I'd selected this summit for my New Years day activation and gave up after the first 100m (vertical) Straight up from the SH73 (50% grade) and plenty of chest high regenerating scrub to bash through.
A week later Dave ZL3DRN was back from holiday and keen to get out - let's plan a better route up Mt Horrible and get it done! Plotting my previous attempt on topomap and Google Earth showed that I had taken the wrong option when faced with the wall of scrub. Turning around was the right option. New route planned and loaded to the GPS and we were off.
Arriving at the layby at 8:30am, Dave looked up and commented "are you sure this is the best access?!" We set off and using the new route, picked and bashed our way up. The first 300m of climbing is very steep and punctuated by walls of pig fern, vicious wild rose hip and matagouri. Several sections required some rock climbing on crumbly, flakey rock - more on this later...
 |
| View looking straight up from the carpark... |
Once we emerged from the scrub, we picked up an old track which went all the way to the summit, along the very route we had planned. It was good travelling, up the spur and along the ridge to the summit. There used to be a track to the summit from just West of Paddy's Bend (but not since the big fires).
We arrived at the summit 2 hours after leaving the car.
The views are magnificent in all directions, so here's the obligatory panorama!
 |
| Antenna (EFHW), pole and 2m antenna with the Hawdon River and ZL3/CB-471 Woolshed Hill in the background |
We were early but keen to get set up to ensure we got Mark ZL3AB on Mt Southey. I was trying a new 5/8 wave portable roll-up antenna for 2m, the Flower Pot designed by VK2ZOI. The choke slips over the telescoping mast and the top sits up at about 5m. We worked Ross ZL3RJ in Rangiora and Rick ZL3RIK in Hornby with good signals. On to HF and used the 60m EFHW to work the CHC Chasers who couldn't hear us on 2m including John ZL3MR on ZL3/CB-822 Mt Pleasant. 60m proves it's worth again. Taking out the 60m coil, 40m was in good shape and we worked S2S with Warren ZL2JML and Ada ZL2ADA on ZL1/WK-024, Don ZL3DMC on ZL3/CB-760 Pearce, Richard ZL4FZ on ZL3/SL-307 Bluff Hill and Mark ZL3AB on ZL3/CB-383 Mt Southey, a very pleasing haul of S2S points! We worked our way up the bands and our usual loyal ZL and VK Chasers and JH1MXV (on 15m). Nothing worked on 10m this time.
We had decided we would follow the track back down past where we joined it to see if we could find a better starting point and so packed up HF at 12.30pm and had lunch, worked Don and Rick again on 2m after rollover and headed straight back down the hill.
The descent plan was looking good for a while but then the track petered out as we got to the area that had been burnt and regenerated with very thick fern walls and no clear way down. The decision was made to turn around and go back down the way we had ascended. Unfortunately this meant re-climbing another 200m vertical... We were following the backtrack of our ascent but it was still tough to find a way through. Dave took the fast way at one stage - unintentionally. A victim of the crumbly rock and wild rose hip, he managed to flip over and arrest his slide after about 6m, it was scary to watch...
We got back to the car about 4pm, tired but exhilarated after activating a new one!
Be careful if you attempt this summit, the summit itself is very pleasant with great views. It's very dangerous coming down the last 100 vertical metres, if you do decide to tackle it, please take someone else with you.
Directions: Drive on SH73 to just West of Paddy's bend, there is a layby (-43.027741 171.688414). Park there and head straight up!
Time: 2 hours, 3.5km and 689m vertical with some scrub-bashing
Repeaters: 705 accessible. 2m Simplex OK to certain CHC areas
Cell: Spark and Vodafone 4G thanks to the celltower near the Mt White bridge. Skinny not good
Permission: Not required, Mt Horrible Conservation Area
