guns for an icy early winter ascent of the giant of the upper South Island - Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku.

Mount Alarm , Tappys twin sister is most visible on the ascent , Tappy veils herself till one reach's the final ridge.

The long slog up Mt Tapuae-o-Uenuku

The final ridge and South face come into view after several hours climb.

Looking down the ridgeline

Climbing up between towers of mushroom ice

Looking tiny in Icy wonderland

There was a steep icy step just before the summit which we belayed , a slip there would've sent one off on a 500m free-fall off the South face. I'm not sure if this step is new since the major earthquake last year or the icy conditions had highlighted this piont as danger!!

Kadins smile says it all as we summit with his brother Ashley

Back in the rocks on the descent 

Looking across to Mitre, the third highest peak in the range.

Ice waterfalls on the way in 

Dusk on The Richmond ranges 

Walking out down the the Hodder river with it's roughly 80 crossings. Every trip to Tappy is a small expedition in itself with a long walk in and out - not overly pleasant and what one would call a stiff hike but its adds charisma and charm to the mountain. No easy access , no casual tourists , no helicopters - an American visitor wrote in the hut book that the trip up here was the highlight of his New Zealand experince after the disillusmiont of mass tourism on the great walks.

The Inland  Kaikoura mountains recede into the late autumn distance on the way home - one can see from here why the early Europeans thought Mount Tapuaenuku was a volcano.

Isabelle on Mt Arthur at dawn , catching the first snowfall of the year.

Dawn 

Leo in the Snow forest

Early winter on the Western ranges

Images from Autumn, a quiet period for me but the colors are just great.  After a dismal summer weather wise there is the promise of a more regular winter in the air. A road trip south with Carl was fun and after visiting a small jewel, that is lake Ohau, we went onto do a quick hike in the Aspiring national  park with my son Aleksander and his mate Elliot. Apart from that the last 6 weeks have only seen another Twins visit with Curtis and an unusual snow free trip to Angelus.

The Southern alps from the West Coast

Curtis heading along the Arthur raage 

Curtis searching a route on the North Twin 

The Twins 

Cloud added depth to the Arthur range

Fantastic panorama of the Southern Alps from Fox Peak

Aoraki/Cook rise's above Lake Pukaki, snow peaks to right are, The Nuns Veil and Malte brun

Lake Ohau at dusk

Carl on the Ohau Skifield road , a long ride up

Carl approach's the summit of Mt Sutton 

The View from the skifield road , with  the moutais Sefton and Aoraki /Cook as backdrops.

departig Lake Ohau in a storm

Aleksander rainbow hoppig

Weathers closing in on Elliot and Aleksander

The Sobelle Glacier

Chittenden and surrounding peaks , still snow less

Striking Autumn colors 

Meetig Sergio and Mei near the summit of Angelus

Tapuae-o-Uenuku ad Alarm look like giants with snow less lesser peaks in foregroud

Lake Angelus from Pk 1860 

Leaving Mount Fox 

Brent and Jake leading the way towards the North Twin

The Arthur range can be easily seen on a clear day from Nelson and culminates to the South in “The Twins” arguably the most impressive mountains in the Kahurangi national park and certainly the most demanding from a mountaineering standpoint. They are surrounded by some very wild and spectacular Karst country which adds to the difficulties, excitement and scenic beauty of travel thru or over the Twins. There are no walk in’s to the North Twin and only the South side of the South Twin offers any easy passage to the South Peak and even this requires fairly demanding tramping to get to the base of. Joined by adventure athletes Jake and Brent fresh off the Godzone adventure race we left the Mount Arthur car park , traversed the Twins and than descended to the Baton valley in a little under 12 hours and although the pace never seemed high the legs and body told a different story for a few days afterwards. It was my fourth year running on a "Twins" trip - only the first year I never made it underestimating the time required and having to dash to work that same evening. Its a trip that doesn't get boring or much easier- even the walk in is a quality hike and I am certainly looking forward to more time on the Twins.

Earlier in the month of March I headed up to the another of the very spectacular region's of the Kahurangi National Park-  the Mount Owen massif of the Marino mountains. It was the 5th year running in what has also become an annual trip. Each time I've started by biking the 85 km's to Courthouse flat, an extinct mining settlement and then hiking a different mountain in area . The Karst country is somewhat milder in form here than on the Twin's but spectacular none the less and each time up here I wonder why I don't come more often.

Looking upwards  - after leaving the car at the Baton ford and biking back to Motueka for the following days Traverse of the Twins. They are certainly looking mighty impressive rising over 1500 meters higher than the valley floor!!

The Twins offer the best mountaineering in the Kahurangi national park - my local neighboorhood.

Fortunately at this point a wire cable was provided - by whom???

Highlight of trip is the Keyhole as one begins the ascent of the South Twin.

the entry and exit of the keyhole, afterwards one corkscrews up onto an exposed ledge.

Jake and Brent admire the gigantic forms of the Karst landscapes that rear all around us

one of the many exposed spots during the day

The way forward , up over the South Twin.

I went with adventure athletes Jake and Brent, 2 very solid performers. Jake has climbed throughout the European alps and is very fluid on the rock - here he points the footholds to Brent on the final part of the South Twin climb !!

The final meters of the "hard " part of the day are over and now its just a walk up the final meters of the South Twin with the South Wall of  North Twin and route we had just traveled all behind us in this picture.

Descending down the sometimes trap lined Paddy's ridge where we soon lost any sort of track . We all fell and bruised ourselves many times down that slippery bush bash but only I managed to draw some serious blood with a nice tumble at one stage. The "easy" walk out to the Baton ford turned out to be a fairly major part of the day - here is one of the last views of the Twins and the Arthur range from Paddy's ridge.

Courthouse flat , the site of a now vanished mining settlment and as far as the bike goes.

Sergio and Mei were the motivating force behind this trip to Owen. Here they are in front walking through the lower sections of Karst on Mount Owen. 

The final meters of a nice mornings walk up Mount Owen

Then Sergio and I tackled Mount Bell. We went directly up the West face which provided a bit of entertainment. At the top the Westerly gale was awful, it provided a good tail wind home on the bike later though.

The Autumn light made for lovely views , here across to the West Coast with Mount Kendall in center picture.

Looking South West 

North from the Top of Mount Bell

Looking back up Mount Bell before descending to Ghost valley 

Huge Karst wave on "Fred" the mountain beside Mount Bell

Walking out with a final look at  "Fred"