A Mt Egmont Alpine Club Fantham's peak climb was an opportunity to improve my fitness prior to a summit climb and the next tramp. For some reason I have always found this to be harder on the legs than climbing the summit, although the contours are no steeper - perhaps one doesn't allow enough rests. I was interested to find a rabbit huddled in the scoria half way up.

The near perfect conditions at the onset deteriorated as wet and misty clag came in further up, forcing the wet gear on and the camera packed away.

While I had done a fair bit of tramping around sections of the mountain, it had been 5 years since I had done a summit, when Ian Bardsley and John Barrell and I climbed the East Ridge to Shark's Tooth which at 2510m is 8m lower than the summit (but it looks higher from Hawera). There are much better views from here.