Ben Lomond Track, Queenstown, NZ

 

Mt Ben Lomond

Climbing Ben Lomond, 4th Dec 2010

Located conveniently just beside the town of Queenstown, the summit of Ben Lomond (1747m) offers stunning views over the Lake Wakatipu, The Remarkables, Queenstown itself and the snow capped mountain range to the north west (find out the names).You can start your climb from the One Mile Creek or cut back an hour of climbing from the gondola station at the cost of NZD$25 for a return gondola ride. Climbing from the station to the summit as indicated on the signboard says a total of 2.5hours. 1.5 hours from the station to the saddle, and another 1 hour of hard steep climbing to the summit.

 

Outside Skyline Station

 

We started the day with a quick grab of McDonald’s hotcakes (not the best choice of food I know) from the town before making our way to the Gondola station. Around 9:30am, we boarded the gondola at the base with the staff welcoming us and offering a tourist photo pack shot which we politely declined. This was not our first gondola ride in Queenstown as we were there 2 years ago enjoying the LUGE at the top of the gondola station. We have lost the excitement and enthusiasm of being a tourist on this ride. Once we reached the top of the station (SKYLINE), a quick detour to the toilets and off we went following the signposts to the Ben Lomond Track.

 

Signpost outside SkyLine Station

The path from the SKYLINE starts from the paragliding booth, following the pavement going up and down a few slopes bypassing the LUGE tracks. About 10mins from the start you will reach the start point for those climbing from the SKYLINE station.

Start of Trail

 The trail leads into a dense canopy of pine trees, with the carpet-like trail from the pines leaves that covered the trail. Around 20mins, we reached a small clearing which is the intersection for those climbing from One Mile Creek. Taking the route on the right, we followed the uncovered trail that climbs gradually into another canopy covered forest.

Lefts & Rights

From here, the view of the summit on our left is always in sight. It was a super sunny day, no cloud and the cool wind was the only thing that keeps us from getting toast. The morning in NZ is always cold and gets warm when the sun comes up and with no cloud; everything turns warm under the sun. We took 2 hours to reach the saddle at 12noon.

Trail leading to the Saddle (Summit on the left)

Cloudless and Warm Day to Hike

Trail Junction to Summit or Arthurs Point

Snow Capped Mountains

It was a rewarding view with the snow capped mountain range to the north west and a bench scenically position to allow climbers to enjoy the panoramic view. We took a 30mins lunch break here and surprisingly our hotcakes were still warm. This track is a popular day hike as we had 4 groups of people bypassing us while we had our lunch at this saddle.  From this rest point, we could see those hikers that we met making their way up the steep ridge line towards the summit. The signboard says 1hr to reach the summit but we definitely would need more than that.

McDonalds' Hotcakes (still warm)

At 12:30pm, we began our climb to the summit. Leaving the comforts of the inviting bench, we made our way slowly up the trail of loose rocks. The trail was clear, although at times there are alternate trail that leads back to the same trail. Looks like some of them are runoffs created from the melting snow and some created by humans as shortcuts instead of doing the zigzag. As this is summer, you can actually see the trail ahead and just walk direct to it (esp. downhill as you can see from the higher grounds). 

Taking a breather to enjoy the view.

Rocky and steep trail to summit.

Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown below.

After 1.5 hours of climbing we reach the summit. The man-made structure at the summit is actually a pointer (not sure of it is copper or bronze) to direct your view to the mountain peaks around the area. You can find the names of peaks on the round plate. 

At the Summit.

From far, it looks like some kind of sundial but it is not. The summit has considerable space for groups to enjoy an unobstructed 360 view of the surrounding mountains and lakes. Some hikers like to bath themselves at the summit like those that you see at beaches. To us, the UV is just too unhealthy for people like us who has lotsa of sun from where we came from.

Overlooking Queenstown

Making the descent (hungry)

 The descent took us almost the same time it takes to climb from the saddle to the summit. Reasons because the rocky trail has many high gaps and loose rocks that make the descent slow in order to have a good foot grip. Once we reached the saddle, the trail becomes much easier and stable to walk and a quick 1.5 hour we managed to return to the SKYLINE station for our gondola ride back to town.