VulcanSpirit - Dun Mountain, late entry

Dun Mountain, late entry

VulcanSpirit

Richard & Alison Brunstrom

Mon 20 Jan 2014 05:46

While in lovely Nelson the ever-intrepid crew of the Vulcan Spirit Dun Mountain (well, most of it anyway) by bicycle. Photographic proof of this heroic ascent has just become available and can now be presented here.

Dun Mountain overlooks Nelson and was so named by the early British settlers because of its colour (Dun, as in the Dun Cow PH, is an old English word for brown). This colour comes from a mineral, imaginatively named 'dunite' by a German geologist, is composed of olivine, a silicate rich in magnesium and iron which oxidises to brown. Early prospectors were so excited by this mineral belt that they caused the construction of NZ's first railway in order to reach the mineral exposures near the summit of Dun Mountain, opening in 1862. The railway closed in 1868 and its trackbed is now a wonderful mountain bike trail - and here we are on it, climbing slowly up an easy bit through the native beech forest:

The gradient is a steady 1:20 most of the way, but due to the difficulties of surveying through virgin bush & forest the line goes up and down a bit. The railway was 3' gauge so the track bed is just right for cycling.

And here is the team at Bullock Spur, alt. 305m (on right is Vicky Jackson, the Ocean Cruising Club Port Officer for Nelson - we are OCC members):

We're heading for Coppermine Saddle, and towards the top the gradient eases (just as well, we thought) to a gentle 1:70. The vegetation here is naturally very sparse as the chemical composition of the rock is poisonous to most plants. Those that do survive make up a unique and very valuable community. The scruffy looking tussock grass for instance is a distinct species Chionchloa defracta which is endemic just to this mineral belt around Nelson.

Visible in the distance on the right in the photo below is Dun Mountain summit, with the track aiming for the saddle below it:

And here is the crew again, at the Saddle. There never really was a coppermine here due to lack of copper - but there was chromite, used to dye cotton cloth, which was exported to England for a while. You can't quite read the altitude in the photo, but it is 878m (2853 feet) - and we cycled all the way up from sea level.

And then the descent. This started off fine, but soon degenerated. This track was supposed to be 'Intermediate' grade which the climb certainly was - but the descent was a whole different kettle of fish! No photos exist of this event due to the inability of any of the expedition members to operate a camera caused in equal measure by terror and finger cramp from maniacally gripping the brakes for kilometre after kilometre. I have been on 'Advanced' tracks that were far easier - but a real sense of achievement was felt by all on our safe arrival at the bottom. I only fell off once, on an easy straight section (temporary lack of taught attention being the culprit), and only puncturing my knee a little. Ali emerged totally unscathed, being far better at going downhill than up.