Day two-rest day

Today turned into a forced rest day. The effort of getting up that hill yesterday had a roll on effect. I hardly slept through the night. I couldn't eat much and I felt so rundown. To top it the cold air had effected my lungs and through the night I had a chesty cough.
I woke in the morning feeling just as tired and there was no way I was taking on that hill again. I informed Tim I was having to sit the day out and he suggested if felt better during the day to walk up onto black peak ridge.

The rest of the group headed out and i sadly waved goodby. I'd saved and planned for this trip for years and felt broken in spirit to not be going but I had also finally reached my limit and believe it may have been a disaster had I tried to push through. Instead I cleaning the hut I went back to bed.

The previous day I had to clean the toilet! Have you ever had to clean a toilet that looked like this.


I had already cleared half of the snow out before I took the photo.

A few hours later I woke back up,had some coffee and food and felt like a new person.
It took about an hour to get all my layers on,including a full set of thermals, a base layer of fleece top and over pants then a windproof jacket a storm jacket, two pairs of socks,plastic climbing boots and snow gaiters. Bernie,neck warmer and snow glasses,thin warm glove inners and weather proof outers finish the picture. After all that layering I was ready to set off to the ridge.






This is Black Peak ridge, to the left and out of this shot is Black Peak itself. Thats deep snow most of the way and at one stage I took to crawling as I was post holing too much. Problem with crawling is that your hands can then punch through the snow so every couple of steps I'd end up face down. Eventually I got to the top, it took about an hour or so and this is the view. Spectacular!



And looking back toward the hut.



That's it way off in the distance. However it was all down hill back to it so I was back in half the time. Just wish I had my ukulele as I was feeling very happy and a little strum would have completed what turned out to be a wonderful day.
The others returned to the hut around 7 pm. Exhausted! I played hut mother for them and had warm tea and soup in their hands before their boots were off.

Day three to follow and maybe even a bit of climbing!

Uke complete me!

Location:Wanaka