Although we left fairly early (by our comfortable standards), it was still surprisingly warm as Geoff and I emerged into the morning light. We didn't know too much about Mt Abel, and hadn't even sighted it yet as it was hidden behind the rocky escarpment that towered over the hut. From all accounts though, it was an easy climb, and a very good view from the top.
A whole hoard of people had returned from 9144 via this ascent rout yesterday, and we reasoned that at least we would have an easy path to follow.

We also understood that we needed to drop below the buttress to the left below the hut, and cross a short series of crevasses thus gaining the snow ramp leading up to the final rocky summit. We had packed carefully and already well aware of the loose state of the rock, made sure we had our rock gear too.

Not far from the hut we could see a well trampled trail left by the group the day before. So far so good! As told, it led us below the buttress and then high, traversing a steep, very soft slope. A long slide and even longer plod back up waiting for us if we slipped. It was interesting navigating our way amongst the crevasses and fissures above the slope. Each new gain in height taking us further away from the glacier and the hut, but only revealing a further height step ahead of us. We threaded our way back and forth along the slots and eventually gained what we thought was going to be the final slope up to the rocks. Way up in the distance we could see two promising looking rocky gullies, and could hear occasional rock fall.

It seemed we were following a path made by elephants. There were footsteps bloody everywhere! ..
How many people romped down here yesterday? We asked each other....

Off the Beaten Track
Gradually the penny dropped. We had come too far to the right !
These were not foot prints. These were avalanche debris, and rock fall.
It seemed we had strayed into the natural gutter for the gully. To make matter worse we had come up against another crevasse. This one was huge. We decided to traverse back over to the left hand side of the gully and get away from this crumbly looking wall of rock towering ominously over us.

Four full horizontal pitches later we were feeling more comfortable and had found a decent bridge to cross over on.
The bleak weather had persisted from yesterday, and now as we crossed our bridge, it suddenly vanished leaving us roasting in full sunshine. Five minutes ago we were cold, now we were both sweating profusely. We stopped briefly to asses if we were actually getting any closer to the rocks at the top, and I swapped my 'stay warm' gear for my 'keep the sun off' gear, including my very fashionable green printed tea towel.

Geoff was looking hot and knackered. Uncertain about our movements and security we had been digging 'T'-anchors for all of our belays. This was time consuming and tiring work, but we were getting good practice at it! The sun bore down on us as we reached the final crevasse at the base of the rocks.
Neither of the two gullies we had spied earlier looked very inspiring from up here. Both were dark and narrow, which in itself was not too bad, but the disturbing sound of rocks bouncing down from within them put us off both of them as access routes.

We carefully skirted around the edge of the slot at it's leftmost end and tiredly dropped onto the loose rocks for a breather and some food. Looking down into the glacier it was had to imagine anyone could see us up here. I never failed to be surprised at how whenever we returned to the hut in the evenings, the other residents not only knew where we had been during the day, but could actually pinpoint who was doing what at any given time.

More Unreasonable Rock
Looking at the rocky slope behind us I reasoned that it was probably just an easy if somewhat loose ramp to the top and stepped carefully onto the scree at it's base.
At my first foot step it seemed the whole slope decided to start trickling down towards me.!! Not fast, just consistantly, and unstoppably
Geoff was shaking his head and saying that he wasn't going any further. I didn't need, much more convincing myself. Carefully I backed myself off and sat behind Geoff to enjoy a photo opportunity and some food. After a few minutes, the trickle of pebbles and stones ceased. With the benefit of hindsight we made good time back down the by now, very soft, slope. Glissading through the soft snow from belay to belay took very little time or energy. The plod back to the hut seemed to take forever in the soft conditions and I felt thoroughly worked over by the time we stumbled along the back of the hut to the wooden steps.

Inside and relaxing, we were astounded by queries from the others ...
"What were you guys climbing ?"
"Mt Able", we replied in unison... "But we didn't get all the way to the top".
"That wasn't Able! You were too far across! You guys were on your way to Mt Annan"

Which Mountain was that ?
Well... I still can't work this one out ... I don't think we were that far across, but suffice to say... We never climbed Mt Abel, but we'd had a full day out and were suitably tired.

Tomorrow would be our last day ... Nick took advantage of the evening radio sched to send a message to Mt Cook airlines to let them know we had a party ready to fly out, if there were any flights coming up the next day. They advised that we contact them again the next morning. It seemed we would probably be going out in the afternoon by fixed-wing if the weather permitted.
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