Dun Fiunary Peak

I recently read a Kiwi’s description of “tramping” in New Zealand, saying it can mean anything from going for a chilled hike to hanging off the side of cliff with an ice axe. Quite fitting for the way Kiwi’s run around the tops of these serious mountains, often with just a pair of microspikes!

Here’s my account of our early winter “tramp” up Dun Fiunary.

We parked our car at the bottom of Whale Stream where it enters Lake Pukaki. From there we bush bashed up the side of Whale Stream toward Dun Fiunary and camped at 1770m on a bit of a plateau below the main summit push. The next day we woke up just before sunrise, packed our puffy jackets, ice-axes and crampons and began up the 2500m Dun Fiunary Peak. It was a mix between scrambling up loose scree and kicking steps into the crispy snow sections. The top pinnacle required a bit of route-finding, although i think just about any of the gully’s would have taken us to the top. We picked a nice looking/steepish snow gully which took us pretty much right to the top. We were very lucky with the weather!

Trip data:

• 4-5 hours from the road to the campsite at 1770m (roughly 10km)
• 3 hours return trip from the campsite to the summit and back
• 3.5 hours from the campsite back to the car

The whole thing can be done in one long day, keeping in mind the sun rises after 8am and sets at 5pm in winter…