Fullmoon trip to Foggy Peak

As I quite enjoy night tramping, it was only a matter of time to start looking to extend my summer night tramping experience to winter. The most accessible option to start seemed to be Foggy Peak. Easy access, close to Christchurch… I checked the calendar and yeah, in August, the full moon fell on Friday yay! When I was putting this full moon adventure up on the CTC website, I thought that it had about 10-20 % chance of going ahead. A week ahead of the trip, I couldn’t believe that the conditions were turning out to be just right – low avalanche risk, snow cover, freezing temperatures and no wind!

10 of us left Z Russley at 5.30 PM on a freezing Friday night. At Springfield bathrooms, we changed into warm clothes to avoid spending too much time in cold Porters Pass. We reached Porters Pass sometime around 7 PM and soon after started wandering up the hill.

We wore crampons from the carpark, expecting the snow to get icy anytime soon, however it didn’t get icy at all! The conditions were close to perfection: little to no wind, supermoon and temperatures well below zero. We reached the top of Foggy Peak around 9.40 PM. At the top, it was pretty windy so we descended a couple of hundred meters to a windless spot where we brew some hot chocolate and tea. On the way down, Chris managed to slip while admiring the views and injured his back. Josh kindly offered to take his pack and together with Mary they assisted Chris in getting safely down.

Thanks to everyone for coming, it was quite a memorable experience. I’m hoping to lead more full moon adventures!

Rough stats: 7 km, 4h 15min, 800m ascent

Tramped on 12th August 2022.

Participants: Michal Klajban (leader, scribe, GPX, photos), Jim Schofield, James Schofield, Bryce Williamson, Chris McGimpsey, Simon Barr, Mary Ogburn, Josh Sokolov Pearson, Adnan Yaqub, Alan Ross

Photos

Map

Total distance: 7872 m
Max elevation: 1898 m
Min elevation: 926 m
Download file: GPX-hikingisgood-com-nz-2022-Foggy-Peak-fullmoon.gpx

About the Author

Michal
I lived a pretty ordinary life for a while. I did my studies, my second studies, my third studies, my first job, my second job, and my third job. I wasn’t really sure what’s going on so, in 2014, I left my home country (Czechia) to learn about the world. I’m still not sure what’s going on but I enjoy it much more. I lived in a few countries before settling in New Zealand.

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