The original 52 Peaks Challenge. The entire list of 52 peaks from the 2013 film, documenting a personal challenge of growth by running up 52 mountains across Aoteraoa New Zealand within one year.
Who wants to walk in for 9 hours up a river valley into snowy and freezing conditions for the weekend? Yes, you guessed it… Peak 34 was a planned 3 day trek into Barker Hut in Arthur’s Pass National Park and a go at Mt Murchison on the middle day and Mt Harper on the […]
A gorgeous weekend where some of my friends went to the West Coast to tick off Mt Adams, I decided to have a weekend in Christchurch and complete a peak I’d tried once before, Mt Richardson (1047m). After hearing about the stunning conditions on Mt Adams, I’m a bit gutted I didn’t go but happy to have now completed my 33rd successful peak of the year!
Another week, another peak in the Craigieburns! Some great (ish) conditions led me to head out with a group of mates & Caralyn across the top of the ski fields towards Mt Cheeseman (2031m) and join them for some ski touring.
What were they thinking, naming a peak Nervous Knob? a quick Google search on the subject might not be the best idea… but I decided a Winter ascent of the peak was in order this weekend, standing at 1820m, it’s a peak of a pretty high order too. Having run across the ridgeline earlier in the year for Peak 7 & 8, I decided to go bag it on a far from fine Winter’s day.
A weekend away is always nice, especially into the mountains. Queenstown was the destination for a spot of mountain running, luging, frisbee golf and drinks thrown in too. A gathering of friends from around the world was an opportunity not to be missed. So there it stood on a Sunday evening, to the north… somewhere… with the rain lashing down on the cab window – “the weather is getting better” the driver said as we pulled into the hostel… I didn’t know whether it was his welcome to Queenstown speech or whether he knew what was happening, he was certainly wise enough.
After a week of recovery from Manakau, and with bad weather on the horizon, I decided to make the short trip to Lake Coleridge for another running peak, this time slightly less climb to Peak Hill (1240m), a classic Canterbury day walk.
The mountains are calling you… well that was the talk in the office this week. After copious amounts of persuasion (thank you Silvia) I decided to take on the task of climbing Manakau (2608m) with a couple of friends (in the end there were seven of us), the highest peak in the Seaward Range of the Kaikouras.
Getting my act together over Winter has been an interesting challenge. In the height of Summer I didn’t even regard Winter as a challenge (as we’d had a good 5 weeks of blue skies in January) so thought that I’d be able to manage it all the way through with no issues. How wrong I was… into July and a good 5 weeks behind schedule after a few failed attempts, things started to look ominous for the whole 52.
After last week’s rest and gap due to terrible weather in the mountains, I decided to get an easier peak, hopefully managing to run the whole thing too instead of wallowing in deep snow.
So the peak chosen was Mt Robertson (1047m), part of the Oxford range of hills near the Ashley River north of Oxford itself.
After the first heavy snowfalls the skifields were screaming. Not only did avalanches destroy a lot of the club field’s lift tows, but there were numerous stories of worse weather to come… and it always comes at the weekend to annoy those who work 5 day weeks!
After the heavy snows of the last week in June left a lingering sense in the air. I needed to take advantage of these conditions and get back into the mountains ASAP for an epic adventure.
The plan was worked on throughout the week with Dave (currently striving for twelve 2000m+ mountains in the year) and we had a summit, a route and a camp location for an overnight epic adventure.
So as New Zealand gets some of the worst snowfalls in the last two decades, the 52 Peaks Challenge must go on. With the rain pouring down in Christchurch, we set out early this weekend to try and conquer the snow and another summit.
With cross-country skis (for some) in tow and snow chains packed in the 4×4 our attempt was going to be on Mt Somers (1687m) in central Canterbury.
Woohoo! Back in Canterbury and ready for another peak. This time my old favourite, Ben More. I’ve tried on 2 previous occasions to tick off this mountain and it seems reluctant to want to be bagged… so I thought I’d try again this weekend.
It’s June 1st and it’s the official start date of Winter and time for Peak 21. Winter…? What Winter?
So Peak 20! How time flies… and up to Hanmer Springs once again (the alpine village holds numerous sporting events in the area throughout the year). The Mt Isobel Challenge was on today’s menu, a mountain/trail duathlon.