The Ultimate Winter Hike: Our Journey to Mueller Hut (Aoraki/Mount Cook)
Highlights
Pure awe walking through a snowy wonderland
The best conditions after a worried week
Uninterrupted views of Mt Cook and the surrounds
Witnessing avalanches from the safety of our trail
Deep Meaningful Chats on trail
NZ's Iconic Red Hut
Mount Cook, also known as Aoraki, is arguably New Zealand’s number one tourist spot, and it’s easy to see why. On a clear day, the view of the towering mountain as you drive the long straight road into the national park is nothing short of majestic. The surrounding area is a hiker’s paradise, from short scenic walks to Kea Point and Hooker Valley, to the more challenging hikes of Mueller Hut and Sefton Bivvy. For the more experienced mountaineers among us, there is always Mount Cook summit, but at 12,218 ft I think we’ll leave that to the professionals.
Elle and I visited Mount Cook for the first time back in January, when my parents were visiting New Zealand. It was a very spur of the moment detour while travelling the South Island when we woke up to a clear day in Tekapo and decided to venture back to Mount Cook for the day before travelling onwards to Christchurch.
We loved getting to experience Mount Cook for the first time with family. It was cool to see how blown away by the scenery Sarah’s parents were during their trip.
As we only had a couple of hours to explore the area, we stuck to the lower tracks and soaked in the views of Mount Cook from Kea point. From here, Elle and I watched lots of keen hikers starting their ascent up the mountain on the way to Mueller Hut and knew that we wanted to come back and tackle it ourselves as soon as possible.
Go / No Go
As we were planning our Mueller Hut mission towards the start of winter, there were a few more safety considerations to take into account. There can be snow and avalanche risk at any time of year, so always check before you head out, but it gets more common towards the winter months. Going at the end of May, we were right on the cusp of avalanche season. Our flatmate, Cece, had completed this hike the week before in fairly snowy conditions, so we knew that there was a risk that it wouldn’t go ahead.
Elle spent the week prior pouring over weather reports, checking the avalanche risk level every day on the lead up. We also decided to rent a personal locator beacon (PLB) from our local outdoor store as an extra precaution if the hike did go ahead. The NZ Avalanche Advisory was still showing as “Moderate” for sub-alpine (Mueller Hut is at around 1800m) when we set off from Queenstown, so we decided to check in with the DOC office in Mt Cook village before we headed off to make sure. After a quick chat with the staff in the center, we got the all-clear to go for it and set off on our adventure.
The DOC office is in Mt Cook Village and has all the latest safety information relating to the trails. It also boasts an awesome museum all about the history of the area - well worth a stop!
Setting off
Many people opt to complete Mueller Hut over two days, actually staying overnight in the iconic red serviced alpine hut, but our plan was a single day return hike. Although this might seem like quite a big undertaking, I actually much prefer this approach when possible. For single day hikes, you have much lighter packs, which makes the overall experience a lot more manageable and enjoyable. Elle and I decided, as usual, to share a larger backpack filled with food/layers etc, with the other wearing a trail-running style vest to carry all our water. We’ve found this works pretty well for us and keeps our backs/shoulders happier for longer missions.
Setting off to the trailhead, with Mount Sefton towering ahead of us
Completing this hike in a day had the additional benefit of giving us more time to explore the Mount Cook area (we wanted to try and get to Hooker Hut and Hooker Valley the next day), and a much comfier night’s sleep (we had booked into Glentanner Holiday Lodge for that evening). Don’t get me wrong, I love an overnight hut mission, but I’m yet to master the art of a completely restful night’s sleep in a sleeping bag. Any tips would be appreciated!
Stairway to Heaven (or Hell)
The hike to Mueller Hut starts with a meandering staircase up the side of the mountain to the Sealy Tarns lookout. Some people opt to just do this part of the hike as you get fantastic views across towards Mt Cook, without treading into the more difficult alpine terrain. The track up to this point is extremely well-maintained but at an estimated 2,200 (!) steps it is definitely still not an easy climb.
These steps may not look like much, but after the first thousand they start to catch up with you. Not a bad view though.
Unfortunately, Elle wasn’t feeling 100% after catching the flu earlier in the week and so we had quite a few rest stops on this leg of the journey, wondering whether she should continue. True to form, and after a pack swap and some electrolytes, she rallied for the upwards climb. We always make sure to communicate a lot while we are hiking and make adjustments to our style based on how we are feeling. For this part of the journey, I was feeling pretty confident and happy to carry the heavier load.
We made it to Sealy Tarns in just over an hour, in time for a lunch stop with a view. We chatted to a few of the other hikers who were turning back at this point and took a nice long rest before the next challenging section. Once we were adequately fed and watered, we headed back to the more traditional trail section - goodbye stairs!
Sealy Tarns was definitely the most popular section of the trail, as it is both the midway point for Mueller and the end point for those on the Sealy Tarns track. A great shorter walk with a view if you’re not sure on Mueller.
Feel the fear, and do it anyway
We started our ascent up the second leg of the journey. Although still a pretty well defined path, as you progress closer to Mueller Hut the ground gets pretty uneven, passing through boulder fields and my least favourite terrain - scree. It’s also this section that can be more avalanche prone so go with care.
We took our time as the trail started to get steeper and slippier!
Before the snow line, we were treated to a special moment when we heard the calls of Kea (the endemic New Zealand alpine parrot) above us. Having lived in the South Island for a while now, we were all well versed in the sound of a Kea call so it made for quite a funny moment when we heard it and all exclaimed “Kea!!!!!!!!” pointing to the sky. It’s always fun to see them out and about in the wild - they are stunning parrots with a bright green backs and orange under their wings, but just watch your belongings as they are as cheeky and destrutive as they are pretty (Elle has the bites in her bike handlebars to prove it!)
