Aoraki/Mt. Cook

Here we have a photo of Aoraki/Mt. Cook in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. This is one of Sir Edmund Hillary’s favorite mountains and his original stomping ground. In the foreground is a little shelter along the trail we were hiking. The weather is notoriously bad around the mountain and it’s rare to get clear days (hence the shelter). We had only one day up there, and as you can see, we couldn’t have been any luckier. We did a gorgeous day hike up to the Tasman Glacier in fresh powder that had fallen the night before and hung out at the base of the glacier in the shadow of Aoraki. Mt. Cook rises 12,300 feet and rivals anywhere in the Rockies in beauty and ruggedness. It was an awesome experience to say the least.

~ by grolar on February 1, 2008.