Following our trip to Mt Brewster Jenny, Maria, Ash and myself (Henry) spent several hours debating our next destination. All ideas were quickly put behind us as a quick stop off at our course instructors house to return some gear yielded a recommendation of a trip to Fiordland to climb Mt Talbot.
Fiordland National Park is at the bottom south-west corner of NZ and was easily the most spectacular and my overall favourite place in NZ with endless steep faces stretching to the horizon and a feeling of remoteness unmatched. It would probably be the place I would like to return to first. Downsides include the volatile weather as well as the tricky logistics and the long drive required to get there.
Arriving in the afternoon we went and checked out Milford Sound before bush-bashing through some rainforest to get in a quick two pitch sport climb which turned out to be a pleasant Paul Rogers sandbag, nicely protected from the incoming rain by an overhang. Grumbling at my very wet feet after I discovered Maria had tactically removed my shoes from their safety beneath my waterproof pack ensuring their full hydration, we retreated to Homer Hut. The next morning was a bit slow and we decided to head up to the Gertrude Saddle later in the day to bivy overnight before making an early start on Mt Talbot. Ash and Jenny went and checked out the approach to Moir’s Mate, an impressive rock race with several long trad routes while Maria and I headed up for an earlier bivy. Whilst we didn’t have the time to do any of the climbs on Moir’s Mate this trip, I’m sure it’s high on a few future tick lists.
As Maria and I trudged up the valley on our way to our overnight camp we dismissed some (in hindsight) concerning dark clouds looming. By the time we were searching for potential bivy spots it was raining vey heavily. Deciding we needed somewhere protected from the rain to prevent everything getting wet when setting up a bivy our lengthy search ended at a small overhang. This ended up providing minimal shelter and by the time we were set up inside our bivy everything was very wet and very cold. Unable to cook in the rain we settled for a dinner of bars and peanut butter wraps. Slightly miserable and very wet we eventually saw two lonely and damp figures in the distance trudging through some snow towards us. Our spirits lifted as the rumble of large blocks of ice falling just in front of them reverberated around the valley, we chuckled slightly and rationalised they were probably wetter and in a less optimal situation than our extremely sub-optimal situation. Jenny and Ash briefly greeted us, and we agreed to set-off at first light before they began their quest for a suitable bivy spot.
After a cold sleep we woke to perfect blue skies. We were slightly lazy and slow packing up camp and concerned we were holding up Ash and Jenny went up the hill to find their bivy spot. Despite our concerns we were greeted by two bleary-eyed campers eating breakfast in their sleeping bags. We soon turned our eyes towards the summit and headed up the mountain with Ash and Jenny promising to be close behind us.
The climb began with scrambling through some rocks before reaching a snow field which gradually increased in gradient before joining with the rocky summit ridge. We were reunited with Jenny and Ash as we stopped to put on our avalanche transceivers. The snow leading to the summit ridge was concerningly soft and made for slow progress, but we soon gained the ridge and began simul climbing. Climbing in two pairs, Maria and I soon began the tactic of placing all of our six cams and the odd nut before slinging a large boulder or placing a bomber piece and belaying the second in and quickly swinging leads as the second already had all (or almost all) the gear on their harness. Climbing like this requires a lot of trust in your partner and an acceptance that either person falling will likely result in a very dire situation for both people in the pair. However, it was nice climbing on some reasonable quality rock that allowed protection to be placed. Certainly, compared to the rock and ridge travel on Mt Brewster I was enjoying the feeling of knowing that a fall whilst very dangerous should at least be reduced from falling hundreds of metres off the edge of the mountain.
We soon reached the base of a final steep section of rock just below the summit and resting briefly reunited as a four decided to continue onwards right past it. Jenny initially set off continuing onwards along a snowy section of ridge with Ash and Maria following. Gaining some high ground further along the ridge our mistake was quickly realised, and it was agreed that I was standing just below the summit belaying. A quick retreat and scramble to the top saw us soon perched on the summit admiring the vast wilderness spanning beneath us.
We soon found ourselves simul-downclimbing the ridge, eventually reaching the top of the snow fields. Slightly concerned at the avalanche that had passed nearby our ascent tracks during the day we quickly descended the slopes and with some relief reach the end of the snow and hiked back down to Homer Hut.
