After a night of very little sleep next to the railway line through Arthurs Pass, we awoke to an extremely foggy, slightly damp but still morning. The lack of visibility did nothing to help our motivation, which was at a pretty low ebb. None the less, after a bowl or two of cereal we found ourselves in the Temple Basin car park contemplating the classic Temple Phipps traverse. With no immediate signs of deteriorating or improving weather we wondered off up the large access track into Temple Basin.
As we approached the shoulder below the ski buildings we got above the cloud and into the very warm sun. With an obviously excellent weather window for the day we didn’t rush and just slowly carried on up the valley to the higher hut. At the hut we found a couple having breakfast. They’d walked up the night before, which seemed like a brilliant idea after our disturbed nights sleep next to the train tracks. From the hut our planned route was to head up steep screes on the left of Mt Phipps, as per the Arthurs Pass guide. But after talking to the guys in the hut and looking at the scree we changed our plan and decided to do the traverse in the other direction, Temple to Phipps. As a side point a friend did the route Phipps to Temple, starting up the steep dark scree and although it was a little scary/loose it was fine.
From the hut we followed the highest rope tow to Temple Col. Once the Col was gained the views change significantly, you now get a breathtaking view north past the stunning Mt Franklin. The short distance along the ridge to the summit is more of a scramble with a few exposed sections but its never too loose or difficult. After the summit the ridge becomes increasingly loose made up of sections of coal like rock that is similar to crumbly cheese. This was not really enjoyable and so after a particularly loose bit we decided to turn round. The best, most solid part of the ridge looked to be just in front of us, but we headed back in order to not get home too late. The traverse off and walk down were easy and fairly fast.
