A very high quality rock route – fantastic varied climbing on solid rock basking in the afternoon sun overlooking the Fox glacier. Highly recommended.
Difficulty: Grade : II, 4+, Rock 17
Equipment: 2x 60m ropes. Double rack up to BD size 4
Approach time: on skis from Pioneer Hut around 1h to base of climb.
Climb time: 5h
Season: Late spring/summer. We climbed in November – still some snow around but route was clear.
Team: Joe Collinson, Maria Koo 12/11/2024
Climb
Length : 300m (as stated on thecrag.com; we make it out to be just shy of this probably because of the snow line being high when we climbed it)
There are 3 prominent peaks on Haast – Sun Circle is on the 3rd one on looker’s right. We climbed early season so could walk up the centre of the gully to the main face – topo shows some traversing required to do this late season.
Pitch 1 Access to the main face – was easier for us as it was so early season the snow leads right up to the small rock the meets the main face where the obvious schrund is. Some scrambling up the small block to the rap tat marking the proper start of the route. From the topo this is more involved later in season and involves some traversing from out right. 15m, grade 11.
Short 1st pitch; 2nd pitch trends left at base of route proper
Pitch 2 On the main face there are a number of obvious crack systems that trend up and left all the way to the ridge, just left of a large obvious grey block on the top of the ridge. Some rap tat is on the rock at the bottom marking the start of the route proper. We followed the obvious line of weakness trending up and left which tops out at the ridge about 20m left of the big grey block. V good gear and solid rock. Small gear required to make anchor on the ridge (we used 3x microcams, no obvious block to sling. Around 40m, grade 15.
Pitch 3 Traversed along the ridge, some balancey moves with great exposure staying on the face to get past the block. Once you’re round the block, the going gets easier – keep going until you reach a large ledge which runs diagonally across the buttress. Large flake / spike belay here. 50m, Grade 17
Pitch 4 Stay low/step right from the flake and follow the crack / ledge up and right. Looking above you you can see the amazing parallel cracks that lead towards a roof with lots of large grey blocks. We aimed for the right hand side of this. Some cool moves traversing some flakes / cracks. We built an anchor just where the rock turns grey and the parallel splitters start as was running out of gear. For full value link this and the first half of the next pitch finishing at the rap tat. 50m, Grade 16
Pitch 5 Phenomenal climbing up finger cracks, stepping round a square block and then trending right around the corner just to the left of the large orange block at the corner. This puts you on a ledge with a bunch of rap tat for the descent. But its a bit too soon to build an anchor here – turn left and head up the face until the drag gets too much. 50m, Grade 17
Pitch 6 Trend up and right to the summit. Another amazing fist crack that trends right up to a roof feature of a few overhanging blocks. Easiest to get through on the right, onto flatter ground with a load of large loose blocks. Spike belay from which we rapped. 60m, Grade 15
descent
Real risk of getting ropes stuck – lots of blocks and cracks and not vertical ground so be very careful. Rap back down to the tat you passed on pitch 4. We got our rope stuck pulling on this first rap but thankfully only 10m above the anchor so had enough rope to lead back up to it and free it. From here there’s a steep gully down to the left which is pretty clean (and was full of snow when we were there) which we rapped down and put us back to the snow about 80m above the start of the route. Some good spikes here to rap down the snow gully back to the start of the route / your gear.
A classic climb on the proudest peak in Arthurs Pass, or a steep and technical ski mountaineering line easliy accessible as a day trip from Christchurch. Up there in terms of the steeper and more sustained lines Ive skiied in New Zealand, and with big exposure the whole way this is a serious ski. I went with Maria, Sean and Marije in early September 2023 to climb the route. I’d been thinking about the possibility of skiing the face for a while, but had no recent beta on conditions and it had been a particuarly thin winter so almost didnt bring my skis, but once we hit Rome Ridge and found cold dry snow on the shady aspects it became apparent it was on! Firm windpressed powder and some breakable crust – not dream conditions, especially on such a steep line, but edgeable enough to make it work. Would be an incredible line to ski in powder!
Stading on the summit ridge looking down the line. The first section is pretty full on. Skiing all the way down to the snow line in the Crow Valley is possible
Length – 400m of steep ground with optional further 500m down towards the crow rived Steepness – Very steep and sustained. Opwards of 55deg at the top Exposure – Constant serious exposure the whole way Aspect – S Extras – Picket for rap. Rad line. Screws – 3-4 to protect the climb. Threads may be possible for the descent
Looking along Rome Ridge towards Rolleston. Mostly cruisy ridge travel. Short steep section to gain the filnal flat part of the ridge
We went up Coral track to Rome Ridge, along Rome Ridge to the Sharks tooth / the gap – the end of the flat section of ridge just before the final ascent to low peak. From here theres an obvious gully that drops you down directly under the Crow face, and continues down into the Crow valley.
Travel along rome ridge when the conditions are good is fast and straightforward, but if coverage is thin and you end up on rock it would become a lot slower.
From the car it took us around 1 hour to the treeline, and 3 hours to the sharks tooth, then another 20 minutes to the base of the route.