Elle had started to feel much better by this point, which was a good thing because I started to need a bit more support. Although physically I felt fine, when we started ascending the very slippy, snow-covered scree, I began to feel more anxious. I am quite a cautious person naturally but often that can turn to panic - not what you want when you are already deep into the trail. I have been on a journey to expand my comfort zone around outdoor activities and Mueller Hut was definitely one of those moments. As I mentioned earlier, Elle and I always communicate often, and I let her know I was having a hard time. We decided to sit for a few minutes so I could gather my thoughts - “we are all experienced hikers; we have a PLB with us; the perceived risk is lower than the actual risk; the trail has a high footfall and so help is always available” - focusing on the positives rather than the “what could go wrong”s. You might be tempted to just push through and keep going but sometimes I find it really helpful to stop and take a minute to acknowledge the fear first.
Once I had taken a moment, I was ready to continue on trail, and shortly after the landscape became a snowy dream.
Walking in a Winter Wonderland
If you’d have told me that we could hike to Mueller Hut, in the snow, in almost-winter, in t-shirts and shorts (for Elle) I would not have believed you. As we rounded out onto the flat traverse before the hut, I started to feel like I was in a dream. I don’t think we could have had better conditions if we’d asked for the perfect day. We were surrounded by a cloudless canvas of blue sky, walking through pristine white snow. As hikers, you get used to a myriad of weather. Wind, rain and hail are not uncommon, especially for Elle and I back in Scotland. But occasionally, you luck out on that epic day and you really get to experience Mother Nature in all her glory.
At this point, I was close to tears (in a good way!) taking in my surroundings. I’ve never hiked in snow like this before so it was an amazing first experience.
I couldn’t help but finish the hike with a huge grin on my face as I caught sight of that elusive red hut on the snowy mountainside, seeing my friends walk up the steps ahead of us* and start making their well-deserved teas and tucking into sugary treats (it’s for the energy, okay?!)
*I will forever be the last to reach the end in any given group and I’m okay with that
Joining the other hikers at the iconic red hut
We sat amongst the many other hikers who had reached the hut that day and soaked up the uninterrupted views of Mt Cook and the surrounding landscape before starting our downwards ascent. By this point, around 4.5 hours had elapsed and we needed to get a move on to get back before sunset.
Sweet Treats at the top are a must. Our favourites are from the Natural Confectionary Co.
Race against the Sun
We started to make our way back via the main trail. As we traversed along the top section, we saw some pretty spectacular avalanche falls from across the valley. Luckily, our section was still nice and safe but it serves as a stark reminder of the power of nature. We rounded the corner into the descent and realised that the way down might present a few more challenges than anticipated. The sun had set enough by this point to cast a pretty substantial shadow on the mountain side. Any softer, grippy snow that we had used to our advantage on the way up had mostly frozen into ice.
Snow turns to ice as we make our descent back to Sealy Tarns
Our friends Andy and Cathy, like true mountain goats, made light work of this, seemingly hopping down the mountain from patch to patch. Elle, Jess and I took things a bit more slowly. There was a fair amount of clinging to rock faces, butt sliding and sharing poles (we had 2 between the 3 of us). On the other hand, the ice had actually served as a sort of binding agent for the scree, and so this section ended up being quite a bit easier on the way down. We did see quite a few people making their ascent at this point, which I would tend to not recommend as I think those top sections could get pretty sketchy in the dark.
The edge of the snow line as the sun begins to set
We made it down past the snow line and back to Sealy Tarns, and now it was just the 2,200 steps down. Although this part is pretty simple steps, by this point my legs felt like jelly and my resolution to finish was fuelled by the promise of a nice glass of wine in Mt Cook Village.
Grateful to be back at the stairs and away from the icy snow
The sun was well and truly setting by this point, but it made for some stunning views of mount cook and a very quiet trail. We met a couple about half way up the steps who asked us “how far it was to the first bridge” - unfortunately they taken quite the wrong turn away from their intended Hooker Valley Track walk, and from our vantage point we were able to point out just how far that bridge was from our current position. Fortunately they were in good spirits about their mistake and glad that we had run into each other to direct them back down the mountain before dark.
A spectacular view of Mt Cook against the clear, blue night. Often, cloud cover will sit around the mountain so we were feeling really lucky to have such an uninterrupted view.
I like to think that our timing was perfect, as we arrived back to the car just as the sun set in entirety. Our overall time for completing the return hike was 6 hrs 51 minutes (according to Strava) so in line with the suggested DOC time for completion. For reference, we definitely took our time and had fairly large breaks; depending on your hiking style you could probably knock some time off this, especially in better conditions.
We retreated back into Mt Cook for the long awaited round of drinks, and decided to treat ourselves to some shared plates at Chamois Bar & Grill (one of the few places to eat in town). The reviews were mediocre but we all really enjoyed our selections - maybe that was the post-hike hunger talking!
Overall, we really couldn’t have asked for a better day at Mount Cook. I am often reminded that anxieties rarely come to fruition - in the lead up I was so nervous about the conditions and the demands of this hike, but with some proper planning we had one of the best hiking days I’ve ever experienced. It definitely opened my mind up to the possibilities (and wonder!) of hiking in winter and I’m excited to try more of it this season. To quote our friend Jess - “BEST DAY EVERRRRR!”
The Hiking Crew - From left to right: Jess, Andy, Sarah, Cathy and Elle
