6th February 2008

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6th February 2008
Today dawned bright and clear and with no clouds about and a good weather forcast for the day. Vern decided we had been it having too easy and decided to guide us all on a strenous grand tour of Mount Cook and the surrounding mountains.
He started us off up the Tasman Valley and we motored up to Cinerama Col for a quick look at the Caroline Face, before popping over the south-east ridge to have a look at the East Face, Zurbriggen's and Cook's Linda Glacier. But the ice conditions were not good with no recent snow and a lot of loose rock, so we slogged over to Tasman to do the East Face, but that was no good either and so we moved on to Mt Elie de Beaumont which we summitted. We were getting kind of hungry by now and decided to go for some food, managing not to fall into a crevasse en route to Plateau Hut. Oh b****r there was no-one in the hut! So we decided to head for home via the Sheila Face of Cook and then Malte Brun. It had been a hard day, but well worth (£ $) it, and Tony the helicopter pilot seemed to think so too.
To achieve this grand tour of Aoraki Mount Cook we had privately chartered a helicopter and pilot to take us to revisit the routes on Mount Cook that Vern had climbed some 30 years previously. With Vern's knowledge of the mountain he was able to tell the pilot of the parts of the mountain we wanted to see. Most of the climbing routes on Mount Cook are snow and ice routes as the rock is mainly schist, which is very loose and friable.
After a snack of museli bars and nuts !!! we did a short walk up to the Tasman Glacier Lake which has huge chunks of ice in and the Blue Lakes which had turned green as the weather has been so dry and the algae has taken a hold.
Tomorrow we will have an easy day walking up the Hooker Valley if it's not too hot.

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