Weekend Trip - Friday 9th to Sunday 11th November 2007

This trip was a beauty, and I felt sorry for everyone who wasn’t there. The Saddle Cone trip took 10 hours.
We walked down from Mem Hut to the Ridge track beside the Chateau, along the ridge, over ridges to the Wairere Stream and beyond, and over the plateau past a flock of black-backed gulls. We climbed up and looked down into the Saddle Cone crater. Then we walked out via the Wairere Stream to the Round the Mountain Track. We were blessed with bright sunlight and no wind all day, and all the hills looked unrealistically close.

The Stanton Memorial trip took five hours, again in bright sunlight. We walked in on the Round the Mountain Track west from Mem Hut. In the Whakapapaiti Valley, we turned up to the waterfalls and cliffs at the top of the valley, and then up steep sections of our route on to the plateau. We were pleased when we found some edelweiss growing in the crevices on the south side of a rocky cliff. The Stanton memorial plaque has been partly broken by someone with an ice axe trying to steal it, which enraged me. Young Stanton was on a University Field Club trip, and died while going for help for the rest of his party. Between Mem Hut and the memorial there are several big and little gullies which we enjoyed crossing.

I was impressed with Sue’s routes, which she had recc'ied.

We were: Sue Grant, Athol Berry, Bruce Calvert and Claudia Edwards