Nearing the base of the notorious Pudding Rock, we met Ben Dare & Danny Murphy, who were on their way to Empress Hut at the head of the glacier for an attempt on a new route on the Sheila Face of Aoraki/Mt Cook. We followed their line through a labrynth of gaping crevasses through the Hooker icefall, lured by a deceptively easy route...
Many creaking snow-bridges and heart-in-mouth leaps across the voids we reached the top of the icefall, in time for lunch near the old Gardiner Hut site. Wind rushed up the valley with a bite, chilling us with waves of sleety showers, and the prospect of a bivvy higher up on the mountain below the South Face left us grimacing.
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| Traversing a narrow snow-bridge in the Hooker icefall |
We perservered up the snow slopes of the lower mountain towards in the base of the West Ridge, and to our delight, discovered a sheltered snow platform inside a 5m deep crevasse between the rock face on the edge of the glacier.
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| Enjoying a hot brew in our bivvy spot at the base of the West Ridge of Mt Cook |
Michael abseiled in first to test the stability of the snow, before we all climbed down to arrange our home for the night. Perched in relative comfort at 2200m, out of the wind, we enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine filtering into our icy abode as we boiled up hot drinks and a warm meal through the evening.
At 4.00am we peeled ourselves from the warmth of bivvy bags with a mixture of apprehension and excitement that accompanies the alpine start of every big climb. By first light we were approaching the base of the South Face as Mt Sefton's eastern flanks caught the morning glow.
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| Mt Sefton at dawn |
Conditions were superb, a perfect freeze and little wind. Tawny took the first lead. Racking up with a set of ten ice screws, he set off up a steep first pitch of ice, enduring a painful bout of the screaming barfies early on before pushing into easier terrain, and bringing Michael and I up to the first anchor.
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| Tawny charging up the ice on the sharp end |
Pitch two brought us to the base of a mixed traverse, where both rock and ice were thrown into the mix. I took over the lead for the following four pitches, which traversed beneath a prominent rock band before heading straight up several steeper ice steps.
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| Michael following the spicy mixed traverse |
The relentless front-pointing tired the calves; chipping out resting platforms to place ice protection was essential. The ice was in superb condition, blobby ice features provided exciting climbing. After eight pitches, the final crux of the route came into view – an ice-cliff just left of one of the major seracs on the face. Michael traversed into position and sent the pitch of consistent WI3 in good style. The angle of the upper face relented, but required focus as the icy conditions persisted.
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| Michael and Tawny following up the upper South Face |
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| Tawny approaching the crest of the West Ridge |
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| Michael cramponing up icy slopes towards the South Summit at dusk |
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| Michael nearing the South Summit |
It was
surreal to finally top out on the Low Peak of Aoraki/Mt Cook as the sun set
over the cloud-filled valleys of the West Coast, the Caroline face plunged
2000m below, and our next objective – the Grand Traverse – stared us down in
the fading light.
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| Michael on the South Summit at sunset, with the bulk of Middle & High Peaks behind, our objective for the following day |
Wary of our fatigue and the onset of night, we simul-climbed
the engaging snow & rock ridgeline to Porter Col, un-roping for the final
climb to our accommodation for the night, NZ’s highest backpackers – Middle Peak
Hotel.
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| Traversing the rock & snow ridgeline between the South Summit and Porter Col |
This was the scene of Mark Inglis & Philip Doole’s 14-day survival
epic. We set to work melting snow with our Jet-boil, and flattening out a
sleeping platform, before collapsing inside bivvy bags, exhausted from the
day’s effort. Before passing out for the night, we each agreed that this was our most intense
day of alpine climbing to date.
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| Middle Peak Hotel |
The third
day dawned blue-bird as we emerged from our ice-cave into our world viewed from
3600 metres. Simply spectacular.
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| The Grand Traverse |
From atop Middle Peak, the sweeping summit ridge towards the High
Peak entered into view. Conditions across the 1-kilometre traverse varied from
easy snow to hard sastrugi ice, mostly the latter, requiring calves of steel
and considerable concentration.
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| On the Grand Traverse, crab-crawling across the most exposed kilometre of ridgeline in New Zealand |
We simul-climbed as a three for security due to
the firm conditions. Ice protection was adequate, but use of the rope did
involve much frustration, often catching on shards of sastrugi or slicing
through the snow cornice.
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| Mt Tasman from the summit of Mt Cook |
On the
summit of High Peak, we were joined by Reg Measures and Timothy Elson, who had
followed our scent from the Hooker Valley, repeating our exact route in blisteringly
quick time, showing how efficiently the route can be climbed. David Chen and
Gemma Wilson were by this time descending the summit rocks after climbing the
Zurbriggen Ridge. A busy day on New Zealand’s highest, and an excellent start
to a summer in the Southern Alps.
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| Walking out across the Grand Plateau with red peaks afire in the dawn |
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| White Dreams, Grand Memories |
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| The South Face - Grand Traverse |
