This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
In early February, four enthusiast it friends headed ‘south to test their strength in the Mount Cook National Park. After an hysterical night of wine and homer ade pasta in Christchurch, we were off to a good start; our onjective was to climb the Footstool, head up the Hooker and over the Copland, up Scotts Creek to climb Sefton, then oyt to the West Coast, Eager to begin fulfilling our res we headed up the __. Footstool early on day 2. Our-efforts were thwarted, 12.22." however, by the onset of bad weather from the west. After a play amoregat the crevasses, we decided we'd better pack it in. Tough! We thought it better not to spend time » awaiting - a } Pete day and headed back down to the Hooker's . Once back down in the vais, the weather cleared to rover! a better day ., arn! Never mind, the fo-l opland was: OK, Rough we chose the hardest route across — we still had" ‘to test our strergn after all. I guess it doesn't pay to det too hung up, about peakbashing. It's good to be out in the wilderness: being close to Mother Nature. Weli... One of us hada bit of a> fright with * Mother Nature's rocks and got ‘into a bit of head bashing instead. You can't take anything for granted, Can you? And black eyes: are quite becoming. ste The Copland accomplished, we headed up Scott's Creek to the top of ‘the ridge from where we Banned: to climb Sefton. A’ rugged but. spectacular place. oe Our climb of Sefton turned into an epic day.. We began with a beautiful morning and enjoyed working our way from Welcéme . Pass, across the Douglas River and onto the Sierra Rahge’'- = and beautiful views. But, at the base of the final 500m * climb, we were again beset with signs of bad weather. Being: the thoughtful and sensible people we are, we decided to leaw the summit for another time and turn back. Just as well. We had to negotiate our way across the Tekano Glacier in... whiteout conditions.
Late that night we got back to sur camp and spent the night fending off the rain. I can recommend the Welcome Pass hot pools, where we soaked off the grime. A wonderful place! I can also recommend the pools at Fox Glacier, where we also had a "soak" , concluding that despite the fact thet we hadn't quite met our objectives, we'd had an excellent 10 days. After all, you need “ morethan just "brute" streng thin the ROBES SAA Here's hoping we can head Yewn there again soon, Mose on the trips. ‘Dale Parsons, Kirsty woods, Sué ait nt, and AngebaiRaimiiens spotty ak aay