Taken from Mt Lancelot. Rome Ridge coming in from the right. Follow the ridge until the sharks tooth and then decend under the Crow Face to get to the start of the line. If climbing Rome Ridge to the summit, follow this same route but the cut back up to the gap. Good view of the ski line down the face, and also the option to extend down into the Crow valley
From Rome Ridge you get a reasonably good view of the face to pick a line – although its not possible to see the bottom section in its entirety to figure out the best way through the lower rock band.
We chose a line starting on the left side of the face following the most obvious line of weakness to the summit ridge, but multiple variations exist. When we were there the other lines would have involved some scratchy mixed climbing to get establihed on the face
Climb
Sean booting up through the upper part of the face.
Will vary massivley year to year, but for us we found mostly pressed powder and breakable crust the whole way up the face which made for fast progress. There was a 30 section of WI2 at the very bottom of the route which we pitched, and took reasonable screws. There was another short rock step to negotiate near the summit, only a couple of metres long and no more than M2. There were plenty of oppurtunities for rock pro along the way if needed, and the pickets were solid.
Apart from those 2 sections we simulclimbed and it took us just under 3 hours to climb the route – expect longer if pitching the whole thing.
Maria climbing the Crow Face
We followed the snow ramps to the summit ridge, just below low peak. The final section to the top was hard rime and rocky, but with the right conditions does look like it would go.
The climb is a really fun day out in itself, with a real sense of remoteness and scale despite only being a day trip from Christchurch, and well worth it even without the ski.
Ski
The wide open section of the face, just before cutting left above the WI2 section.
I followed the exact climbing line back down – especially on a face with such fickle conditions this gives a lot of confidence your not going to hit an unexpected chunk of ice and get thrown off the face. Starting at the obvious notch on the ridge, drop into the super steep and narrow right trending gully. This section is really steep and sustained, and the exposure is right in your face so its full focus time. This funnels you into the first rockband – I transitioned to crampons and downclimbed through this to save on loosing a picket. Once through this rockband theres a rightward traverse on a narrow terrace that puts you into the large open snowfield.
Just below the upper rock step. Follow the narrow ramp right to gain the big open face and slightly less steep ground
Once into this the exposure isnt quite as heinous and the angle eases off and you can open it up a bit more. I then tucked back left for the final section, which funneled me back into another steep and narrow gully ending in the WI2 section. I left a picket here and rapped 30m back to the snow.
From here its all go : mellow angle and no exposure = hoon time! You can go all the way to the snow line in the Crow Valley – an option is to then walk out via the Crow Valley to Klondyke corner (about 3 hours and a bunch of river crossings, but a good way to avoid the late in the day soft snow on Rome Ridge). I was meeting the others back at the village so instead retraced my steps exactly back up to Rome Ridge and the back down Coral Track to Arthurs.
Another view of the Crow Face, taken from the Crow valley a few weeks after I skiied it, looking a little more filled in. A line from the summit coming down the central gully looks like it would go in a better snow year
Length – 13.57km, 1,938m elevation. 9hr 9 min solo (longer if using a rope!)
Gear : I had a 30m rope and some tat in case of needing a rap but didnt end up using it. Shoes with some ability to edge – glad I wasnt in trail runners. I’d just bought some Mammut 3 season mountain boots that were perfect. TX5 style approach shoes would also be ideal if you want to move faster. Late in the season the snow travel was very mellow – I had some lightweight crampons and ice axe but only used them coming down from Barrier Knob
I was meeting Maria and some other friends at Homer Hut for a trip to climb at copper point, but had an extra day of good weather and time off work so came down a day early for a solo wander. I couldn’t find a heap of beta online about this loop, which is easily accessable as a day trip from Homer Hut, so thought I would have an explore. The route starts pretty much at Homer hut, climbing up to the West Peak and then traversing to the Middle Peak of Crosscut, before descending a rib to the Crosscut-Barrier col and then ascending again to take in Barrier Peak and Barrier Knob before descending back to the hut via Gertrude Saddle. The Darrans guidebook describes it as ‘loose scrambling at grade 8-9 to West peak, and grade 10 downclimb from middle peak on solid rock’ and estimates 12-14 hours. Apart form the West Peak bit (which is horrendusly chossy and I would avoid at all costs), this is a mega fun day trip with some excellent exposed ridge travel and unbeatable views of the Darrans.
Crosscut on the right, Barrier Peak on the left. Taken from below Barrier Knob
Its hard to get a sense of relative difficulty of these traverses form the guidebook – this is a lot more serious, involved and exposed than the Talbot McPherson traverse or Phillestine-Rollerston traverse and was right on the edge of my comfort zone to be soloing. Sustained mega exposure and a few sections of some actual climbing moves (although easy) means you’ve got to be mentally switched on the whole time – or bring a rope!
The first section is from Homer Hut up to the snowfield below West Peak. Head up Gertrude Valley track for about 5 minutes until you get to a clearing and then turn right up towards West peak.
Crosscut from Homer hut. Choose your own adventure up here. Thats the way I went. Plenty of steep slippy tussock. If you grab enough of it its solid right??
