Mt Binser, Arthurs Pass NP

Brendon and I drove towards AP under very grey skies and a fair amount of fresh snow. Timidly clawing over Porters Pass, we slowly made our way through to Cass, over the Mt White Bridge and onwards to Andrews Shelter. From the shelter we crossed a few fords with the car and found ourselves at the Bottom of the ridge to Mt Binser. It looked like there was a lot less snow than a few weeks ago but we still chose our route to avoid the worst of the Avalanche danger.

Just about to enter the scrub..

Nearly time for crampons.

Charlie gets encouraged to quit chewing my pack

Sweating up a side ridge full of fierce shrubbery, soon we aimed off into the main bowl and got above the scrub line. From there we climbed South East and gained the Southern Ridge. High on the ridge it was time to change from Tramping to Alpine mode and crunch our way up the perfect cramponning snow toward the summit.

Easy travel on the South west ridge

On our way up the face, we paused for a moment to dig a snow profile pit. There were 3 distinct layers, with a weak bond between 2 and 3. However, the top layer was very well frozen, anchoring the snow to the face. The pack was also very shallow indeed, so the risk was low and we continued up to the summit.

On the col before the final climb up the face to the summit


On top we were greeted by a howling Nor-Wester, which made us place our Geocache very quickly before hurrying off down the North West ridge as quickly as possible. On descent we had incredible views up the Waimak Valley, back to the Craigieburns, Torless Range and Arthurs Pass proper. Just fantastic.


Placing 'I can see my car from here' Geocache

Descending the NW Ridge towards the Waimakarirri River

Chucky enjoying the ridge

Brendon, Chucky and Mt Binser

Brendon spotted a Chamois on a low saddle and we paused for a bite to eat at the same spot. The last little bit downhill was a little tedious, with crampons coming on and off several times through frozen mud and screes.

Back the car, we found a couple of nearby geocaches before travelling back home.