Hamilton Peak Run

Had a great little run up the Craigieburn Valley yesterday. Started near Hwy 73, ran up the CVSC rd for a short while, then took the Craigieburn Valley Track that heads off to your left, following it for about 3.5km when it reaches the bottom of the CVSC access tow. From there a summer rd switch backs its way up to the day lodge. From there I scrambled across scree to the top of Hamilton Peak.

Me on Hamilton Peak

The run down was fast as I was able to move quickly down the soft scree, cutting the switch backs. It was pretty cool to see CVSC in the summer (but I do prefer it covered in snow), the summer Rd's, streams flowing, small rocks transformed in to big ones and especially the destruction from a very active avalanche season.

Hamilton Saddle and Hamilton Peak

The amount of trees that were plowed down form the slides off Hamilton is very evident now the snows gone and most impressive.

"Gods lawn mower", trees mowed down from 2 slide off Hamilton Peak during the winter. Construction of Chalet Jarman top left corner.

If you haven't seen it yet here's the poorly recorded video of the 2nd '08 monster slide of Hamilton. The first was 2 days earlier than this fella and was a simpathic release, the 2nd was from Heli bombing

Avalanche Peak Challenge Training

Been trying to get my training for the Avalanche Peak Challenge back on track this week after losing some focus on training with the move to a new house and work. Things seemed to come together well this week, with a 1hr30min around Craigieburn Valley, a 2hr run in the Port Hills and a run up Avalanche Peak today. I was feeling a bit tired after the 2hrs in the Port Hills on Wednesday, and went at a steady pace walking, not running up the Avalanche Peak track (its really steep!). I started to feel better as I got out of the trees, but still wasn't trying to really push it. I was sure I wouldn't get close to my fastest time, a touch under 1hr, which I did pre winter. So I was pretty surprised as I got to the final part of the climb, the somewhat knife edge ridge, with a little exposure, and looked at my Suunto and saw I had 3mins to spare to make it a sub 1hr trip to the top. When I stopped my watch, making the trip from the Arthur's Pass DOC center at 737m to Avalanche's 1833m summit in 58mins. I was quickly brought back to reality when the local "clown" in the DOC center told be he's done it in 54mins! Jane started out before me, feeling similar and had a similar result. She did the trip in 1hr20 last week and today was 1hr16min. Training is slowly getting back on track..........