Mt Richardson ZL3/CB-612 23 Feb 2020

This was my second time up Mt Richardson in North Canterbury.
The night before we had a Southerly change and snow down to 1500m, in mid-February!

View of the mountains from Tram Road - this IS summer right?!

It's a moderately steep climb up an excellent DOC track. There's a diversion after a few minutes which takes you to a nice waterfall viewpoint. The track carries on and rejoins the main track. Native bush shelters you pretty much all the way and then at the summit, you emerge to the sunshine and spectacular views over Lees Valley, Canterbury Plains and of course the Southern Alps. Lots of birdsong from the Bellbirds, flitting from the Fantails and whooshing from the Kereru to keep you company :-)

Nice views - what's that white stuff doing there in February!

I was up there nice and early, got set up and worked the loyal CHC chasers on 2m FM including Geoff ZL3QR who achieved first QSO status again from an equestrian event in the Waimak Gorge.
HF was up and running quickly using the usual 41' endfed and KX2. I was rewarded with S2S contacts with John ZL1BYZ, Jackie ZL1WA and Warren ZL2AJ. I also discovered that doing SOTA on JW Field Day is a mixed blessing... Probably enough said about that! I headed down at noon and visited the ZL3RR Branch 68 site at View Hill. They had a very slick operation running and were very happy having doubled their previous year's score.


Directions: From the Glentui picnic area at the end of Glentui Bush Road, follow the well-marked and well-used walking track to the summit
Time to summit: 2hr 15min
Summit marker: Trig
Land access permission: Not required, Mt. Thomas Forest Conservation Area
Repeater access: good to all Christchurch area repeaters
Cellphone access: Patchy Spark coverage on the summit