Next up to West Peak. The ‘loose scrambling’ description in the guidebook is somewhat of an understatement – while getting to the summit of West peak is a walk, I wasnt prepared for the heinous levels of choss from here towards Middle peak : this is not what you come to the Darrans for! It was scary and dangerous and I wouldnt recommend it – teetering towers of weetbix which topple with the slightest tickle, above around 1000m or so of exposure to the south and east. Its also very easy to just miss this section out by sidling around the snow below West peak to take the small rib up to the sub peak between West and Middle peaks, which is where the bomber granite starts. I was very happy when this section was over, and the more heroic ridge travel started on excellent rock.
Middle peak and East peak on the left, and the ridge towards Christina on the rightJust below the West peak of Crosscut looking north east. In the depths of the choss. The brown section is especially dodgyCrosscut – West peak on the far right. Route I took in red from right to left. The route I wish I’d taken in blue – the section from west peak towards middle peak is horrendously chossy and uncharacteristic of the rest of the route. Once you pass that rib the rock quality is excellentLooking back at West Peak
The section from Middle Peak down the rib to the col is the crux and is especially good – winding around the ridge on excellent rock over some good exposure down to the glacier below. A couple of sections had a few delicate moves – definitely is more like climbing than I was expecting. Easy but sustained and exposed. Plenty of oppurtnities to sling a spike and rap down to the glacier if the constant head game gets too much, as it is full focus for this whole section. Would have been easy to protect with a running belay if your not by yourself. Grade 10-12 seems about right to me.
Being late season I could follow the ridge all the way down to the col without hitting any snow, and there were some good tarns at the col for refilling the water bottle (and a good spot to admire the imposing south face of Marian) before heading up to Barrier Peak.
Ridge up to Barrier Peak in the middle. Marian peak off to the right, and Barrier Knob on the left. I skirted left around the snow patch at the base to gain the ridge. Straightforward but exposed
I cut around to the west of the ridge / just west of point 1734 where easy low angle slabs cut back up to join the main ridge which is then very straightforward up to Barrier peak. You could also go head on from the col to the ridge but looked a bit trickier to me.
The section to the west of Barrier Peak is really epic – easier ground than Crosscut and very good rock, but with huge exposure and amazing views up towards Lake Adelaide. Some of the best Cheval shuffling around. Soon your onto Barrier Knob and its plain sailing down the Gertrude Saddle track.
One of the chevals to the west of Barrier Peak, with Lake Adelaide to the right
All up a great route and well worth doing if you avoid the choss. If you are protecting the ridge then could get a bit time consuming so leave early!
Looking down at Lake Adilaide from Barrier ridgehappy boy after a day in the sun
I had my doubts about this trip. Much uncertainty regarding the access, timing and weather. It turned out to be the perfect weekend away, and my first taster of a “multi-sport” adventure. With bikes to speed things up, we achieved our objective and made it door-to-door within 48h. Message for the gpx file as can’t upload to the website.
Grade: II, 1+
Time: 20-30min bike to Monument Hut (around 5km, depending on how far your car can take you along the 4WD track). 45 min bike to Red Hut (5.5km). 30 min bike to trail head of Dasler Pinnacles trail (4.5km). 7-8h from trail head to summit and back; time on ridge was around 2h.
Equipment: can be done in trail runners/approach shoes. We took a rope, helmets and tat only. No rack. We took lightweight crampons just in case as there had been an unseasonable dump of snow in the weeks prior but there was no snow on the route and minimal in the surrounds.
Season: Summer/early Autumn to ensure rock is dry. Best to go when dry since significant rainfall in the days prior will have increased the river level, making your crossings spicier.
Team: Maria, Shona, Younes 3-5/03/2023
Access
The Hopkins Valley is very popular with 4WD-ers and hunters alike, so there is a decent 4WD track along the valley floor. If you have a 4WD – or a high clearance vehicle you can drive to Monument Hut. If you’re happy fording then you could drive the whole way to the start of the Dasler Pinnacles trail. We parked 2km from the road end and biked around 5km along easy road to Monument Hut.
The 4WD track towards Monument HutThe first river crossing outside Monument Hut
From Monument Hut, don’t follow the trail into the forest – it is possible to bike but the track makes you gain elevation unnecessarily. Instead cross the river immediately in front of the hut (1st of many crossings so don’t be precious about your feet). There are a few 4WD tracks – one that takes you up the river’s true right then cuts across to Red Hut; the other goes diagonally across towards Red Hut on the river’s true left. The track up the river’s true right was better formed and easier to ride.
Great in-situ chain for a steep section on the Dasler Pinnacles trail – was happy to yard on it.
From Red Hut (great place to stash any sleeping gear etc. that you won’t need for the rest of the day), we biked along an easy 4WD track, stashed the bikes and hiked up to Dasler Biv. Trail is well marked and easy to follow. Follow the trail to the left of the Biv; soon you’ll break out of the beech forest into scrub. Navigate the bluffs, aiming for the base of the N ridge. There is a decent camp spot with water at the point 1840; the views would be glorious and we wished we were staying the night up high. Scramble up the scree, hugging the rock face, up to the base of the N ridge. We stashed some more things under rocks to make our climb even more light & fast.
climb
Fun scramble to the summit; none of it felt committing – if ever there is a steeper section then there are options to sidle around. The rock (?Greywacke) was pretty decent, peaking interest in the other routes on the NW face. Down climb the same way. 2-3h return.
