Jeepers, Eh? What a Hoot!: Walking in a Winter Wonderland

"How was my weekend?", many of you have asked me this week. Pretty. Damn. Epic. Here's a preview (It's better with sound...):

This weekend I went tramping for the very first time along the Routeburn Track with three coworkers - Jen, Mike, Nick- and one of my colleague's husbands- Keith.

During the hike, Nick asked me, "So, this is your first hike? What have you been doing all your life?" He definitely had a point, and I am hoping this hike won't be my last, but the idea of sleeping outside had just never been an idea that I pursued.

My time on the Routeburn Track really began as soon as I boarded the Air New Zealand flight in LA. The safety video features Bear Grylls as he runs along the track and gives safety instructions for your flight. It's a pretty good video - take a look:

Two days after landing in New Zealand, Sarah told me about the office trip to the Routeburn Track. Desperate as I was to make friends, I signed up immediately without realizing what I was getting myself in to.

As the trip grew closer, I realized I didn't have any supplies. I confided this in a colleague, who ultimately lent me most of the supplies I needed. Jen had all the planning and food prep under control, I bought the remaining items I needed, and before I knew it the day of the trip had arrived. At the base of the track, I put on my borrowed pack for the first time, and when Mike asked me how it felt, I replied, "Well it feels strange.. but I've also never worn a pack like this before." And with that, we locked the car and started walking, knowing (well, hoping) that our car would be waiting for us at the other end of the track. (Routeburn is a 3-day hike in one direction, so we left the key in a lockbox and an envelope of cash in the glove box, for a relocation service to drive our car to the other end -- only in New Zealand)

Here We Go!

The first day was great. We walked for about 3.5 hours at, apparently, a very quick speed, as the estimated time for our hike was 5-6 hours.

Summit Key

The track is one of the "Great Walks" in New Zealand so the there are huts on it, serviced by a warden. I was not expecting much more than a roof with some bunks under it, but the hut had walls as well, so I thought I had hit the jackpot!

That's the Guided Walks Hut ($1500 per person for a three course meal and warm shower) ... Ours it right behind it

The first level had benches surrounding tables, a small fire in the center, and lots of gas stove top areas for food prep. Above the common area, was the bunk room. On one side of the room, there were typical camp style bunk beds, but on the other side of the room, where the five of us chose to sleep, were about 15 twin size beds pressed next to each other, making a giant bed for 15 people. The five of us put our stuff down, set out for a little more hiking, and then finally settled in around the fire for the weather report from the warden. The warden's weather report was an absolute riot, but the bottom line was, "Tonight there will be rain and gale force winds and tomorrow, when the wind stops, it's going to snow." Plain and simple, flurries tomorrow.

We woke up the next day, excited for some snow flurries on our way up to the saddle. As we walked up the mountain, we all commented on how strange it was to be in "fairy land", while it's snowing AND we're feeling a bit warm in all of our gear.

Fairy Land

That feeling didn't last too long, and as soon as we rounded the corner of the mountain, we were most certainly not warm, and it was most certainly NOT a rainforest. The weather got progressively worse and worse, and about 2/3 of the way up the mountain all of our cameras went away. The snow was no longer fun to document, it was just miserable, and we needed to get through it.

At the top of the saddle was a shelter, which we used to warm up and have some tuna sandwiches. The way up was pretty tough, but with the weather getting worse, and cold wet gloves that had to put back on, the way down was guaranteed to be 100x worse.

And it was. I walked out of the shelter with my wet gloves on, and about 100 m in, I turned around and told Mike and Jen, that I didn't think I was going to make it. Unfortunately, when you're on a one-way track, and you've already made it to the top of the mountain, more than 50% of the way there, saying you aren't going to make it really isn't an option. So we truged on, Mike kindly staying with me the whole way. About an hour and a half later, as I was feeling stuck, carefully selecting the next place for my foot to go, I look up, and who do I see but Nick and Keith. Nick, Keith, and Jen had gone ahead as fast as they could to get out of the weather, but when they all met at the hut, Nick and Keith decided to come back to make sure I was OK. Seeing them brought a really big smile to my face. Keith told me it would be easier to get down without my pack, and took it from me, and in less than five minutes the four of us completed the hike together.

I'd like to say that that's where this ends, that we got to the hut, the fire was blazing, we dried all of our clothes, and lived happily ever after. But that wouldn't be the truth. We got to the hut to discover that unlike the last hut, the bunk room was not on top of the common space with the fire, but NEXT to it, meaning it was entirely unheated. And too few people had gotten to the hut before us to have bothered with a fire. Even more so than at Harris Saddle, I did not think I was going to make it. From that point we were only three hours from the end of the track, and I really just wanted to go for it and get out. But we didn't know if our car would be there, and we had already changed to dry clothes and unpacked our sleeping bag -- we were definitely staying the night. Keith and Nick set to tending the fire, and after a solid effort, a few other participants, and five hours time, we had a fire.

Around 7 pm, we got our safety talk from the hut warden. He told us that if anyone had predicted the amount of snow that we had seen that day, the track would've been closed. Knowing that the conditions were actually as bad as I thought they were, I felt a little tougher for having made it through. Around that time the fire started working. Though I still didn't know if I would freeze at night, things were starting to look a little brighter.

The next morning we woke up early and... THE SUN WAS OUT. It was absolutely incredible. The view was stunning and we could see mountains we didn't even know were there the day before.

View upon walking out of the bunk room. Couldn't see as far as the first line of trees the day before.

Knowing the end was near, and that we would probably never be back, we decided to backtrack and see what we missed. This was honestly the best part of the trip and made it all worth it. The day after the blizzard was beautiful! We took in the view, threw a few snowballs, and headed down the mountain.