Post Hike

I finished it, all 18km of it and they don't call it a hard walk for nothing! We got the bus at 6.20 this morning and headed for the hour journey over to the national park, and on the bus we got all kitted out with our boots and crampons.

The walk start off fairly tame, a slightly ascending path into the mountains, but quickly becomes more rocky and requires a fair bit of actual climbing to keep moving along the path. After about 2 hours we stopped for our first break.



After the break we were warned the next part was called Hell's staircase (or something similar), a rather apt name given that it was to be like this below for the next 45 minutes, and this photo is only the beginning, it got a lot more steep.




This is me at the top of the first climb. In total it is a 400m vertical ascent, but more practically it is 45 minutes of very difficul and physical walking on very rocky ground.




You can see the snow starting to appear at this height, quickly after the path became complete snow and so the crampons come out. Crampons are these funky things you stick to the bottom of your shoes to give yourself better grip.

More to come later!