We boosted down, quick cuppa at the Biv, then some respite for the feet as we biked into Red Hut for the night. We just missed the heavy rain, and woke up to snowy mountain tops the next morning. Drove home in time for dinner – a very achievable weekend trip from Christchurch!
The ridgeline! Red line denotes where we went up the scree to the start of the scramble. From Monument Hut, don’t take the trail into the forest, cross the riverView of the Pinnacles from the valley floorDownclimbing on the ridge
Come on a trad multi-pitch climb, she said. It’ll be fun, she said… This was Jack’s first trad/alpine climbing experience and the first on which I lead by myself. The climbing was easy with a crux of 14, and the rock was decent, however a leisurely pace meant we were near-benighted as we struggled to find the walk-off in the dark. Route finding in pitch black and 60kph winds… Not advisable!
Moral(s) of the story – need to work on simul-climbing, bring a lighter rack, a single rope would have been fine, 1 bag of car chips to come back to is not enough
Grade: 5 IV 500m. Crux grade 14 (Largely sub 14, 10-14). All trad including anchors. Good belay ledges.
Equipment: Full trad rack, singles up to #2, full set of nuts. No need for RP/micronuts. 2x 240 slings for anchors. 5-6 alpine draws sufficient including some 120s if confident at the grade – I was only placing 4-5 bits of gear on most pitches. We used 2x 60m half ropes but with long slings a 60m single rope would be fine. We walked off but did come across tat from another party’s rap descent – always a good idea to have some spare tat.
Approach time: 4-5h via the North Temple track/Gunsight Pass
Climbing time: 12h (we took it v slow, a fast party could climb it in half the time)
Season: Best in Summer, for those long days and warm rock. Being on the SW aspect we were largely in shade so layers were appreciated.
Team: Maria, Jack 29/12/2022
Approach
Park at Temple Campsite.
Option 1: Walk in/out via N Temple Track. 1.5h along a doc trail – a few landslides along the way make for navigating some fallen trees. Getting up and over Gunsight Pass to the biv spot took 4-5h. I would not want to descend this chossfest, so would not recommend this as a way out.
Option 2: Walk in via N Temple and out via S Temple (9km, 5-6h in and 16km, 6-7h out). This was the route we opted for. Walk out from the biv to the S Temple track required multiple river crossings. Once you hit the doc trail follow the cairns (there are no regular orange markers until you hit S Temple Hut).
Option 3: As per the guidebook/climbNZ, start on N Temple Track then turn off at BZ14 433 141 and head straight up through scrub towards Bruce-Steeple col. Looking up at the dense beech forest, we thought this might be slow going but I’d be open to trying it next time.
We camped on a strip of tussock amongst the scree marked by X at around 1650m. There’s running water right beside it.
X marks the biv spot; Triangle marks route top out. From the triangle marks our descent route. Climb route not shown, see below.
To get to the base of the route, sidle 200m North of the biv spot along the same contour towards Bruce Peak. The climbing starts at the lowest point of the buttress.
P1: (14, 60m) Poor gear. Climbing no harder than a 14 but felt harder as was difficult to protect.
P2: (10, 60m) Very easy scrambling, can be simu-climbed for confident parties. Minimal gear was placed with much better protection than in the first pitch. Finishes over a wide grassy ledge.
P3: (11, 60m) Similar to above. Follow the arete.
P4: (14, 60m) Probably the hardest pitch yet, grade 14 interspersed with easy grassy ledges. Decent gear. Some steeper areas directly up, however can avoid by sidling right.
P5 (13, 60m) Some staunch moves in between easy climbing.
P6-8: (11-13, 60m each) Can stick to the arete but we chose the path of least resistance, going diagonally left which leads you to a rocky platform.
From here we took the rope off and scrambled the last 50m or so up to the top via an easy gully. The true summit lies 100m East of where you top out. It’s easy ground heading to the true summit then you have to navigate ledges down to Bruce-Steeple col. Would have been much easier in the light but doing it with head torch illumination alone resulted in a lot of back/forth. We ended up actually going down the NE face then coming back up the N side of the col. Came across a block that a party had rapped off down the S face – perhaps in the dark as well? Basically, I’d leave plenty of daylight to figure out the descent. Would expect it would take 1-2h to get back to camp.
All in all a great 3 day trip, and awesome to be able to share in a friend’s first trad climb. A little dose of suffering is good for the character anyway…
Addit: struggling to upload the gpx file at the moment. Just comment if you want it and can send through directly.
A 550m grade 19 trad route on solid rock with varied interesting climbing, just a 3 hour hike from the Mount Cook Road. This route wasn’t really on our radar until Will suggested it, but turned out to be the best multi-pitch route we’ve climbed outside the Darrans. Better than Sabre peak!
Maria coming up the final crack pitch
Grade: 6 IV 550m. Crux grade 19 (According to topo…I think more like 20). All trad including anchors.
Equipment: full trad rack, doubles up to #2, full set of nuts. RPs/micronuts useful. 2x 240 slings for anchors. 5m of tat to sling the big boulder for the descent (its a massive boulder). 12-14 alpine draws including some 120s especially if your planning on doing long pitches like we did. Wandering route, 2x ropes definitely better than a single.
