I went down to Wanaka to do a guided climb of Mt. Aspiring. The drive down was pretty and then there was a crepes stand in Wanaka that had Nutella. We took a helicopter up to the side of the glacier to hike over to Colin Todd Hutt where we’d use as our base camp.
After dumping our gear in the hut and claiming a few berths we headed up the route to set in some tracks. On the way my feet started to hurt a ton and I had to stop frequently. On the way down from our high point I pulled the plug as I wouldn’t be able to do a 12 hour day if my feet hurt after 10 min of climbing. The guide, also named Sam, called the helicopter service and booked a flight out for the next day.
We went back to the hut and lazed around and ate dinner while climbers streamed in to get bunks. The Kea birds were in full form and hunted around for anything left lying around - they sound like cats. In the morning after little sleep we geared up and headed back across the glacier for a flight out. We went from freezing weather in parkas to being on the valley floor in the heat in about 5 minutes.
I got more Nutella crepes.
