Riding up the Rainbow valley early morning.

Spring - a mixed bag!!

Spring is normally associated with a mix up of the four seasons often during one day and certainly it has been a “real’ spring here this year. Reflecting this is my own mixed bag of conflicting late season ambitions and it seems inability to leave the house for more than a day at most. Locally, benefiting from larger than normal snowfalls in the Arthur ranges, it has been possible to get plenty of good short trips in whilst kids are at school. However there has been the frustration of not been able to get much further afield.

Throw in a bike though and interesting one day trips into the Nelson Lakes area of the Southern Alps become possible although usually needing quite a considerable amount of physical and mental effort. I have been lucky recently to have Jake as a partner in some of these trips to help carry the pace. An adventure racer he push’s hard and fast all day - something which is necessary to achieve much in 24 hours and he has the added bonus of being an experienced mountaineer.

The photos below are a compilation of our 2 most recent trip’s this spring.

Lee’s Stream , in the Raglan ranges just after dawn - we didn’t know it yet but we had a long hard day coming up to climb a peak with only a number - 2152.

Jake contemplates our failure on a rock route behind us at the start of the climb.

Desperation peak - that's what I think I'll call it from the amount of times Jake times I heard Jake utter the word “desperate” in front of me - been rather faster and more competent than me on treacherous terrain his desperate is my hopeless. Anyway after 3 or more hours trying we finally found a route off first base.

Heading up snow coulior’s to the ridge of 2152 m

Jake push’s thru waist deep snow.

a narrow ridge heading to the summit.

The summit was one km away still. That doesn’t sound far but with 9 fairly hard hours already in the legs it was starting to get difficult. The tracks are from Chamios, alpine goat- antelopes who inhabit the upper reach’s in droves.

2152 m is at the center of the Northern area of the Southern alps and the views were stunning. Here the entire Inland and Seaward Kaikoura mountains in plan view to the East

Looking west , down Lee stream to the Nelson lakes.

Looking South to the Anvil and Southern Raglan’s.

Looking to the North Eastern Raglan’s

descending thru large snow field’s

the hut at dusk

The strain is starting to show - starting the walk out to our bikes , 14 hours in legs , still several to go.

Another day, another ride in .

No sun today!!

Wading through the mist’s up to another little climbed peak, this time 2136 m in the Nelson lakes.

Nearing the summit

Summit pinnacles

Jake looking confident.

Approaching a semi frozen mountain tarn

As we descended the mist’s cleared to reveal this hidden tarn.

The various colors of melting ice couldn’t be captured in a photo.

Finally, as we descended we saw the mountain bowl we had been in.

The Rainbow river and our bikes are still a long way below!

The route revealed - post climb!!

Jake’s face tells it all!!

Still the ride out- or in this case push out. The clearing in the weather had been brief and spring storms were rolling in.

Weak Winter Sun

Returning to New Zealand after the excitement and color of another adventure in Central Asia can lead to the post trip blues, melancholy and lethargy of spirit - for me at least. This has been somewhat off set this time by the fact that its been winter and now spring, the best time by far for local mountain trips here and usually I’ve had company to help give me some morale. I’ve also been busy writing some post trip articles for various publications and of course already dreaming up the next expedition and that’s really motivational!!

Asian alpine e-news has posted this article below - a more exploration orientated version of my blog and of interest to those who maybe wish to go to the area we explored. Ben also invites anyone who is interested in some more photos of the tour including Jos and his ride to Yushu to join him on Instagram.

http://asian-alpine-e-news.com/asian_alpine_e-new_issue_no35.pdf

https://www.instagram.com/benjaminjhoetjes/

Back on the local mountain - Arthur!

Perfect snow - this Winter has seen some very heavy snow falls up top leading to fabulous conditions.

Jake regards his boots on a day out in the Nelson lakes

Bill climbing Angelus

The ridge.

And the descent!!

With the other Nathan and Jodi

the Ellis basin

some good cornices.along the summit ridge of Mount Arthur

Linna and friends out for a hike.