Approach time: 3.5 hour hike from road or 5 min heli and 30 min walk
Climbing time: 7.5 hours
Season: Best in Summer, you want long days and no snow on the route. It’s South facing so you dont get any sun. I wouldn’t have wanted to climb it any later in the year than we did, it was pretty cold and we just got it done before dark
Team: Joe, Maria and Will Rowntree 09/4/2022
The route. Generally stick to the ridge. About half way up step right onto the right facing black wall up to the big yellow roof
Approach
The riverbed approach
If hiking in, park up in the lay by just south of the bridge at the end of Bush stream. The track is initially fairly well trodden but after a km or two you’re rock hopping up the river bed, crossing multiple times. It’s uneven ground but fairly easy going, and no bush bashing is required. The climbing line is super obvious as you come up the valley, dominating the skyline on the northern side. As you get to the upper valley under the route the river bed flattens up and you can cruise up scree slopes to the base of the route. It should take around 3.5 hours to get to the base of the route from the car (it would be pretty difficult in the dark though). The alternative (and what we opted for due to only a short time window) was to fly in from Glentanner airport and then walk out. A flight was $580 so pretty affordable between 3, and the 08:30 had us at the base of the route and climbing by 09:30.
the route
Walking up from the river bed to the base of the route
Follow a line up the obvious prominent buttress. Varied climbing with delicate slabs, stemming corners, excellent finger and fist cracks and juggy overhangs. There are multiple short defined cruxes which are generally 4-5 moves long before the difficulty eases again. You generally follow the ridge apart from one section – the most obvious feature from the ground is the right facing black corner about halfway up that ends with a big yellow roof. You stem up this corner and traverse left back onto the ridge under the roof. The gear and rock quality is pretty consistently good and it never felt particularly run out or scary. The route finishes at about 1700m (so significantly lower than the summit of Mt Brown), from here you can either make one 30m rap to a scree field and descend or continue on to the very top which is a lot of scrambling and it looks like a few more pitches of climbing.
The topo on climb nz describes 14 pitches, but we ran a few of these together to end up with 9.
Pitch 1: (14 40m) Don’t judge the route by this pitch! Start at the base of a mossy grassy gully which trends up and left. Either stay in the gully for easier but mossier climbing or step left onto the slab for harder but cleaner climbing. Marginal gear on this first section but it isnt too difficult. Once past this mossy section the gear gets better, and you pull over a slightly steeper section onto a large low angle slab with a great fist sized crack that takes #3/#2 cams to make an anchor.
Pitch 2: (16 40m) The start of the good climbing. Fantastic layback crack from the anchor. Eases into low angle slab after 3-4 moves. 2 more of these steps up to a spike belay on a boulder on left hand side of the ridge.
First pitch, bit mossy. It gets better!Anchor at the top of the first pitch. Great moves up this crack to start the second pitch
Pitch 3: (17 40m) Head up and right from the belay to the top of the arete. From the flat platform step right onto the steep wall hanging out over the edge and traverse up and round to the right. Mega exposure! Big jugs and good gear. Once you’re up over this section the angle eases off. Aim for the right hand side of the ridge to make your belay.
Big jugs and good gear stepping out onto this section on the 3rd pitch. Good exposure.
Will coming up through the crux of the 4th pitch. Stemming up the black right facing corner.
Pitch 4: (19/20 50m) First crux pitch. Traverse right from the belay on a balancey slab with underclings on a small roof. Try and stay low and use long runners on the traverse to reduce drag. After the traverse head up the black right facing corner to the roof where you make a hanging belay. Really cool technical climbing with stemming in the corner. A stuck in #1 red cam and 2x abandoned nuts on the right mark where you’re aiming for! There’s good gear up the corner, gobbles up small cams, especially #0.5 and smaller. The crux is the last move before the anchor, with delicate moves pulling up over a blank black overhang. Save a #2 cam and a micronut / RP to protect this move. Try not to use your #3 in the anchor as you’ll want it for the next pitch.
Pitch 5: (19 40m) From the hanging belay head left under the roof along the crack to the arete. Solid gear (#3 cam) and big jugs for hands but delicate feet and great exposure! Crank up and over onto easier ground.
Maria leading off from the hanging belay on the 5th pitch
Pitch 6: (16 50m) Low angle scrambling straight up the ridge to a large flat platform several metres wide. Cranky move to get up over onto the next section.
The ledge traverse at the top of pitch 7. Its tempting to go up to the top, above and left of Maria, but then you’ll have that big down climb to negotiate, so stay left where Maria is.
Pitch 7: (14 50m) Head up towards the top of the ridge. Stay to the left and traverse along the ledge – it’s tempting to go right up onto the very top but if you do there’s a difficult downclimb of a few metres. From here you get to a knife-edge ridge about 20m long made of quite loose flaky rock. Take care traversing this and get to the base of a series of steps up blocky ground.
The final section – around 10m finger crack then into a similar length fist crack. The most fun climbing of the route!
Pitch 8: (17 50m) Head straight up a series of corners / cracks which initially is quite loose but the quality improves as you go up. Some great stemming and laybacking towards the top. Good spike belay.
Pitch 9 : (19 70m) we did this all as one but probably better broken into 2 (or 3) pitches. Easy ground from the belay for 20m up to a ledge. Then up the big black towers to the top! Up the finger crack first to another small ledge, then into the fist crack which slowly widens to the top. Fantastic jamming and excellent gear on super interesting rock! Then scramble up the final scree gully to the big flat ledge system which it the top of the route.
