My aim for the first day of 2011 was to climb Mount Bonpland, a 2340 metre peak about an hour’s drive from Queenstown. Possibly a bit too ambitious for my first solo mountaineering trip, as it turns out, as I only made it to 1600 metres before packing it in.

I was working from a two-sentence description from the NZAC Aspiring mountaineer’s guide, something along the lines of ‘Follow Glacier Burn until snow slopes below east face are reached, then climb prominent couloir to north ridge’.

Reaching said snow slopes turned out to be a bit tricky, although I probably chose the wrong line to reach them; I decided to head straight up the true-left of the stream (the one just left of centre in the last photo), but found myself stuck near the top, between the stream and a sheer rock face. With my only option to cross the stream, over some very steep and slippery rocks, I chose to head back down, as I hadn’t left enough time to try another route.

Still, I got some awesome views, and had a relaxing new year’s eve camping at the treeline. I think Bonpland is best left until a bit later on in summer, when there’s a bit less snowmelt.