Mt Cheeseman from Texas Flat 30th August 2025

Trip report: Harry Langford (participant)  Photos: Adam Humphries (trip leader)

On the dawn of the thirtieth of August 2025, seven motivated and slightly sleep deprived Canterbury Westland members met at the Texas flat car park in Craigieburn Forest park. The weather forecast had been looking grim prior to the trip, but we were all optimistic and set off on this adventure anyway.

All of us, most from Christchurch and some hailing from as far as Geraldine, set off at 7:15am. A scenic half-hour walk through tussock and brief patches of native beech forest took us to the first important decision-making point of the day. We could either take the steep and monotonous south spur, which was the direct route to the summit, or the more adventurous east ridge which looked quite daunting to the recently basic-snowcraft graduate that I am. We quickly decided to do the latter and connect the east ridge to the summit of Mt. Cheeseman and descend via the south spur. After another half an hour we reached the base of the ridge where the real fun began! Scrambling around little gendarmes and avoiding the big drop offs on either side proved much more enjoyable than I had expected.

Halfway up the ridge we put on our crampons as the snow became harder. Eventually we topped out at pt. 1950 where we were greeted by near-gale force winds determined to blow us off the mountain. No summit photos were had, and the team bloody-mindedly began the traverse to the true peak of Mt. Cheeseman.

By the time we reached the true summit of Cheeseman at 11.30am everyone was well ready to have a well-deserved rest and lunch break and get out of the wind. We sidled around and down into a less exposed area and had lunch. Soon after the group put their crampons away and began the descent down the spur. Very scenic views were to be had down into the castle hill basin and to the iconic Torlesse range.

After a very satisfying scree-run down to the point at which we had made the decision of which route to take hours before, it was around 1pm. A pleasant walk through the aforementioned tussock and beech forest took us back to the cars and out of the deteriorating weather.

All in all, a very satisfying, challenging and enjoyable loop that I would recommend for anyone looking to do a day trip in the Craigieburns that still has a bit of a grunt factor.

A great day out with other fellow Alpine club members that was 7 hours in total including stops.