Another Day Another First- First Snow

It was another one of those "mountains sing out loud" days. Fresh snow and a beautiful crisp clear day saw us heading up to Arthurs Pass for the boys first "mountaineering" expedition. They loved it. They weren't sure about the snow thing though...as the picture shows!

It was just a perfect Good Friday.

Razor - Marvin Trophy Clash tomorrow

Thus time tomorrow morning Madman Marvin and I will thrashing it out accross the Otago High Country on the Motatapu mountain marathon from Wanaka to Arrowtown. The race crosses three high country stations, Motatapu, Soho and Glencoe. Shania Twain is the leaseholder for the first two, although I don't imagine she'll be there given the marriage meltdown.

Can I regain the trophy? Glenn must be firing on all cylinders but training has been good the past few weeks, so as long as the dodgy knee holds together I'll give it a good shake!

Main objective otherwise is to beat Finance Minister Bill English, who's in the mountain bike sectin.

Will report back after the event...

What a Winter!

Courtesy of Graeme Kates at Softrock.co.nz I see there is an incredible snow event continuing in the Alps. Lovely day here in ChCh, although we have had snow settle 4 times this winter , including a blizzard last Saturday morning- and theres the hint of a 5th dump early next week in town


But from what I understand its the first time in nearly 2 decades since avalanches crossed the Arthurs Pass highway, and as is on Graemes site above is photographic evidence of this now occuring...a Class 2 slab avalance crossing the highway. There is no road capable of getting anyone to or from the West Coast at present. Frightning thought is that there is a few more days of snow to come up there. Gulp!


Stay out of the backcountry folks.


On another note, Rest In Peace Gottlieb Braun-Elwart. He challenged us, he opened new opportunities, and most importantly he lived his life doing the things he was passionate about. A true champion of the High Country- today is a very sad day, as well described by the PM.

A few random Mountain Man pics

From all over the traps really, great times and some of you AUTC trainspotters may spot familiar faces ...you can click on the pics for big fat blowups :-)

Indian Summer

30 degrees at the end of March. Cannot complain about that! Sumner beach was mint, but my second home the Dux de Lux was in peak form. Long live summer!

Into some serious training more the next big event now, today the Port Hills will get a hammering. May 12 will be a biggie, the 38km Routeburn Classic. Some would say running around the Fiordland mountains for 4 or 5 hours slogging ones guts out is a strange way to spend ones 35th birthday, but it sounds like a great way to pass the day to me! And the aftermatch in Queenstown that night should be fun too... consider yourselves invited if you happen to be in need of an early winter trip to the deep south.

She's Gonna Blow !!!!

According to the scientists it's a hard out race between the Lahar at Ruapehu and White Island blowing its top now, the Shakey Isles are alive and seriously kicking ass, as Micheal Hussey and any team facing Richie McCaw will confirm:


From Stuff.co.nz.....

White Island might be close to some kind of eruption – but Dino heroically stands defiant.
Scientists have warned White Island in the Bay of Plenty is heating up and experts are closely watching events on a webcam installed in the crater.
Its one of the world's most watched webcams http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcanocam.html but not for the steam, but for Dino, the diminutive dinosaur.
He has made it into the New York Times and on CNN – and might be about to face his greatest moment.
It first appeared in the camera shot in May 2004 and quickly became an Internet hero.
Geological and Nuclear Sciences provide on their site a "before" picture of Dino in the crater – he looks a bit tattered now.

Not To State The Obvious....

...but sometimes human nature just can't resist danger huh? It's called "Summit Fever"

For those not in the know, Mt Ngauruhoe has been showing significant signs of volcanic tremor for the past few months. Maybe theres something about to happen...its been a while for this mountain- 1975 was the last big blast there. Look out for volcanic activity here:

http://www.geonet.org.nz/volcanocam.html

....but beware of the White Island Dino-saur.....

Anyway, back to the matters at hand... on our way up to Not Entering Said Crater we passed several unique lava flows, with some funky shapes, including this - the Hound of South Crater anyone?