Located above the Broken River and Craigieburn skifields, Hamilton Peak offers great views of the alps, foothills and plains.
Saturday 30th May forecast was for a nice Autumn day with light winds, even at 2000m so off we went, arriving at the locked gate on the Broken River access road just before 8am. First vehicle there which is always a good thing! A brisk pace up the skifield road and track soon had us at the tow base. We elected to walk up the line of the rope tow and then climb Nervous Knob to achieve the ridge that would take us to Hamilton Peak. Three quarters of the way up I decided Nervous Knob is well named... Hearing "three points of contact at all times Geoff" from Dave reinforced that this was a bit more than a hike up a hill! Well outside my comfort zone but eventually I arrived on top and just for good measure, took a slight detour back up to the summit of the knob.
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| Recovery at the top of Nervous Knob! |
The walk from there across the ridge to Hamilton Peak was fine (in comparison!) and we arrived at the summit 30 minutes prior to our alerted time 11am NZST. There was quite a strong Westerly wind blowing 30 km/h gusting 39 km/h so we set up in the lee of the summit where a convenient outcrop served to hold the pole and shelter us from most of the wind. Air temperature was 3 degrees Celsius (-2 to -3 wind-chill) so we got stuck in, knowing we wouldn't be hanging around too long. The temperature and wind we could handle, the ominous looking cloud coming across the alps ahead of the Nor-wester was the concern.
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| Looking West at the cloud building |
Following our now established pattern of Dave starting on 40m SSB and me on 2m FM, we both quickly had the requisite 4 contacts to qualify the summit including a couple of S2S.
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| 14 contacts on 2m FM - a great spot |
I then jumped on 40m CW and worked the North Island regulars before trying 20m. No calls from VK after 3 minutes and an RBN spot. Dave was watching the weather and made the call, "we should go" so, knowing we had a long exposed ridge to traverse on the way home, we packed up quickly and set off. Total time on summit was around 35 minutes - apologies to anyone we missed.
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| View from the operating site. Craigieburn Ski-field in the valley (left), our descent route along the ridge (right). Mt Oxford in the far distance (left) and Castle Hill Peak/The Gap (right) |
Wherever possible we choose a circuit route to avoid going back the way we come so we headed down the SE spur looking for a nice scree to join up with the Camp Saddle track back to Broken River. It was a great route with 100 m height gain. The scree selected was a ripper, long and deep - great fun!! As we jumped into it we spotted a party on Camp Saddle and speculated how jealous they would be watching us surf the scree down! The end of scree met the track and we found a nice spot to have lunch with great views down the valley and across to Castle Hill Peak and "The Gap"
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| Lunch view - Castle Hill Peak (centre) and "The Gap" (left) |
The party of 6 we had seen on the saddle arrived for a chat, all older gentlemen led by a very sprightly 84 year-old! The walk back down took us across the last of the scree and down into the beech forest along a wide and well marked track back to the road and on to the car.
A good walk - 11.6 km and 1131m of vertical gain in the spectacular Craigieburn Forest Park Conservation Area.
Getting there: SH73 to the Broken River skifield access road. Drive in until you reach the locked gate and park (don't obstruct the gate or the other road). Walk up the road and then take the walking track to the bottom of the ski tows. From here, there is no track. Make your way up to the ridge. I don't recommend the Nervous Knob route, maybe skirt it but beware having to climb the scree!
Permission: None need, Craigieburn Forest Park Conservation Area.
Time: Ascent - 2.5 hours up (5.8 km and 1042 m vertical gain)
Cell coverage: Spark/Skinny 4G
