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Buller Ice Climbing 5-Jul-2010 At 10:32:46 AM Bob Saki

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Hi All,

Just an update:

A mate and I went up to Buller via the West Ridge on Saturday morning, snowline was about at Round Hill and was nice and light but this day was to be hotter than the previous week and already it was falling out of the trees. by the time we reached about 1600m it was clear they had received 10cm overnight.

Suffice to say there was no real ice at all on the waterfall or in the chutes so we contented ourselves with general mountaineering and some short dry tooling routes with small overhangs, it would be a stretch to call it mixed climbing as there was no ice.

However it was so beautiful up therethe trees were laden with snow below and the clouds moved very fast occasionally allowing patches of sunshine.

It was nice to get the tools out and have a play, will head to Bogong and Blue Lake soon.

On the way home I got rather freaked out by the dog tracks in the snow some prints had a span of 7-10cm so I was on the lookout all the way down.

I won't lie I am quite nervous about an encounter with such beasts, what would be the best defensive tactic considering I am unarmed? I thought about cowering in a hollow of a burnt tree with pack as a shield and a snowstake to use to lashout. There were two of us so I felt safer but I was still vigilant.