Mt Riley is a monster!

Are you thinking of tackling Riley? Read these tips first! 

My Dad and I completed the Mt Sunday and Mt Riley loop track in Marlborough in May, and boy was it a mission! Of course it was our own fault, because we naïvely didn't train for it beforehand. If I had known it was such hard yakka I would have!

What the Department Of Conservation sign estimated as a 8-10 hour hike, took us 12 hours. We left the carpark at just after 6 AM and got back about 6.30 PM. We chose to walk the track clockwise which meant climbing Mt Sunday first. It was straight up for a solid few hours before we reached the ridgetop. We had a few quick breaks on the way to fuel up on water, boiled eggs, apples and nuts. We were absolutely exhausted as we reached the top! 

The view from the summit of Mt Sunday was spectacular. We got some awesome photos there which I'm thankful for because the weather turned nasty by the time we got to the bivvy in between Sunday and Riley for lunch. There were two rainwater collection systems, one on your way to the summit of Sunday and one at the small, two bunk bivvy. We used water from the bivvy tank for our lunch as it was a bit clearer looking than the other water. There is a long drop outhouse toilet near the bivvy, but bring your own toilet paper as there is none supplied. 

 

We had known the weather would pack in, we checked the forecast before we left. But after lunch we decided against staying the night in favour of getting down before the weather worsened even more. Both Dad and I wish now that we had committed to doing the track in a day and not brought overnight gear as it made our packs - mainly Dad's pack - much more heavy. The summit of Riley was wild and windy by the time we reached it so we didn't spend much time there as we felt like we would be blown off! 
  

Coming down was just as hard and more dangerous than climbing up, I almost sprained my ankle several times on the steep and slippery terrain. There was lots of loose shingle descending Riley. After a few hours of walking down Dad's knees were struggling as his pack was very heavy; so we swapped packs for the last couple of hours of the descent. The sun went down about an hour before we reached the carpark, so we had to get our torches out again and take extra care crossing the small rivers and streams on the way back in the dark.
We were both shattered by the time we got back, but proud that we completed it in a day - especially not having trained for it - a pretty big achievement!
Overall a good trip, but I would highly recommend getting some exercise in before attempting it if you are not already very fit!