December 10th, 2019
Before arriving at Mount Cook, I had read about a hike up to
Mueller Hut which was listed in a “Top Ten Things to do” in the area. You could book a bed in the hut as it was
part of a longer trail or you could just be doing an overnighter but it was
also possible to do the hike there and back in a day, albeit supposedly a long
day. I didn’t have the proper gear with
me to do an overnighter (read: no sleeping bag or small portable stove) so I
thought I’d try to do a day hike.
The first half of the trail was also known as “Sealy Tarns”
hike (a tarn being a small mountain lake).
This part of the hike was comprised of 2200 stairs. Yup you read that right, 2200 stairs. It climbed over 600 meters in a short
distance. Sounded interesting. It reminded me of a hike I did in 2010 in St.
Hillaire, France. I, along with 3 other
younger British paraglider pilots, climbed a pretty gruelling 750 meter ascent
from the valley up to a plateau where the annual Coupe Icare Festival is held
as there’s a large take off and small village.
The last 2/3s of the hike was just stairs that ran along the side of a funicular…a
stair master from hell. I envisioned the
same here but in actual fact it didn’t seem too bad.
The start of the hike:
The start of the stairs...
I began the hike at 7 am as the estimates for the out and
return to Mueller Hut was 6-8 hours. I
didn’t have high hopes of making it all the way to the hut as the latest report
from a ranger the day before was that there were a few spots from Sealy Tarns to
the Mueller Hut that had some avalanche concerns due to recent snowfall in the last
few weeks. This news was relayed to me by
a couple that were camped next to me who happened to be from Calgary. Cam and Leanne were spending 6 weeks on the south
island and it turns out that Cam played rugby against my high school (SMU). He’s four years older than me so he would have
been in grade 12 while I was in grade 9 and our 1st XV team that
year was really dominating…poor guy. A handful
of those players went on to represent Canada.
Look closely where the valley opens up, that's where the campground is.
On the gravel path from the campground, I noticed a small,
fresh looking poo just before I almost stepped in it. I immediately assumed it was from a small to
mid-sized dog that was hiking up with someone. “The nerve” I thought. C’mon people, pick up your dog poo! Ten minutes later I saw a few other little
droppings, then a few more. Boy, this
poor dog must be shitting itself about the hike it’s doing. Well I found yet more further up and finally
clued in that it must not be a dog, but the non-native and well hated by Kiwis…possum. Later I spoke to Cam and Leanne about it as
they also did the hike, but later in the day and Leanne was skeptical, it was
too big for a possum she thought. Well
the good ol’ Internet proved my case. Yes,
within one minute of searching I had a picture to match what we had seen on the
trail. I’m impressed how high up a
mountain these little fellers go!
As I climbed higher and higher, I couldn’t help but think of
how much work it must have been to make all of these stairs! Most comprised of a 2”x8” piece of board wedged
in vertically but there was also gravel almost all the way up. There was the odd gravel bag off to the side
of the trail and I’m sure a helicopter brought in the materials but still…lots
of work. I also thought of how much more
difficult the trail would have been without the stairs so thank you Department
of Conservation!
I reached the snowline and shortly after a couple of small
ponds that were covered in a white slushy looking ice. Nearby was a monstrous picnic table with a
stunning view of the area. “I guess these
are the tarns.” It was only 8 am! Huh, that didn’t take so long. I sat at the picnic table and took in the
vista. I heard some far-off rumbles a
few times and could see some small avalanches on nearby Mount Cook. The flow of the snow off some rockfaces
looked like a waterfall…I guess it is in a way.
One of the Sealy tarns:
I couldn't help...the inner boy in me wanted to come out.
Avalanche!
Not bad for propping my phone up against my backpack on the picnic table.
After a short break sitting down at the table, I decided to
see how far I could go on the trail towards the Mueller Hut. I hoped to at least make it to the crestline
to see over the other side of this ridge.
I only climbed another 100 vertical meters or so and saw a couple coming
down towards me. I decided to wait and
find out the situation from them. Tall
Simon with a neat beard but long hair up was from Germany and tiny Laurie with
blonde hair, from France. Both were
probably in their late 20s. The depth of
the snow had increased to the point that they were getting too wet and cold for
them to continue on. Since I was wearing
day hikers, I decided that was it for me too.
We descended to the picnic table and hung out for about half an hour.
The "trail" up to Mueller Hut, there were posts with orange markers every 100-200 meters.
As high as I went. You can see the little tarns on the bottom right.
Nice cloud stream over Mount Cook in the afternoon.
I ended up going into the nearby Mt. Cook village for a
shower then enjoyed an afternoon working on my blog, playing guitar and soaking
in the amazing views. I had hoped to see
some amazing stars at night in this area as there is next to no light pollution,
but wouldn’t you know it, we were only a couple of days away from a full moon…can’t
win them all.
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