Avalanche Peak

Today was an early start, up at 6am and meeting the rest of the guys at the 'usual' spot at 7am ready to head off to Arthur's Pass. We arrived around the 10-10:30 mark and geared up. A short walk up the road and then onto the start of Scotts track for the 1000m vertical height gain (over approx 6km of walking) After about 20mins I was sweating profusely thinking I was about to have a bloody heart attack! but the beautiful views over Mt Rolleston & Rome Ridge made the pain disappear. About half way up we got to the snow and ice so it was out with the ice axe and crampons for the slog up to where we had lunch. There were six of us in the group, and unfortunately one had to turn back as she didn't have crampons, but the rest of us carried on across the ridge (with the weather now closing in) and finally made the summit after much sinking up to our waists in the snow drifts. When on the summit the weather really turned and became VERY windy and began to snow a lot, so we took some pics and quickly made our way down (where I managed to fall and rip a hole in my lovely new Gore-Tex overtrou whick REALLY f*$ked me off!!!) but we all got down safely and headed to the Wobbly Kea for some hot drinks before heading back to Christchurch. Basically a hell of a good day if you can handle the hard work, a must do and I am sure I will be doing it again.