Mount Sefton

In the morning the weather was perfect, warm sunshine and fantastic views of the mountains. Our plans were to climb up to the Muller Hut for the night and attempt a scramble to the summit in the morning. We were a bit slow getting started but full of optimism we headed to the rangers hut to get our maps and check conditions. We were very disappointed to discover a severe weather warning was posted for over night and the whole of the next day. This made us very indecisive and I was pretty sure it wasn't for me. Andy planned to go ahead but couldn't hire crampons. Just as he got ready to set off, the air ambulance hovered overhead and brought an injured climber down to the car park of our campsite. There is nothing like the rush of paramedics and ambulances to put you off a bit and Andy decided to heed advice after all and stay put.

After all our indecisiveness we ended up with a walk up to a glacier and had to make do with the views from there instead. Feeling a bit disappointed we made an early tea and watched great sheets of ice falling off the mountain! We put on all our clothes bar our swimming costumes (can you imagine!) only to discover it was a warmer night and we were boiling!

Just as we drifted off to sleep the wind picked up and gusts battered our tent. A couple of hours later and the tent was collapsing on to us with every gust and the rain was pouring down. Around 4am the tent poles snapped and we were forced to abandon ship. We were lucky to take advantage of a brief lull in the weather and shove everything into the car. We found a shelter and made a breakfast of porridge along with fellow campers sharing stories of shredded tents.