Maria doing the last moves on the final fist pitch
descent
From this large scree platform there is a lot more vert up to the top of Mt Brown, but the standard route cuts off left down the scree ledges to a north facing gully. There is a giant block here which you can make a 30m rap down to the large scree slope to the North and then it’s an easy walk all the way back down to the valley. It took us around an hour to get from the top of the route back down to the valley.
From the top of the fist pitch its temping to go up here to the Red Cross like we did. If you want the standard route don’t bother, turn left from here and aim for the second gully to rap downFrom the top of the fist crack head down here to the rap
Carrying on to the very top looks like it would involve 2 more pitches of climbing (beyond the Red Cross in the above picture) and then a good few hundred metres of walking up through scree fields.
Doing the route in April meant the days were short and by the time we got back down to the valley it was fully dark. Thankfully we had left a GPS dot on our camping gear or we would never have found it after burying it under rocks for Kea protection. The whole river bed is covered in good bivvy spots, or if you cross to the south side of the river near the big boulders there are some even bigger spots.
Biv spot
It’s a really leisurely day to fly in and then camp, and we got stuck into our soups and curries feeling pretty smug we werent going to go straight into a big walk out. Saying that in summer with more daylight it would be no problem to do the route and walk out the same day.
After a good night’s sleep we cruised out to the car in 3 hours and then headed back up to Christchurch – all up one of the best weekend trips from Chch I’ve had with an unprecedented ratio of actual good climbing compared to slogging through approach. Highly recommended!
I first heard about this route from my guide on a mountaineering course; he had recommended it as a classic ‘must-do’ for the region. That was 2 years ago, but I finally got round to it in March 2022. A really great day trip from Cook village. Easy access, long route (800m), non committal. And the rock quality was pretty good! She says, surprised.
Very solo-able. Some parties may want to take a rope but expect a long day if that is the case; it is an 800m route! As a frame of reference, it was more exposed than the Phipps Temple Traverse, but similar in parts to the access to Moir’s mate.
Grade: III 3, crux 8
Equipment: we took a 30m rope and a minimal rack just in case
Approach: 2h up the Hooker Valley track from White Horse Hill Campground
Climbtime: 4h to top ridge then further 1.5h scrambling up to Mt Wakefield
Season: best in summer/early autumn when dry rock is guaranteed
Team: Jack, Maria 5/3/22
approach
Woke up at the very reasonable time of 7 after driving down from Christchurch the night before to stay at the NZAC’s Unwin Lodge – email ahead to book a spot and bring cash for fees.
Easy walk along the marked Hooker Valley track. Cross all 3 suspension bridges. Just nearing the end of the track, turn off the path right towards the scree field. There are two large scree fields, it is the one closest to the Hooker lake. Fatmap has a really handy route overlay.
From here scramble up to looker’s right of the scree field. The direct start (18/19) is on the left sticking to the arete. We started further right. Initially a bit vegetated (I was in head high bush briefly), but the route comes into its own the higher up you go. Soon you’re scrambling over decent rock with stunning views of Aoraki the whole way up. Route finding was pretty straight forward; generally we stuck pretty close to the arete.
Guideless route; direct start (18/19) follows the arete just left of our lineOur route closer up
The route pops you out at around 1960m on to a very Mars-esque plateau. Walk left and scramble up to Mt Wakefield. Soak in the 360 panorama before taking care going down -there was more loose rock on this section than on the actual route.
Ridge South of Mt Wakefield
We initially thought we’d walk south along the ridge until we met the Tasman Valley Road, and had dropped a car off there in the morning, but the ridge looked quite involved (see photo on left) and it was already mid afternoon so we dropped down into the scree field west of 1566m. Scree quality was average but this saved us a good few hours. At the bottom head right and within a km you’ll hit the Hooker Valley Track again.
Type 1 fun all the way. Would climb again, next time via the direct start or via the other Wakefield gullies!
New Years day. Hungover and sleep deprived. What better way than to sweat it all out in a 3-day adventure into the Darrans?
This was a good old NZ epic in the back country. The approach was not merely a way to access Sabre; it felt just as much a part of the trip as the actual climb. I’d steel yourself up against the good slog in and out, and a long day out for the 500m climb up this beast. But the rewards are pretty sweet – with the elegant backdrop of Lake Adelaide, Sabre juts out impressively, true to its name, and has been luring climbers to it since the first ascent in 1959 via the West ridge.
The line we took on Sabre Peak. Marian to the right.
Grade: 17
Equipment: 2x 70m half ropes. Full rack including 1x set of cams, nuts, long slings. Lots of tat to rappel.
Approachtime: 6h to Phil’s Biv
Climb time: ~16h biv to biv
Season: best in summer as minimal snow and dry rock
Team: Joe, Maria 1-3/01/2022
approach
From Homer Hut carpark, take the well signposted track for Gertrude Saddle. It is a popular day walk so plenty of people coming and going. At gertrude saddle (around 1.5h to here), follow the obvious path NE towards Barrier’s Knob. There was a bit of snow for the last hundred metres up to barrier knob, but we were in our light-weight crampons and trail runners and had no issue.
