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Welcome to my Gemini capsule. I am a Science and Physics teacher from Christchurch, New Zealand who writes code in his spare time, but would really rather be outside doing almost any type of sport! 🏔 🏃♂️ 🎿 🛶 🚴♂️ 🧗 🧘♂️
We set off for this trip excited for a nice ovrenighter near Christchurch. I had convinced the others that we should consider putting the tents into the car in case there are lots of cars at the carpark and we feel like we should bring them. Once we arrived at the carpark someone asked _"Did we have to book the hut?"_, and it turns out, yes we did have to book the hut, and no I didn't do that. It had been a few years since I did this track and I hadn't thought about that! We checked the DOC website for Pinnacles Hut and turns out it was full! We packed both the tents along with all our climbing gear and were fully laden.
The track starts in some beautiful dense bush where it climbs steeply up from Sharplin Falls Carkpark to Duke Knob. Later on the track will spend some time in the river, but for now it has to go around Sharplin Falls and Gold Smith Rapids.
Image: Tessa climbing towards Duke Knob.
After passing Duke's Knob the track takes on a more sedate gradient but does vary in quality as it weaves across Bowyers Stream a few times before sidling along the true right. We were carrying a lot and moving pretty slow so the first day took some time.
We were pleased to find a number of camping spots upon arrival at the hut, and we managed to get two close together so we could hang out. We set up camp and then went to go and look at The Pinnacles for some rock climbing 🧗🏻♂️! The route we attempted to take up to them was not ideal but we did find a nice single-pitch route to have a climb on that evening. We decided that we would leave The Pinnacles until tomorrow. Tom and I did Strong and Silent on The Hut Pinnacle, but we were just happy to practice our rope work before our first multi-pitch tomorrow.
Image: Pinncales Hut visible from The Pinnacales themselves.
Image: Finn climbing a nice warmup on Saturday.
Image: Tom following on the same route.
On Sunday Tom and I headed out to try a multipitch climb on the West Pinnacle - Zephyr. It's a breeze, climbing wise, but we want to be able to focus on the ropework so that was perfect. In the end we sent it pretty quickly and had a fun abseil down. While we were climbing that route some other guys were climbing Central Pinnacle - we were tempted but were a bit nervous about trying to send a 20 on lead and getting suck half way up the pinnacle. In the end we decided to leave it for another time!
Jen and Tessa hung out at camp and packed up while we were climbing, so by the time we got back we were mostly ready to go! Tessa's pack got divvied up to the rest of us to make her walk back easier. Cute photo at the hut taken we were ready to head back!
Image: Cute hut photo before heading out!
Image: Tom keeping his feet dry.
The trip back was faster - aided both by the downhill and Tessa with a slightly lighter pack. All in all, a fun overnighter with some climbing. A rare treat!
Strong and Silent on The Hut Pinnacle
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