Mountaineering in New Zealand. This is our expedition to climb Mt Aspiring. The plan was two days of hiking, scrambling, and glacier travel to reach Colin Todd Hut, then a long summit push, then a hike out.
We got a good weather forecast window to start, but once we reached the hut we relied on the nightly park warden radio check-in for the latest update. The forecast shifted to strong winds and storms arriving on our planned climbing day, and sticking around long enough that waiting it out wasn’t an option. After talking it through, we chose the safer call and walked out the next morning.
Even without a summit, it was still a fun trip, big terrain, glacier travel, hut life, and the kind of decision-making that matters in the mountains. Mt Aspiring will be there next time.
