The highest peak in Arthurs Pass. It had taken us 5 years of living in Christchurch to get around to climbing Murchison. It had always been on the cards, but with a long riverbed approach, it was always bumped down the list as a lower priority. But winter 2024 – what a doozy! With no snow and most of the ski fields shut, we decided it would make for a great weekend mission. Of course, Joe wanted to bring his skis and so we set forth as a team of 4 (2 climbers / 2 optimistic skiers).
- Grade : II, 2 (but condition dependent – crux section felt more like III, 3 )
- Equipment : 1x 30m rope, lightweight rack (handful of nuts, couple of screws), glacier travel equipment
- Time :
- 9h from O’Malleys Track to Barker Hut (1500m elevation gain, 24km)
- 1.5h from Barker Hut to Mt Murchison (1100m elevation gain, ~6.5km)
- Season : in mid July, white glacier was already pretty well filled in, although we were cautious as there had been minimal snow so far in the season
- Team : Climbers Sean & Maria, Skiers Shona & Joe; 13-15/07/2024
Approach
Straightforward but a slog. Park at trailhead for O’Malleys Track – but this carpark is notorious for break ins; we took a risk but otherwise leaving the cars at Klondyke corner campsite is an option. Alternatively you could ask Bealey Hotel permission as it is much closer.
We thought we’d fly across the undulating / largely flat section all the way to Carrington Hut, but heavy packs slowed us and we were about 5h before we got to the hut. The next section involved some slippery boulder hopping due to the thin layer of hoar frost that covered the riverbed (beautiful – but time consuming!). We crossed the river where the cableway once was, and where the White / Taipoiti rivers merge into the Waimak. River levels were super low at the time, (involved just wading up to about knee depth) but worth checking before the trip, as this can become uncrossable.
From here pick your way up the path on the river’s true left. We were losing the light at this point and missed the “trail” which is very well trafficked with cairns and even some marker poles en route. The easiest way is to stay in the river bed until you reach the steep walled gorge, then climb up the tussock slope to get past the gorge and then drop back down again into the river bed. We sidled the whole way to the marked trail on topo maps which was pretty slow – on the way out in the light, the lower track was obvious.
Barker Hut is one of the warmest I’ve stayed in. Well insulated, double-glazing, solar lighting, USB charger (no cable)… A 5* hut! Thanks CMC.
Climb
A leisurely 7.30am start. We followed the usual route up the white glacier as per the guidebook – heading up the steeper ramp on lookers right, beneath point 2189 then zig zagging our way to Kahatea col. There were only a few visible crevasses, but we were wary any snow bridges were likely to be thin on the ground and kept our ropes on until the col.
There are a couple of options to the summit – the easiest way is to sidle NE from the col and climb the 45deg ish snow ramps up the E face of Murchison, which lead to a ridge and a short downclimb and then easy snow slopes up the N face to the summit. We chose a more technical looking option up the S face from the col, with some ice and rock steps. We simul-climbed – the gear was sparse but we found a few reasonable nut placements/slings.
A straightforward 50m west along the ridge led to the summit, where by pure chance we found the skiers (who had taken the easy route!) had beat us to it! After a brief regroup the skiers skied down a chute to the north before rejoining the ridge to ski the east face. Sean and I descended via the same way, although we picked a mellower snow chute on the east face, around 100m north of the col.
To avoid pitching, head up one of the snow chutes along the west face. Requires dropping down to the other side, sidling round to then gain another snow ramp to the summit ridge. Although a little spicier than what Sean and I had expected “too hot, TOO HOT!” – we were pretty stoked we got to do a bit of technical climbing amidst all the plodding. Besides – it justified carrying all the gear we brought!
Peak Exposure 