Wedding Anniversary!
Chris and I celebrated our first Wedding Anniversary last weekend, and it was rather fitting that we were up at another wedding in the mountains, at one of our favourite spots - Mt Potts Station in the upper Rangitata River. The wedding was great, a mountain rogaine in fresh powder snow followed by a ceremony in the most spectacular setting you can imagine!
We drank mulled wine and got great views up valley towards Cloudy Peak. We schemed more exciting adventures to be had up that way and shared stories of adventures already had.
The following day Matt, La, Chris and I drove up to Mt Potts from Lake Clearwater where we had been staying. There was a thick blanket of cloud in the valley and all the mountains were shrouded in dark cloud. Everyone else had gone home already and feeling a little groggy from the all the mulled wine and dancing the night before, we were a little bit uninspired to go climbing mountains and the washing at home was almost calling us!!!!!
Luckily we held strong and got ourselves organised to head up Mt Potts. Skis were loaded on packs and we ambled up the abandoned ski field road. I reminisced on my childhood adventures up this road in the days when Erewhon Skifield was the coolest wee club in the Southern Alps.
The mountains stayed clagged in as we reached the old lodge site for sandwiches. Then we put on our skis and skinned on up. All of a sudden the sun was visible and we popped right out of the cloud. The sun was shining and as we neared the A-frame toilet in the upper basin we felt like we were in a magic land.
From there we skinned on up to the summit ridge, with the clouds swirling in and out. On the ridgeline we readied ourselves for the descent. We knew we would only get a small amount of visibility before dropping back into the clag, but we relished the sun rays and the fact that we were not at home sorting out piles of washing (-:
Preparing for the misty descent |
Matt and La getting organised at the top |
Nice snow, but difficulty discerning the ground from the sky! |
Matt enjoying the skiing |
Happy troops heading back down the Erewhon Skifield Road |
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