1/29 5:14pm, Mueller Hut
Back to writing on pen and paper… Slept well at the YHA. 11:15pm to 4:15am, then on and off till Wendy pokes my mattress from below at ~7:30am, cause she's ready ahead of the alarm (she had a long nap in the car yesterday). It's sunny outside! We load the car and head to the DOC at 8am, where we find several people already waiting at the door for Mueller Hut tickets. You can't reserve spots online, you have to show up in person the morning you want to stay there, and be one of the first 30 to sign up. We were numbers 9 and 10. We ate breakfast sitting on the floor in line. Yogurt for Wendy, cold cereal with jam for Matt, using cups and spoons from the hostel. By the time the DOC opened at 8:30, 21 people were in line. We filled out a form while waiting in line, which let us get our tickets right away. We then returned to the hostel, made our final pack adjustments, left some food in the fridge for our return tomorrow, and drove out to the Mt Cook Campground trailhead.
It was cloudy as we started hiking the Kealty trail, and took the fork for Mueller hut. The trail was extremely steep, with stone and wood steps installed for good footing, and didn't stop for next 3,300' up.
The trail led straight up for the most part. No switchbacks...
Mt Cook Village sits on the right edge of the valley...
The trail gains 1000m in 5.2km to the Mueller Hut...
It starts to drizzle after ~1hr, and we don our rain jackets. The trail is steep, but we snack on the way and rarely stop. The trail rises above the brush line, and we're now climbing with just the red-rust colored rocks in our field of vision.
We climb into the cloud, but once in awhile the sky turns bright white, as if the sun is almost burning through. Wendy slips and bangs her knee on a rock. I look back and see her get up, smile, shake her head, and continue chugging up the mountain.
Higher up, the vegetation disappears, and we look for the most stable path in the rock...
We reach the saddle, and follow the path around the backside of the crest, continuing further up the rocky ridge. After another 10 minutes, Wendy beckons me to go ahead to beat the crowd and claim good bunks. Her knee is hurting a bit. I offer to help her instead, but she'd rather have a good bunk, so I kick it in gear for the last 10 minutes to the hut, passing a few people, and arrive just in time to claim the best bunks in the room (against the wall, away from others).
The hut comes into view finally, and I high-tail it to claim some bunks...
Wendy arrives later, with considerable knee pain, but is happy with the bunk against the wall, with me next to her. I fill up a ziploc with snow nearby, and we sit out on the deck while she ices her knee. Within a few minutes, the skies start to clear, revealing amazing 180 degree views of glaciers on Mt Sefton, with Mt Cook (the tallest peak in NZ) to the right. WOW! You hear that this hike is scenic, but I didn't anticipate such a vista…
Mt Cook, the tallest peak in NZ starts to emerge...
Holy Cow! What a view from the deck! Glacier central!
We snack on eggs, jerky, chocolate, carrots, cheese. The skies continue to clear. The air is chilly at 1800m, with a slight breeze, but the sun is toasty.
Mt Sefton's dramatic glaciers sit right in front of us...
A wide view from the deck shows the toilet block on the left. A bit of a walk to use the restroom here...
I give Wendy a piggy back ride to the toilet block, where we discover special toilets for this hut. "Pee in the front, poo in the back." They need to fly the solid waste out by helicopter (at $2000/hr), but urine is safe for the environment, so separating the two saves a lot of money when 75% of excrement is liquid.
After carrying Wendy back to the hut deck, I explore the surroundings, looking for photo ops. When I return, people are sunbathing on the deck.
I walked over to get a closer view of Mt Sefton and the valley...
Looking back at Mueller Hut, with Mt Ollivier rising to the right, which was the 1st peak Sir Edmund Hillary climbed...
I climbed up a rock, and motioned for Wendy to take a pic of me...
Here's a pic of the Mueller Hut, from my position on the rock...
A close-up of the hut, with Wendy in the red jacket relaxing on a bench. Also a look down into the valley where we parked our car...
I started climbing Mt Ollivier, and admired the views...
A look from near the top of Mt Ollivier, to the south...
Man, is this an incredible view or what? The Mueller Hut is one amazing place to visit!
One last pic of the hut and surroundings, before returning...
