Seven of us met up at the DOC office in Arthur’s Pass at 11.30 on a cloudless day. After being soberly warned of the devastation the recent snows had caused on the tracks in the area we headed off for the Minga. The suggestion offered on the drive up that morning that the best way to keep dry feet on a river crossing was to trip up the guy in front and walk over them made me determined not to be the guy in front as we stepped into the river. The Bealy, Minga and Edwards rivers were all fairly low and caused no delay.
Heading up the lower Edwards we came across a large avalanche cone exiting the “Gun Barrel†chute that descends from “the Spikeâ€. It had scoured to the base and completely blocked the valley to a depth of 5 to 10 meters with the river exiting a cave underneath. Other than this there was no snow left in the lower valleys. Climbing up through the bush after the East Edwards we enjoyed the finest of showers of tiny water droplets in still air – all that remained of the snow being blown off Mt Williams way above us. The upper valley had soft snow patches under the trees but little significant tree fall or other delays. The only major deviation to the track being an extra crossing of the Edwards to avoid the remains of another large avalanche cone dropping from Bowers at the upper edge of the forest. Seems the Edwards missed the devastation.
From the hut the fitter ones recced up valley while the rest made the fire, restocked the fire wood, organised themselves or simply chilled. Even the radio aerial, damaged by the snow was rigged back up by the end of the day. With seven of us the hut was soon fairly snug and a comfortable night was had with a light freeze & full moon outside. The snorer will remain nameless!
Come dawn six of us headed up and one retired back to his pit having succumbed to the bug he was trying to ignore the previous day. We headed up valley to below a likely looking snow chute descending the flank of Wilson and dived into the scrub. I hate scrub. Patches of crusty snow teased by nearly supporting the weight and then dumping you thigh deep into a bush. Slimmer members of the party made headway over it by thinking light and going on tippy toe but from here I can only recount the view from the back as I stomped through it bush by bush (not being one of the slimmer members). Once on the frozen snow proper it was possible to crampon up reasonably quickly in the shade. However as soon as the sun got to the snow it rapidly turned to bottomless mush. Frustratingly it preserved the others earlier crampon marks in the crust showing that it once had offered some support whilst now having the consistency of baby food. Having never enjoyed wading in baby food I descended. Meanwhile the others had made reasonable time and topped out on Wilson. The ridge onward was corniced and snow softening fast so a return to the Edwards was chosen. At least the soft snow permitted a fairly painless (excepting one crampon point going where the sun don’t shine) bum slide descent in varying styles.
I am thinking of returning to Scot/Wilson for a slow trip in October. If any one is interested they contact me through here.
Thanks again to Steve Marcham for leading. Also present were Mitchel Coll, Peter Daws, Jeremy Parker, Laurayne Robb, Matthew Robertson and Warren Soufflot.
