Sealy Tarns

Sealy Tarns is a small flat area on the Mueller Ridge that is accessible from the Hooker Valley and Mount Cook Village via a blazed DOC track. The track is extremely steep and features many switchbacks and steps built of large timber anchored into the ground. The area features a tarn (hence its name), an area suitable for tobogganing on the side of the ridge, and an excellent view of The Footstool, Aoraki/Mount Cook, both Hooker and Mueller Glaciers and their respective glacial lakes, and Mount Cook Village.

Panoramic overview

Panorama taken at the lower track entrance to Sealy Tarns

This combined-image panorama was taken in the Winter of 2007 in the afternoon. From left-to-right the notable features are:

• The blazed track further up the ridge to Mueller Hut
• A snow-covered area with toboggan tracks
• Two DOC signs indicating the tarns area with the tarns themselves snow-covered in the background
• The Footstool
• A single wooden park bench (presumably maintained by DOC) is barely visible at the top of the small hill to the right of the tarns
• In center of frame, top-to-bottom:
  • Aoraki/Mount Cook
  • Terminal face and glacial lake of Hooker Glacier
  • Terminal face and glacial lake of the Mueller Glacier (compare to an earlier photo taken two years prior)
• The Mt Cook valley, the village itself is hidden behind the ridge on the right