This Mueller Hut was recently rebuilt in 2003, and was much more impressive than the Rees-Dart Huts...
The 30 bunks were laid side by side. Wendy slept against the wall, with me to her side. We hung out on the deck all afternoon, more than content to just sit and stare at the jaw-dropping views. Occasional avalanches only added to the entertainment...
The 6pm warden's meeting is soon. It's gonna be chilly here once the sun goes down. Wendy says my socks smell like lavender, since she spayed her essential oil in my shoe this morning.
Time to re-fill Wendy's snow bag. 8:07pm, Mueller Hut The warden gave a little speech about safety in the hut, info on the surrounding area, and how she's a volunteer warden, spending the week up here. There's no water faucets in the sinks here. The water is in large rain water barrels outside with a tap at the bottom. You have to fill your bottle, and bring it in to use. There are 12 gas burners here, which we're using to cook dinner, and to boil lots of water for honey tea. With Wendy immobile, I cooked up a WG dinner with fresh tomatoes, scallions, dehydrated yams, and canned salmon. Wendy ate most of it, while I worked on separating the foil from my chocolate bar (which got infused in the heat over the past couple days), and blended it into the last of my peanut butter. We drank lots of hot honey water afterwards.
At 7pm, the hut radio came alive with tomorrow's weather forecast. Surprise! Drizzle in the a.m., rain in the p.m., heavy rain in the evening! Heavy gale force winds all day too! That wasn't expected based on the forecast we had yesterday. We'll have to get an early start down the mountain tomorrow.
It's still calm and mostly clear out now, an hour before sunset. Should get a nice sunset on Mt Cook. People are relaxing in the common room, reading, and playing solitaire. We saw a huge avalanche on the glacier this evening. The snow forked many times down the mountain. Wonder how cold it will be tonight, and if I'll want to try some night pics outside. I hauled up the full tripod. Waiting a bit to use the bathrooms. Don't want to have to go during the middle of the night here. Plus, I'll have to carry Wendy. She should be good to climb down tomorrow, with some ibuprofen. It's just a bad bruise. This is the 5th version of the Mueller hut. The 2nd version of the hut was built from supplies delivered by parachute, with people using the wood bundles as a sled, and steering them down the snow to the desired location while glissading. Ironically, it was wiped out by an avalanche ~1927 before it was even used. The current version was relocated in a safe spot on the ridge, and took 130 flights to deliver the supplies, costing $400,000NZ. 2:15am, Mueller Hut (mental log later transcribed)... Sunset was excellent tonight. Clear skies, alpenglow on Mt Cook, and pleasant weather. Hard to believe the nasty forecast in store for tomorrow.
The calm weather made it hard to believe that gale force winds forecast were forecasted for tomorrow morning...
Mount Cook, 3754 metres (12316 ft), at sunset...
I piggy backed Wendy to the bathrooms. She said she could walk, but it would hurt. I think she just wants to take advantage of free piggy back ride offers. We're not worried about tomorrow's steep descent. It's just a bruise, and we'll make it down, even if it takes awhile.
Solar powered lights in the rooms here are convenient.
Went to bed ~10:15pm, wearing my long underwear, pants, and rain pants, so I'll be ready to hop out of bed and take some star shots during the night. I packed all my camera gear outside the door too. I didn't expect to sleep much, as I waited for the dark night sky, but next thing I know, I woke up and it was 1:15am. Perfect timing. I noticed the guy sleeping in the mattress next to me was heartily encroaching onto my mattress.There was a new sound in the air, wind! It screamed outside, and I realized I would likely need to stay close to the hut, on the deck tonight. I quietly left the room, donned my jackets and boots, and entered the wind torn deck. The skies were full of stars, and the milky way. I noticed Orion. It was too dark to make out Mt Cook. I found a wind sheltered spot on the north side of the hut and set up my tripod. However, I couldn't figure out how to use my remote shutter control (battery might be dead), and was limited to 30 second exposures at high ISO. Bummer.
My photo attempts with a 30 second exposure. The night sky, without a moon, was the most star filled sky that I've seen...
I took advantage of the opportunity to pee off the deck before returning back to bed ~2:15am. I could hear the wind raging outside while laying in my bunk, even while wearing ear plugs…