Leo and Hamish making toboggan jumps

In a snow tunnel

Large avalanche blocks just lying around

Old Ghost Road

Not always in the snow! A reconnaissance for work took me along the old ghost road which is a largely new track along the southern end of the Kahurangi National park. 85 km’s long, its mountain bike-able ride in a day and being still winter I had the track all to myself. In summer it will be rather different - full of hikers and mountain bikers.

A broken mountain , large land slides throughout the track from earthquakes.

The trail along the tops.

Old miners hut

Compass views of the Local Alps from Mt Arthur

Western ranges from the summit

South Western ranges from SW Arthur

Mount Snowden from west of the ridge line.

Tapuae-o-Uenuku and Alarm from the ridge line looking East

Nelson lakes National park looking South from the bush.

Nelson Lakes and Mount Owen from the ridge line.

Mt Owen looking South from the ridge line.

Full moon rising above the Alps

This is what we came halfway around the World for. -Jos stands  on the edge  of vast ice fields -  over his shoulder behind him is our objective, the highest mountain in thousands of unexplored square kilometers point 5875 meters.

 Into The Unknown - a trip to unexplored regions on the Qinghai Tibet Plateau

14 months of planning saw me landing in Yushu airport in Qinghai China at 3800m to meet my companions Ben and Jos Hoetjes who had ridden by bike almost a 1000 km's from Xining over 10 days for acclimatization.  The mission was simple – a lightweight attempt on what we believe after much research to be the highest mountains on this part of the Qinghai Tibet plateau , the glaciated peaks surrounding point 5875m. The whole project was initiated after reading the final lines from the article  Qiajajima, first ascent – American Alpine Club Journal 2005  stating “Sedari (5,770m) and 5,700m–5,800m peaks ranging to the west, where glaciers are most developed. This massif remains unvisited. No photographs of the mountains have been taken.” - this was certainly an interesting challenge.

With only a few blurry images on Google Earth and some old Russian maps from the 1950's we put together a plan to explore and if possible climb some of these peaks using bicycles as transport – light weight and fast is part of our philosophy along with the wish to visit new places especially on the roof of the world.  

 We rode across to Zhidoi – almost 200kms over a 4800 meter pass in the first 2 days – I adapted fast although somewhat struggling for breath behind my better acclimated companions. In Zhidio we had a most fortunate meeting with some foreigners  who told us a new road had been built between Zhidoi and Zhadio some 300kms to the south. Until than we had in mind initially following the route of the Spanish who had climbed Guozongmucha near the source of the Mekong in 2013 before turning off and  heading south over a 5100m pass than trying to cross the headwaters of the An yang qong chu. The river crossing had worried me greatly and with the road plus bridge option and also the fact 1 day of trekking was eliminated our chance of doing some worthwhile work had increased significantly  - considering fuel , food and time limitations we would only have about 1 week in the wilderness. It took us 1 long days ride to the bridgehead where we got to see our peaks for the first time , than another day to camp 1 where we would leave our bikes and than climb our first peak 5806m (ranked 3 in the area in height – I have based all heights on www.arcgis.com/home/webmap which seems the most accurate resource). After this we progressed up into the main Glacier system and here camped at about 5300m for 3 nights in the process exploring some of the 2 main valley glaciers and climbing peak 5875m (rank 1) and peak 5794m (rank 6). We than returned down the river valley , over a 5000m road pass and to Yushu via Zhadoi , admiring the fantastic mountain scenery on the way. We also tried to build up a general picture of the area for the future and on returning to Yushu I also tried to obtain further information on the peaks to the South which form the Southern extension of this mountain system. 

It was 3 long days ride and about 300 kms all up  from Yushu to the bridge head where we could access our chosen mountains.

All along route if we meet people at all we attracted much interest , all the locals wanting photos with us. Even Chinese are a rairty out here and often only Tibetean spoken.

Ben and Jos getting their first views of the glacial system in the distance we have travelled half the World to explore. 

A close up of the Southern end of the Glacial peaks. The white pyramid dead center is probably piont 5797m rank 5.

Choice campsite

Horse shoer in action !!

We can’t ride much further , behind is point 5806m (rank 3) , we called it Decieption peak as it looked easy but proved very tough. We marked out a pencil drawn map with all our own names as we have no idea what the Tibetain ones are – if any.

As far as we got with our bikes, this campsite looks up river to the sources of the Mekong mountains and Glaciers.

