We had a fantastic day on this spectacular circuit!
Other than the wind above treeline, (howling at the Haig/Robertson col) the weather was quite good. It was occasionally cloudy but there were many breaks that provided wonderful vistas of the peaks around the Haig glacier and the Burstall valley.
There were some tricky bits following the French creek at lower altitude.


Tricky descent

Group at treeline in upper French valley.

There was a group of ten about an hour ahead of us. They did a great job of trail-breaking and routefinding, making our trip significantly easier.


Ascending the moraine on the way to French col

Ascending the French Glacier moraines

On the way to French col

We made it up to the Haig glacier at around 1:00.


Haig glacier, Mount Jellicoe on the left, Maude on the right

The group ahead chose to ski up to the Haig/Robertson col. So we followed their very steep track rather than kickstepping directly up as seems to have been the usual method for those who have done the trip before.


Carl at the Haig-Robertson col

The wind had blown a lot of snow onto the Robertson glacier and so, we had a fabulous descent in a mix of good powder and light windslab, with occasional crusted sections. The three with AT gear had a particularly good time on the descent and set beautiful tracks.


Arnold descending the Roberston glacier

Tracks on the Robertson Glacier

Mt Robertson

Mt Birdwood Group

We set out at around 9:00 and were back at the cars around 4:30.
Many thank yous to coordinator David, from participants Danielle, Arnold, Bill (photos), Damian, John (photos), and Carl (scribe).