Mt Cloudsley, Canterbury, New Zealand
MT CLOUDSLEY
MID CANTERBURY
Location:
Mid Canterbury
Drive to Castle Hill, through the village, and park at the bottom of the Hogs Back track.
Time:
6.45 hours return.
Steeper, unmarked trail. With dog and photos.
Bit of snow, a wrong turn and some loose scree to deal with.
Difficulty.
Moderate.
Dogs:
Under effective control.
It was the middle of winter, but I could see on the Castle Hill webcams that there wasn’t too much snow on the mountain, and hiking it would still be possible. It was a beautiful clear day with no wind and the sun was pleasant. Perfect hiking conditions.
I started up the Easy Hogs Back uphill track (don’t try walking up the downhill track, you’ll get hit by a cyclist). Once I left the forest I followed the wrong track back into the forest (cos it looked like a good track) instead of following up the Long Spur track it sidled around into the valley, back into the forest, and began to lose elevation. When I realized that it was definitely not the right approach, I’d gone pretty far and didn’t want to backtrack and lose ground - so I just picked a line and went straight up. It was very steep, icy, frosty, and difficult. I would NOT recommend doing this. Just go up the spur.
Once on the spur, the line is pretty obvious. We stopped at 1833m, just before it got too snowy.
Didn’t see another person until I got back to the car. Which was good, because Charlie was barking a lot.
First up the iPhone dump, then we’ll crack into the Z50 photos.
Charlie is ready to go, or ready to start barking. Hard to tell.
The many handsome poses of Charles.
The snow was simultaneously soft yet very slippery.
A bit of light and shadow play on the rocks.
Beautiful sunset light.
Beautiful Popsicle Splash last light skies in the mountains.