This text was read by OCR from a scanned newsletter and has not been proofread yet, so expect odd characters and mistakes.
by Sharron Came
At Queens Birthday weekend we set off to climb Mt Ella, 2263m, the highest peak in the Ella Range, accessed from the D’Urville Valley in Nelson Lakes National Park.
The trip to the edge of Lake Rotoroa went smoothly. We poured out of the various vans into the rain and looked around for somewhere to sleep. Peter from Nelson Lakes Shuttles had kindly arranged for both an old DoC sleeping quarters and a large tool shed to be left open for us to use. Most made good use of these dry spaces. Unfortunately for Paul an allergy to mice droppings meant he had to search harder for dry accommodation. Fortunately Paul is not short of ingenuity and he soon found a historic wooden kayak, nicely mounted under a shelter in the campground and affording luxurious lakeside views to bed down in. In the morning it wasn't yet raining and the first group of trampers caught the first water taxi. We were scheduled for the second water taxi so filled in our time admiring Paul's accommodation. Soon we were safely across the lake and having a brew in the company of some fishers in D'Urville Hut. One of them had an interesting camouflage inspired outfit the finer detail of which may have been lost on his piscine prey. We left a few bits of gear in the hut and headed up the D’Urville valley. Not long after we left the rain joined us and accompanied us all the way to Morgan Hut which we reached in fairly short order.
The D'Urville valley is similar to the Travers valley except that it is more beautiful and tends to be less populated by trampers. For these reasons it was a pleasure to walk up despite the rain. Particularly enjoyable was the visual feast created by the vast array of fungi which managed to cover every shade of the rainbow except red. (For red fungi I suggest you try the under the pine trees on the way to Scotts Knob).
We had an early lunch at the new Morgan hut then headed on up to Ella Hut. Actually Ella hut has been renamed in memory of someone whose name I can't recall. The hut is clearly not on DoC's top 100 list in terms of maintenance priority but it does have a certain character. There is a fireplace and stove in one piece of the hut and this is where we based ourselves for; socialising once some firewood had been gathered. Most of us elected to sleep in the other part of the hut which was a bit lighter although full of leaks. It was about then that we discovered one member of our party had neglected to bring their part of the communal dinner and that Tony had put his walking pole through his dinner bowl which also served as his mug. Nothing could be done about the missing dinner ingredients but Tony made a valiant attempt to plug his bowl. On his second attempt at patching, the bowl almost didn't leak as much as the part of the hut we were sleeping in.
The forecast hadn't been good so we decided that Tony as trip leader would have the job of waking up at the crack of dawn to check the weather. If it looked clear he would wake us up and we would head for the summit of Mt Ella. If it lboked less than clear we would sleep in. Either way Tony was in charge of making the morning brew even though we all knew it would flow straight out of his bowl-cup. With the important stuff settled Paul set off with his orange bivy bag in search of some nice wet grass to repose in and the rest of us retired to our leaky bedroom.
We awoke to Tony's excited declaration that conditions were favourable for a summit bid. We set off at 6.20am our head torches glowing in the darkness, Paul in front. The first bit of the walk is on a track then we veered off to bash up some thin bush to a basin. This particular bit took us a couple of hours and by the time we climbed over avalanche debris into the basin it was light and there was a chilly wind blowing in our faces. After a quick snack we headed upwards towards the snow we could see in the distance. After another couple of hours we were climbing steadily up snow covered rocks and feeling the heat. Eventually as magnificent views back down the valley opened up, we paused to put on our crampons and checked out the permanent snowfield in front of us, one of only two in the Park.
The snow was fairly soft and we slipped and slid our way upwards as Mt Ella’s peaks unfolded. The more gentle north peak was off to our right but we knew that Tony was determined to climb the higher south peak. We arrived at the crux of south peak at midday about 7 hours after we left Ella Hut. We had a quick snack and admired the view as the front two roped up. Paul led the first pitch up a knobbly bit and out of sight. He made it look very easily and was calling back to say he was safe in no time at all. I was already starting to have second thoughts about going any further so acting quickly David attached both myself and himself to the rope and we set off. David moved up quickly. I moved up rather more slowly doing my up most to talk myself out of making it over the first step, subsequently to be christened “Sharron’s step” by my trip mates waiting patiently below me as I gave a text book demonstration of how to make negotiating a straightforward piece of climbing while on a rope look virtually impossible.
Fortunately my effort didn’t deter anyone else and everyone made quick, drama free progress up to our first belay point and from there David led a traverse then an upward pitch to the summit of Mt Ella. We all followed without incident and were on the top together by about 1.30pm. There was a bit of cloud beginning to build up below us but we were lucky enough to be treated to stunning views of the surrounding mountains and rivers. We ought to have waved to our colleagues on Mt Misery and Mt Watson but in the excitement of the moment we forgot. Paul and I led the charge back down to our first belay point using our prussics for additional safety. Once we all reached the belay point most of us down climbed using the rope with the last person abseiling off “Sharron’s Step”.
Time was of the essence now if we were to minimise the amount of walking we'd be doing in darkness so the first people off the ropes kept heading down and eventually we regrouped as we came off the last of the snow coated rocks. Rob had pushed on ahead with the promise of getting the fire going and a brew on. The rest of us enjoyed a quick lunch at 4.30pm. After lunch we resumed our descent eventually piling back into the bush just as darkness was starting to win the battle with daylight. We made rapid progress though and made it to the bridge across the side stream, and the track before we needed to pull out our head torches. The last half hour to forty five minutes was probably the most arduous of the entire day as we battled a muddy up and down track back to the hut.
On Monday we were treated to fine weather again and were therefore able to meander back to Lake Rotoroa taking loads of photos of the fascinating fungi and enjoying the beauty of the D’Urville river without the rain for company. Those of us back at the lake head first caught the first water taxi back across the lake and walked to a nearby backpackers for coffee and muffins. Not long afterwards all the various tramping parties were reunited and we headed back to Wellington. A perfect three days tramping only slightly marred by the disappearance of Rob's camera.
My travelling companions were Tony Gazley, Laurayne Robb, David Jewell, Rob Cross, Alison Stevenson and Paul Grimwood. Big thanks to Tony for leading what was a fantastic trip.