Scotties Freezes His Piglets

Nuns Veil, Mount Cook National Park,
24th-25th August 2007
Story by Tessa Bunny
with Scott Taylor (the young one!) and Paul Mason

After my arm being twisted…

Tossing up on the option of the Stewart Island Singles Ball, the boys convinced me ‘the odds are good but the goods are odd”. I agreed and was on a trip with 4 guys and wasn’t complaining!!! 2 from Wgtn section, 2 from Canterbury and me-a new member of Otago NZAC.

We met up late Thursday night in Unwin Hut. Had a leisurely start the next day, crossing a partially frozen but a forceful Tasman River – all five of us linked up. I pointed to Gorilla Stream, assured the guys it was the right one- but was a little anxious as it looked very different to high flow stream in summer. I had been up Nuns Veil in the summer and had got within 200m of the summit before hitting a gnarly bergshrund and turning around. This time in late winter, the river was lower and quicker to move up- it was possible to even keep dry feet. There is a small track on the true right, which avoids the large boulders. The stream runs dry early. All the south eastern slopes had avalanched. 2-3m high debris, and we were aware of some rock fall on the west.

We got to the bivvy rock about in about 3.5 hours and continued up towards the saddle to camp for the night.

Paul dragged us all up the glacier, plugging through calve- knee high great powder ski slopes- … where were my skis!!! We found a camp site on the saddle and dug a trough and pitched our tents.

The temperature dropped quickly and a cold biting wind began, our boots and socks were frozen together and we couldn’t get our feet out, without leaving our socks in our boots. Snow drift was coming into our tent and it was proving difficult to cook anything. At least we were cosy 3 of us in a 2 man tent and a humorous night.

In the morning, snow drift right surrounding the tent, we used knives to pry our boots open and remove the frozen socks. After 1 hour of little success we tried to heat them in our sleeping bags and use a bottle filled with hot water! Wallah!!! our boots could be fitted!!

We moved along the ridge then had an exposed traverse under rock crop and steep slope to the summit. A good biting cold wind but blue sky. The bergshrund and crevasses were covered in snow over winter. Timtams were shared on top, Paul belayed me down a pitch to the traverse.

Scott had came down early before the summit with cold feet. Paul and I arrived back at the tent with the others had packed up, and we learned that Scott’s toes were not looking good due to FROSTNIP- and they quickly headed down the mountain. Luckily Scott’s feet began to dethaw, but was a painful experience

We ascended down quickly, and crossed the Tasman River in the dark and back to Unwin Hut, and walking into a 21st party looking a bit bedraggled.