Redcliff Saddle

Large is the only way to view this

I've had the best of days. The plan B description for today said "Take the DOC track up Redcliff Stream. Follow the south-east branch of Redcliff stream to the saddle behind Rat Hill at Pt 1234. Drop down into Snowy stream and follow it out to Cookies Flat. Return via Redcliff Saddle and Redcliff stream".

It took us 8.5 hours and what a wonderful day we've had. Here the boys are the wee figures in the bottom left 1/3, dwarfed by the hugeness of the country we were in.

I'm unwashed and in general disarray but the highlights were:
- watching a Stag run across the slope we on about 80m beneath us. Then turn and stare before cantering back the other way about 50m above us.
- negotiating a snow bridge in a gorge formed from avalanche debris.
- entering a canyon in mid-thigh deep water with the walls above so close a huge boulder was lodged between them (my camera was safely inside a dry bag inside another dry bag in my pack)
- have no choice but to slide on my bum down a smooth rock only to overshoot and have one of the guys haul me up before I went under near freezing water (just wet up to my bum ;-)
- walk across Redcliffe Saddle looking straight into more mountains.

What a fabulous country I live in. And all this 1.5 hours from home.