John Tait Hut to Upper Travers Hut

Onwards up through the valley, from wide grassy stretches into rooty woodland, up out of the beech tree forest towards the sloping mountains. After a long climb Upper Travers Hut finally appeared nestled in a clump of trees in an open, crater-like bowl of rock formed by the ridges around. Stunning! Wicked views from the dinner table of mist swirling around craggy peaks!
The morning mist was lifting and we could now start to see the towering peaks we were walking beneath. All generally looking much meaner than the Richmond Range, even a few patches of snow places :)
Tue 15th Feb
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Basin before climb up to Saddle

Wed 16th Feb
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Climbing underneath the face of Mt Travers

Wed 16th Feb
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The Awesome Mt Travers!

And he’s a mean bugger too! Just look at those crags. And some snow still clinging on in the creases even though it’s the equivalent of August here. How is that possible? Amazing to saunter past, but just imagine how rock-hard you’d have to be to climb that. I think even our Meachin would have second thoughts about that!
I’d been paying attention to hand written route notes in the hut book describing the ascent of Mt Travers from the saddle, “Sometimes steep, sometimes exposed, but rarely both and the same time.” Maybe I’m looking at it from the wrong angle, but that looks steep and exposed ALL of the time. I decided to head up to a much smaller bump on the south ridge to take a few pictures instead.
Wed 16th Feb
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Getting clean in the Sabine

Mmmm Laziness. Feeling ‘lazy as’, so we decided to camp here at West Sabine instead of belting up to Blue Lake. We probably faffed around taking ages over recording pics and footage of Mt Travers ( and who wouldn’t! ) and then me wincing about my knees all the way down the woods for 1000 metres ;) So when we spotted a sweet babbling stream, and a flat shady camp spot, we thought it too good to pass up! The idea of cracking out the rum and lime powder cocktails in the warm sun seemed like a much more cunning plan than another 4 hours trek in the bush ;)
An early finish to the day usually means a rare opportunity to rinse some socks and get clean. Nicky’s not a dirty person, but she doesn’t like getting washed in these freezing cold mountain streams. I can’t say that I do either really, but I do quite like the challenge of inching my body into the frigid waters and seeing how long I can take it! This stream was colder than most, I couldn’t handle it for long this time..
Wed 16th Feb
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This stepping stone is a bit bigger than usual!

Thu 17th Feb
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Climbing up toward Blue Lake

Through the rooty woods we climbed, leaping over the side stream as they entered the Sabine’s bubbling froth. On the final tiring climb up to Blue Lake Hut we were glad we didn’t do this section late yesterday afternoon! Blue Lake is just beyond that forested saddle ahead.

Thu 17th Feb
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Blue Lake

They weren’t wrong when they named this ‘Blue Lake’, it’s bluey green waters were mesmerising. After freezing my nuts off in the water draining from it last night, I didn’t bother having a lunchtime dip. Didn’t really have the time anyhow, we had plenty of progress to make today if we’re going to get over Waiau Pass!

Thu 17th Feb
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Looking back down Sabine Valley

The higher we climbed, the more and more impressive the view back down the Sabine became. I’d stop to take a picture thinking “this is the best view yet!”, only to find an even more impressive view halting our progress just around the corner. Again the weather was being very kind and couldn’t be faulted today.

Thu 17th Feb
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“Have you seen where we’re going tomorrow Nicky?!”

We could see a feint trail high up on a steep scree slope leading to Waiau Pass. Nicky wasn’t overly excited by the prospect of heading that way tomorrow, I managed to convince her that it always looks much harder from a distance - “when you’re actually there, it won’t be as bad on close inspection”. Turns out I was wrong, this really was a bloody steep exposed route!

Thu 17th Feb
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