From Barrier knob, head down the ridge to Adelaide saddle (further 1h or so). Route finding to Gifford’s crack/gap is fine here as long as you go all the way down to the saddle. Don’t make the mistake we did and drop down too early, as we had to descend steep moist tussock and make one rap off a dubious spike to reach the valley floor.
Gifford’s crack is steep but in dry conditions could be down climbed carefully. There is a faint hint of a trail to reassure that you are on route. There are a few single bolts you can use to rap down it (unclear to me why someone would go to all the effort to bring a drill, just to drill one not two bolts…). Going up it felt fine, but for less confident parties can be climbed in 2-3 pitches.
Giffords from the bottom. You come in from Barrier Knob on the skyline top left, cross over the rise in the middle by staying west and then drop down into Adelaide saddle. Theres an obvious gully to downclimb with a couple of bolts.
Once down in the basin, soak in the views of Sabre in the distance. It looks really steep and intimidating from a distance – but don’t worry, it feels way more approachable up close!
We made another error here and stayed low in the basin and headed towards Sabre, but the scrub was thick and the travel was slow. Took us 2h but can be faster if you stay high as we did on the way out. There is a definite break in the bush that leads you all the way to Phil’s Biv – aka a 5 star hotel.
There was no vacancy that night at Phil’s Biv, but we had brought a tent just in case, and set up for a dinner and early night. I realised I had forgotten to pack any spoons for Joe or myself. This was a downer but made so much worse by then realising I had also forgotten the coffee! I was not popular…
the route
Alarm set for 5am. As we were eating breakfast (quite challenging without spoons) we saw 3 head torches in the distance heading up and we knew we would have company for the day. Getting to the base of the route is a bit tricky so we were grateful for the cairns en route. Head to the the left of the obvious waterfall on the North Buttress – see picture below. There was some snow here when we were there, stretching 50m or so. Gain the tussock ramp on the left, climbing up before reaching another waterfall. Zig zag back right at this point where the ground flattens off.
Swipe to see the route we took – it isn’t as bad as it looks from afar. Pretty similar to Giffords crack in steepness. The track is cut into the cliff a bit and as long as its dry never feels too sketchy. The hardest route finding was at the top where it cuts back hard right on itself (the furthest left point of the red line) – just head up the low angle slab towards the tussock.
I would divide the route into 3 distinct sections.
Part 1 Getting to the crux – can be done either through the yak pastures (what we did) or via the direct variant graded 19 (what we wished we had done), and ending at a massive obvious spike belay and ledge right on the ridge of the N butress. Its not obvious from the above photo but once you hit the yak pastures there a deep obvious gully that cuts up diagonally from the right hand edge of the yak pastures towards the ridge. Its going to take a varying number of pitches depending on exactly which way you go and has the potential to be very time consuming. We took 5 in total.
P1: Started up the low angle slabs on the left
P2: head diagonally towards the right which takes you to a spot which you can see the yak pastures from.
P3-4 : Full quest time. Awful, slimy, mossy, run out. We were heading up through the muddy slippy tussock which was pretty unprotectable and not a lot of fun. When you eventually get up to the yak pastures it levels out and you can find a good anchor on the rock band on the right
P5 – Start on the far right of the yak pasture and follow the gully that goes diagonally up and left towards the ridge where the spike belay is and the actual climbing starts! The rock quality and pro is actually decent in this gully, a welcome reprieve from the last few pitches
Swipe up for route/annotations. Gettting up to the Yak pastures wasn’t a lot of fun. Mossy, muddy, wet, hard to protect. This is how we went but probably a much better way. The crack straiught down from the spike apparently goes at 19 and looks much nicer! Once your at the Yak Pastures it gets much better.
This angle gives a much better view of the gully from the yak pasture up to the ridge, and the belay ledge that signals the start of the good climbing!
Part 2 The crux aka the good climbing! – 3 pitches of super fun well protected grade 17 climbing – not really the crux because grovelling through the slimy tussock of death below was way scarier and harder. Took us around 4h to get here.
P6: 16, 45m. Very enjoyable, finally nice clean granite just as we were promised! Super fun exposure swinging out left onto a ledge before heading up the obvious crack. Spike belay and ledge here.
P7: 17, 40m. Stem city. Fun moves up the corner straight up, following the obvious line of protection.
P8: 16, 40m. Again straight up.
Part 3 The final pitches to the summit – Lots of different ways you can go, angle mellows out significantly. Choose the path of least resistance, grade 14 or so is possible to the top (although we veered right under an overhang/roof section which was very cool and fun climbing, harder than it needed to be. Probably about 18/19. Worth the detour if you can be bothered.
P9: Traverse right, jugs the whole way but v exposed. Then easy scrambling up. Bit of rope drag here.
P10: Directly up.
P11: Up and towards the right takes you to a tricky overhanging roof, which is difficult to protect. Alternatively stick left for an easier option.
P12: Easy scrambling to the biv spot just shy of the summit.
We got here by around 5.30pm. Tired but great feeling of accomplishment! Quick sandwich before starting the descent.
