This year, early season conditions seemed fruitful, so I headed up to French Ridge hut with OUTC afficionados Tom Hadley and Owen Daniell. Skis and boots extrapolated from our packs, crossing bridges up the Matukituki and dodging branches up the French Ridge becomes an extra challenge.
We had a spare day in our schedule before the perfect summit day weather arrived, so we used this as a chance to tour up towards the Quarterdeck and reccie the approach. It’s always good to have this “acclimatization” day when you can afford it. You’re better rested, less stressed, and in tune with the mountain before launching off in the dark to your route.
Staying several nights at French Ridge Hut highlighted how poorly designed this hut is, receiving almost no sunlight in winter during the day, while the locked, empty wardens quarters is bathing in sunshine. NZAC or DOC should rotate this hut 90 or 180 degrees. My watch recorded 0 degrees C inside the hut during the middle of the day. Still, we preferred using the hut rather than an advanced base camp on the Bonar to keep things lightweight.
4AM departure from French Ridge had us at Quarterdeck well before dawn and the base of the SW ridge around 730AM. Instead of carrying enough water for the long day, we carried a Jetboil and brewed a few litres at the base while transitioning from ski-mode to climbing-mode, as dawn broke. This seemed efficient.
We were delighted to find firm, even icy conditions going up the lower ridge despite the concern of cross-loading from SE winds. The “crux” gully was in fat condition, with “hero” alpine ice all the way through a few short steps. Bring a #2 nut and #0.3 cam for the first anchor which can also be used for the exit section. 4-5 ice screws is plenty for this section, we got away with 3 but a few extras would have been nice. One 60m half rope will be more than adequate.
We reached the top about 2PM. As always the view from the summit of Aspiring was magnificent, especially with the winter snows. Tom Hadley had recently traversed the whole Snowdrift Range so he enjoyed retracing his journey from the short distance.
The Ramp had firm snow, and I mostly enjoyed my first descent of the notorious route, though I agree it does drag on for a while and you need to be constantly vigilant. It was amazing to hear later that Sam Smoothy had skiied the ramp in these conditions just the previous week.
Jumping across the ‘schrund just as the sun was dipping into the Tasman was an excellent way to finish the climb.
As we skinned back across the Bonar, the full moon appeared rising from directly behind the tip of Aspiring and at once headlamps were unnecessary on the moonlit glacier. Soon after, we spotted headlamps on the Coxcombe Ridge, approaching the summit. This was Ruari Macfarlane and George Loomes, nearing the end of their new route on the South Face.
Total time 17.5 hours hut-to-hut. 22km, 2500m vertical gain.
