Point 2023

Ruataniwha CA ● 22 – 23 Dec 2023

After semi-accidentally reaching Jane Peak (2022m elevation) in January 2022, it felt appropriate to find something 2023m tall to climb in 2023. Leaving it to the last minute, I headed off to bag point 2023 with ten days left in the year. A point in the Ben Ohau range had been chosen as it wasn’t too far out of my way to Christmas with the family.

Initially following a GPX file supplied to me by Emily, who had snuck in a few months before me, I headed up an access track on public conservation land by Boundary stream. An initial attempt to head up Disappointment Gully ended in disappointment when I couldn’t get through a particularly gnarly patch of speargrass and matagauri. When I eventually reached scree it was quite hard going, both down and up. I opted to avoid it as much as possible on the climb and scrambled directly up a slightly more stable chossy gully instead, which forunately did lead to the ridge. I was briefly hit by a hail storm heading along to point 2023, but by the time I reached the summit the sun was out and I was sweating again.

Inspired by views of the tarns and lakes in Duncan stream I headed down that was, having a swim and setting up camp at the top lake. In the morning I headed down the stream, and had a similarly annoying experience climbing unstable screen to get up and over into Boundary stream to head out the way I came in.