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Climbing Little Peel in South Canterbury

  

Two hours drive from Christchurch is Peel Forest. There are many easy walks that can be done. This was not one of them.

 

Having been conned into a one day trip out of the city we drove down to Peel forest to climb a mis-named "Little Peel" Mountain. As we neared the mountain we joked to ourselves that at least we didn't have to climb that - pointing to the huge mountain outside the car window. Poor deluded fools.

 

The first 1/3 of the track was an easy walk through low forest with occasional glimpses of the landscape. This was followed by a more strenuous climb along the ridge covered in mountain tussock. The final climb consisted of ridge walking up the side of the mountain to the summit, where a small hut clung to the side of the mountain 20 meters from the Trig.

 

We survived the Up very well considering our unfitness. The day was spectacularly beautiful with perfect temperature and no wind (amazing in itself). At that stage we were only mildly tired and enjoyed our lunch on the summit. Other trampers on the track wisely returned to the car park back down the track we had all ascended. Our team decided to follow a hunters route, marked for "experienced trampers only".

 

We first realized we were in for a tough time when we had to climb down small cliff faces following a track a mountain goat would be nervous on. The steepness of the downhill never let up leaving us with shaking knees once we hit the forest about 2/3 of the way down.

 

In the forest we lost the track and bushcrashed through the valley scrub and forest until we met the stream and found  the  track on the opposite side. We  were all thankful to make it back to the car in one piece. We suffered the next day walking around like elderly crippled people.

 

Click on  pictures below to see  enlarged

Nice vista

From about 1/3 the way up.

The Intrepid Climbers

Taken about 1/2 way up, before we really started to work.

Our first view of the summit

I didn't believe it when I first saw where we had to go. This is taken from the same place as the last pic.

The last part of the climb

The final 1/3 of the climb was up the ridge. We went over the ridge behind

Little Peel Hut

Just below the summit sits the hut with solar powered radio.

The Summit

Just above the hut is the most fantastic view of South Canterbury

Southern Alps

View from the summit

North along the Alps

View from the summit

The Hunters track

We decended down a route that was vague at the best and disappeared near the bottom. It followed the ridgeline and went through the valley at the bottom.

1/2 way down looking back up

It was so steep!!! Never go up it!

 

 

Other sites featuring this tramp:

The history of the Peel Forest area

Good information on Peel Forest