On a quick evening reece , Jos and Ben try and detrmine the topography of the country around us.

Another view of our last bike campsite - this across the river to yurts and rock peaks.

Jos on the lower portion of Deception peak. 

After already climbing very loose steep rock the serious work began once we hit the Glacial cap!!!  

4 times 50m pitchs took us past the worst of the slipery snow covered ice. There was very little protection provided by the ice screws in the rather shabby ice. 

Snow showers greeted us on top but the sun was our real enemy – the snow would deteriorate in minutes with the slightest hint of sun. 

the entire Eastern ridge which was our choice as a descent route was heavily corniced.

We descended to the Glacier on the left of the picture which is due East of the peak. There were 4 main valley  glaciers running to the An yang gong chu river, all running from South to North. 

We called it Desolation Glacier. The descent route was fairly straight forward but very long. When we arrived on the valley floor exhaustion was creeping in and the relatively short (4kms or less) steep narrow glacier gave a feeling of deep unesiness. 

The bikes were left behind as we trekked deeper into the river system. Above us is Sedari - the only mountain I have a local name for - listed as peak 5770m on the old Russian maps.

Sunshine Glacier - the heart of the mountain range.  We camped up here at approximately 5300 meters  in preparation to climb peak 5875m and explore the mountains and glaciers around. The exposed white ice of Sunshine glacier stretchess almost 10kms long and several wide at its head. 

Crossing the second Glacier of the day which we called Fox Glacier after a fox who ran out in front of us. A heavy over night freeze followed by an absolutely clear day left perfect conditions for our ascent of point 5875m - in fact it was the best day of our whole trip  weather wise.

All the glaciers were riddled with crevass's and we ened up rioped up most of the time. 

Jos and Ben , celebrating the summit. We named the peak Ben Jai Ma somewhat a cross between Tibetan and English , or just Big Ben. 

High (approx 5700m) rock peaks tower out of the Valleys to the East. The extensive glaciers and high summer snowfalls gave our system something of a soft touch. Considering the state of the rock we encountered I can't imagine climbing these peaks in their bare form. 

view to the South - Glaciers and mountain peaks stretched to the horizon. 

Descending back down to  Fox Glacier 

looking back at Ben Jai Ma from above our campsite on  Sunshine Glacier. I was very pleased  that  it was such a lovely peak that dominates the area and a fine but realivily easy climb.

Constellation peak 5794m (rank 6) is the cone centre left picture. We had bigger ambitions the day after the ascent of Ben Jaai Ma but I was too exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally and I settled for an easy walk up what I called Consolation peak., However the Hoetje brothers didn't want such a derogatory appellation applied and they thought Constellation peak was more appropriate - the peak being at the center of many others. 

Looking down to the head of Sunshine Glacier - Our campsite is midpoint of picture. Constellation peak was surprisingly high and gave a great overview of most of the Northern end of the Mountain system. 

Returning to camp , the whole Glacier was turning to liquid beneath us - Fortunately we had not attempted anything more difficult. There had only been a light freeze overnight followed by intense sun and conditions were not ideal. 

leaving the Glacial terminus - it had snowed on the way in and also on the way out. 

Flowers, flowers and more flowers. What a wonderful sight. I had just read Frank Smythes book 'Valley of Flowers'  so guess what we called this valley??

Decption peak again

Passing the outlet of glacier No 2 , the only one we left without a name , the shortest and steepest of the 4 main South - north glaciers 

Pushing the bikes down river

Finally sitting down again!!

Crossing pass 5002m the highest road pass on trip.

Riding down a lovely valley towards Zhadoi, looking back is almost the last view of the southern end of the range we climbed in. 

Smooth Tarmac again!!

Buddism is strong in these parts

Large Buddist temple outside Yushu

Jos and Ben left me in Yushu and I wanted to further explore the area south of Yushu  where we had spotted some high glaciated peaks (point 5672 m) and went for a long ride up an approx 4800 m pass. Above towered lofty rock peaks but the higher peaks were further West and not visible.

peak 5379m - there's a range of high unexplored unclimbed Alpine peaks within a day of Yushu.

Jos

Ben

All three of us on top of  road pass 4760m