Our Great Adventure: Barrier Knob 167 4/03/2015

We were a bit more organised today, leaving the campsite before 8am to head north back towards Milford Sound where the walk to Barrier Knob started. The weather had improved with some early morning mist and blue skies. We arrived at the carpark just before 10am and set off walking into the lower reaches of Gertrude Valley, crossing a number of rivers and through a short section of beech forest. The scale of the bowl and surrounding peaks is incredible. The head of the valley terminates at a massive rock wall carved by glaciers that form the massifs of Barrier Peak and Mt Crosscut. The walk goes up a rough track through snowgrass, scree and diorite slabs before reaching Black Lake. From here in situ cables help the way up the rock above the lake, followed by a small boulder field and short climb to reach Gertrude Saddle. The views are sublime with Mt Talbot to the left, Gulliver Valley ahead and Barrier Knob to the right. It's clearly a route for the scenic helicopter flights as a number of them flew over as we reached the saddle. We stopped for a bite to eat before the final push to the summit of Barrier Knob at 1879m, not sure what the conditions would bring. The route up follows snowgrass and rock slabs. As we got closer it became apparent that we wouldn't be able to reach the summit without crossing a snowfield and by the time we got to the edge of it we'd both concluded that it was too dangerous to continue without crampons and axes and climb the last 30 or so metres to the top. There was no route across and it was simply too steep and the consequences of a fall significant (a 1200m fall = death!). Disappointed we knew it was the right decision and headed off back to the saddle, the 45 degree angle of the snow slope was such that we didn't want to hang around here for lunch. The mist in Gulliver Valley cleared as we descended and we got wonderful views out to Milford Sound. A short distance further a brocken spectre appeared in the depths of Gertrude Valley. We stopped at the saddle for lunch watching the swirling cloud and helicopters before setting off retracing our steps back down to the valley. The views on the descend continued to impress with the waterfall cascades and snowfields above the sheer rock wall. Whilst the distance wasn't too great, the terrain was very rough and we certainly felt quite tired after climbing and descending over 1000m. Back at our van we set off to go back to Te Anau, joining the traffic returning from day trips to Milford Sound. We decided that we deserved a meal out for our efforts and headed into Te Anau where we had dinner, washed down with a couple of pints of local beer, at the Fat Duck bistro. A lovely meal and a great end to a fabulous day.