I spent this weekend walking in the Hopkins Valley with a group from university. On saturday, we enjoyed good weather most of the way up the valley. I couldn’t be bothered taking my boots off for the river crossings, so spent the entire weekend wearing soaking boots; this is starting to become a regular event, but wasn’t a real problem this time around.

Light showers came in from the north when we started the ascent to Dasler Bivouac, which is a steep 600 metre climb from the valley floor. The bivvy was a minor disappointment; the slushy rain, and surrounding cloud blocked out what would have been nice views of the Dasler Pinnacles. It was a fun cliimb up though.

When we got back to the valley floor, the forecasted southerly front began approaching. It started snowing proper about 7pm while we were eating dinner. I went outside around 8am on sunday morning to a bitterly cold wind and reasonably heavy snow. For some reason the air temperature was quite mild, so only about 5cm of snow had settled overnight. The trip ended with a three hour walk back to the cars, though wind, snow and a few cold rivers. I found this part of the trip quite enjoyable, for some reason.