An awesome day on the ridge between two stunning peaks in Arthur’s Pass. I can see why it is so popular! Easily do-able in a day trip from Christchurch. We did this in Autumn, but I think it would make for a great winter day out as well – perhaps even better given you would avoid travelling on loose rock. As Marije said “we’ve given it a good go trying to kill each other today”…
- Grade: II, 3+ (grade probably comes from doing it in winter)
- Time: 11h total (including breaks and a quick swim in the Otira River secondary to peer pressure)
- Equipment: can be done in trail runners/approach shoes. We took a 60m rad line for 1x 25m rap. Tat and a few nuts – didn’t end up using. Lightweight crampons – didn’t use as there was no snow on the route.
- Season: summer/early autumn; also a popular winter route but more objective risk.
- Team: MJ, MK 22/04/2023
access
Park at the small carpark at the start of the Otira Valley Track. We stayed in MJ’s van the night before, allowing for a lie-in… 6am alarm.
Follow an easy marked trail along the river for about 2km – this took us 30 minutes. Cross the bridge and boost up around 1000m elevation up to Philistine. This took around 2h – there’s a dug in trail through the moraine then head up left through Warnock’s bluffs, passing a marker/pole (see below pic – ?karaoke mic).
climb
From Mt Philistine you get stunning panorama views of the national park and the southern alps. Here the ridge travel begins!
Sidling left, sidling right we navigated the gendarmes – it is pretty intuitive most of the time, but with the heavy clag that came in, we couldn’t see what the best way ahead was so made a couple of errors making for trickier climbing. Some of the rock was slick from the previous nights rainfall which also added to the spice. I found it a harder/more exposed than the Phipps-Temple traverse but still felt happy enough without a rope.
As you approach the high peak of Mt Rolleston there is an obvious gully straight ahead and then some orangey/red slabs to the left. Both ways looked okay but the latter more exposed so we chose the gully – it was loose so we went 1 by 1 but was fine otherwise.
Overall from Philistine to Rolleston the ridge took us around 4.5-5h.
From high peak walk 50m East to a rap station – lots of tat and a mallion. It was around 25m long and drops you into a gully. From here sidle left following the vague trail/cairns. This puts you on low peak (2212). There’s a good biv spot here but no water.
descent
Initially follow the ridge for 250m of descent then veer left onto the Otira slide. Variable quality scree but mostly good. We followed some cairns but there were multiple options to pick your way down.
At around 1950m we used a steep gully to descend but this was avoidable in retrospect if you stay left. We found a bit of snow to glacade down which was a brief but welcome respite from the scree!
From here just follow the cairns into the valley floor. Stay left of the river and you’ll meet the trail. Boost back out the way you came – optional swim in the river for bonus points!
Peak Exposure 