Superb Weather! Took advantage that my body clock was on Far East time and got an early start. Not
long after dawn I was cycling up the track to Gulvain. I decided to see if this approach was faster
than from the west side. What a muddy cycle! It is a 4WD track all the way, but full of puddles.
Left the bike at the end of the track, 45 minutes. Gulvain was looking impressive with a crown of
snow and thin wisps of cloud hanging on it. Followed the wall and went basically straight up to the
ridge near the south most top. In the nice sunshine, 8 inches of snow and no wind along the ridge.
Also in just my T-shirt! Broke trail along the ridge over the 2nd top and finally the pull to the
summit. Wonderful clear air with great views and some valley fog. 8 inches of snow, but T-shirt
weather 8-) (just under 3 hours up). Although the 1:50,000 implies a single high point, I noted that
there are two more or less equal height 'summits' about 150 feet apart with a dip in between. Cairn
was on the south one, but the north one looked higher! After going back and forth, I couldn't tell
if either was higher than the other. I had once looked at doing this peak from Gulvain, but the
slope looked very steep. Now looking up, the slope looks very steep. With snow cover, probably
lethal. Descended along the ridge to the first col and then dropped east in a slow descending
traverse, eventually getting to the valley floor. Lots of nice stream gorges along the way. But very
muddy! Finally back to the bike, 1 hour from the top. 35 minutes cycle out and back to the road in a
5 hour round trip. Graham: how long did you take to do it from the other side? I'm interested to see
if this was is any faster. Any one else have comments on the two summits?
cheers, Rob