Went into Nelson Lakes with Fred to hike from Sabine Hut to Angelus Hut after getting a water taxi to the first hut. We had plans on going up Mt. Angelus itself, but that got shut down by time and my crampons.
The hike out from Lake Rotoroa was pretty brutal - pretty much a goat trail up through swampy roots, mud, and broken trees. Once we hit the tree line and got onto rock and snow, it was better.
Once the snow started we threw on crampons and took out the axes. I thought I had awesome new spiffy crampons, but they completely let me down and were floppy and threatened to come off on their own. The wind, the variable snow, and the views were pretty cool going over to Angelus Hut.
Once at hut we got to making food and tea, and Fred tried to coax a fire out of 3 pieces of wet wood. Eventually it got going and lasted until after midnight. Two other people showed up at the hut, but were lacking spikes and axes, so they were a little concerned getting out in the morning.
It was a super clear night and you could see tons of stars and a half moon.
In the morning we left pretty early after eating gruel and having tea & coffee. We, well, Fred, helped the two up the hill and over to the Speargrass track. We were surprised they had made it in via the Robert Ridge, it was really slick.
After a few hours of cramponing and adjusting crampons and taking pictures we made it past the snow and onto the easy track. We had to walk out about 3km on the road to the car as we couldn’t get a pickup from the taxi folks at the actual parking lot. After changing into less stinky clothes we got pizza in St. Arnaud and booked it home.
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