So Peak 20! How time flies… and up to Hanmer Springs once again (the alpine village holds numerous sporting events in the area throughout the year). The Mt Isobel Challenge was on today’s menu, a mountain/trail duathlon.
Gratuitous peak of the week. After not successfully completing a peak for two weeks now, I decided to bag a classic. Foggy Peak (1741m) lies next to Porter’s Pass, the gateway to the Southern Alps from Christchurch…
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” Once said by Sir Edmund Hillary about climbing a peak. On Sunday, I felt the same.
So instead of doing a peak this weekend, I turned my attention to a last minute entry into the Hanmer Springs half-marathon; a hilly, trail half marathon in the foothills of the Lewis Pass Range. I was offered a lift …
Mt Sinclair sits a long way back (part of the Sinclair Range) next to the Two Thumbs ski range, north of Lake Tekapo and is a chain of peaks over 2000m in altitude. Mt Sinclair itself, named after Dr Sinclair, who, back in 1861 was Colonial Secretary to the New Zealand Government. He, along with his friend – Julius von Haast, principle geologist (and also famous for the Haast Pass being named after him) in the upper Rangitata, were surveying the river before his horse bolted and he reached an untimely demise. Still, his legacy lives on in the mountain range, and what a stunning range it is.