(Kind of Near) Thesis Peak

Tagging along with James and his thesis to do an old CUTC challenge to climb Thesis Peak. As is tradition, we failed, but a fun day out stretching the legs.

Xander Wijninckx

Hike

Thesis Peak - Attempt #1

James and I somehow managed to leave Bealey Hut at precisely 5 am, a feat of organization not always achieved on these sorts of weekend missions. We quietly got ourselves ready outside the hut, leaving two others sleeping, and donned light packs in the moonlight before heading up through the forest track to Lagoon Saddle. When stars disappeared and the sun finally hit us, we were most of the way up mid hill on a gorgeous clear morning.

We were enjoying the good late autumn conditions, minimal snow, firm but not icy, and a stunning sunrise. We navigated a more technical section on the ridge across to Mid Hill, leaving the ridge in one narrow spot with particularly crumbly Arthur's Pass choss and unpleasant icy looking rocks. Exciting stuff I'm sure for those with more of a head for heights.

But then we met a much easier section of ridge and got some very enjoyable alpine strolling in.

We quickly realised that our estimated 11-12 hour day was shaping up to be more like a 14+ hour sufferfest. Not being in the mood for quite that level of masochism, we enjoyed the view with our first stop longer than a couple of minutes for the day, and then retreated back to Mid Hill

We had a little bit of a peek around the sides of Mid Hill and suspect that sidling down on the south side of the peak at at around the 1620m contour, and ascending back towards the ~1680m contour on the ridge near the three tarns could be faster if you were a mountain running type and not keen on exposure.

Lovely views back down to Lagoon Saddle and the Waimakariri awaited as we passed Mid Hill.

The knees were starting to feel it by Lagoon Saddle, but we enjoyed the softer country near the saddle, and the autumn afternoon light.

Almost exactly 11 hours later, made it back to the car and enjoyed a nice cold ginger beer!

After that whole experience, feeling like we were walking fairly quickly and moving reasonably efficiently, I am now convinced that certain other versions of this route were completed by some sort of cyborg human .

But, in the traditional style, we did fail to make it to Thesis Peak the first time.

An old CUTC challenge is to climb Thesis Peak after having completed your thesis, with the following rules:

“Rule 1: You must have recently submitted your thesis This just make sense. You don’t go climbing thesis peak without having submitted your thesis, and you don’t wait for emotional and physical recovery before making your attempt. As a thesis is at its core a personal, lonely journey, it is right that this journey is also a solo one. However, as demonstrated by Fred and Mark, if two of you hand in at the same time, there is no reason you can’t combine forces. It is unclear if this is wise, as adjunct to combining your strengths, this also means combining your incompetences, in some cases to an overwhelming force (again demonstrated by Fred and Mark).

Rule 2: The challenge should be performed in winter Ideally with deep snow and high avalanche conditions. This follows the example set out by the pioneers of this challenge. To do it in less would be a degradation of style. This rule is easier to meet than it appears. Most people aim to finish at the end of the year, in the middle of summer. When you finally submit, 6 months late, this puts you bang in season. One should take care of avoiding the predicament of Stew, who after aiming to finish in the middle of summer, submitted 24 months late, putting him back in summer again.

Rule 3: You must go the long way The tradition has been to make the attempt along the long ridge from Lagoon Saddle. When looking at Thesis Peak on the map, it is logical to make the attempt from the closest valley, the Avoca. Too bad, the challenge has been set. Any less would be a degradation of style.

Rule 4: You must fail I’m serious on this one. If you fail to show some form of incompetence, and actually make it up the peak, you are breaking with tradition. And you clearly have either broken one of the previous rules, or did not work hard enough in the lead up to submission to reduce your core competencies. Either way you will be snubbed by your peers.

Now you know the rules. Go to it.”

- Canterbury University Tramping Club TROG 2006.