Weekend adventure 2nd-3rd of February with Tom Garden and Mary DeRoy. Or rather I crashed their plan to head into Barron Saddle Hut, because I'd never been. Started off with a great scramble up Sebastapol ridge. Provided you come off the Red Tarns track at the right spot, you can avoid the worst of the scrub and not have to climb over unnecessary high points.
The ridge itself ended up being a straightforward scramble, the worst section being when we got a bit off the ridge proper relatively low down before the steep section. We popped out near Mt Annette, which we had to climb before heading across the plateau, we had to drop a bit to get around a band of bluffs to get onto the Metelille Glacier. Then headed up towards Sladden Saddle, which was fairly interesting a number of crevasses forced up to go reasonably high to get around them and a small rock section in the steeper snow towards the saddle actually made for the best climbing. Down the Sladden Glaicer was also a bit of a maze of crevasses, but we found a route and then found the 'ledge' of scree around to beneath the Williams glacier. This was fairly narrow and exposed, not sure how much I would have enjoyed it covered in snow. And in just a few more brief scrambles we made it to the Hut.
Tom was motivated to climb Scissors the next morning before we headed out down the Tasman glacier, which was fairly straightforward, although the route back up to Mueller hut was fairly entertaining and ended up taking a bit longer than anticipated, making for all in all and fairly long day. But what a fantastic way to enjoy the mountains!