Coming up one of the mellow top pitches with some amazing views
Descent
Scramble south past the multiple biv spots that people have built and towards the summit. To get to the rap station head East around 50m before you reach the summit, aiming towards the East ridge. The stations are pretty obvious with huge bundles of tat from previous groups. Bring enough tat to replace weathered slings and be ready to leave some nuts behind. From the top your aiming for a giant obvious gendarme – the rap line is just to the skiiers left of this. Some people downclimb to the gendarme but that seems pretty sketchy to me, especially with tired brain kicking in.
Cloud coming in at the start of the first rappel
We were down to the Sabre-Adelaide col by 8pm. We had to walk through down some snow and mossy slabs to get to where we started the climb. Took us another 2.5h to get down to camp. Had another spoonless meal and KO’d by 10.30.
Had a much needed lie in the next day then paced it out! Great way to kick off 2022.
Once you’ve walked down from Sabre Adelaide col, you can easily get bluffed out on the wet slabs especially if its dark. This is an easy way down to where the climbing started.
GPX files. GPS went slightly haywire a couple of times on the summit but you get a good picture of the approach and descent routes. The approach file is the correct way through Giffords, not the way that we took on the way in!
More widely known for ski touring, the Arrowsmith range is much less trafficked for its Climbing routes. We decided to check the area out mid February, savouring the last of the summer. It certainly is a beautiful area with striking peaks piercing the skyline, a downscaled version of Patagonia? Rock quality being much more questionable, of course. Wouldn’t be New Zealand without a bit of character building choss.
We didn’t actually finish the full route up Mt Arrowsmith (despite it being described as “the best part” by ClimbNZ), turning around instead at Outlier (unnamed on NZ topo at 2723). It was still a stunning climb – would just take caution on the rock and take plenty of time and tat.
Grade: 4-, crux 14
Equipment: 1x full set of cams, range of nuts, 5x alpine draws, 9x 60cm slings, 2x 120cm slings, 1x 60m rope, tat, 1x ice-axe, ATC, microtraxion, crampons (we took lightweight aluminium crampons – Petzl’s Leopard – which were sufficient), avi gear
Approach time: 4-5h (~13km direct but meanders)
Climb time: 16h 45min
Season: we climbed in February, late summer, but could be climbed throughout the summer or as a winter route, bearing in mind the avalanche risk
Team: Joe, Maria 20-22/2/22
getting there
Drive took just under 3h from Christchurch. Drive along Hakatere Heron road, past Lake Heron. Turn left onto 4-wheel drive track where you will pass a gate. Park up near the sign/intention book. There are deep ruts in the last 10m leading up to this point so some cars might want to park just shy of the sign to avoid getting stuck.
Our route
approach
Well marked trail all the way to the hut with marker posts (grey, not the usual DOC orange) – not to be confused by the tall, orange speargrass! Bit of bog, minimal bush. Follow the river. Hut is very easy to spot – hunter green with hot pink door, super distinctive. Well equipped hut with pots/pans, cutlery, industrial hand sanitiser and hours of reading material from decades old copies of The Canterbury Mountaineer.
Intentions book wrongly stated that “everything is cut off” so we altered our plans – instead of going via the South Cameron glacier, we would attempt the Douglas glacier which was in view from the hut as having minimal snow/névé to travel across. Happy with plan B, we settled in for an early night at 7.30pm.
Cameron Hut with Douglas Glacier behind
climb
Alarm woke us up at 3am – a solid sleep only briefly disturbed by the sound of Kea claws dancing on the hut roof. Set off by 4am.
It took us around 3h to get up the moraine onto Douglas glacier and then onto the col just East of East Horn (see topo above). Patchy bits of glacier meant we had to take the crampons on and off a couple of times.
We navigated across the South Cameron glacier, weaving through bands of seracs then accidentally found ourselves amidst them so had to use one cheeky ice screw to get onto firmer ground… Swinging an ice axe in one hand and a pole in the other – a well established technique.
Looking back at the col E of East Horn from the North; Douglas glacier on the other side
It was not obvious where the base of the route was, but given the crux was 14 we found a starting point that looked reasonable and went with it.
The buttress – route started around the corner
We climbed in our boots, simulclimbing 90% of the time – the ridge is very exposed but the climbing is easy. An epic cheval made for a great photo op but in reality we went along the side of it as the drop off at the other end looked steep.
Lots of variations to this route are possible; we chose the easiest line
As the rock steepened off we pitched the last 100m to the summit of Outlier at 2723m.The original route describes going across to Arrowsmith but spontaneous rock fall around us did not fill us with much enthusiasm to stay for long on the ridgeline. We also noticed a core shot in the rope at around the 50m mark – presumably from a rock falling onto it earlier in the day. Definitely time to turn around. Perhaps the ridge would be more appealing in Winter..!
Full route of the ascent; we descended on the south face
Descent
We cut the rope, tied it and rapped off. There were decent spikes to rap off the whole way. We made 3x 25m raps then walked back to a snowy col. We could see the entire S Cameron glacier from the climb – it wasn’t cut off so we chose to walk out this way.
The moraine was reasonably easy to walk down. Stay high until you reach the grassy buttress otherwise you’ll get bluffed out. Once at the grassy buttress there is a faint path in the moraine which you can follow down. It turns into an obvious path all the way back to the hut. We got back just as we were losing daylight. Boots off, salty soup and a big feed before bed.
Next day we walked out faster than the way in – lighter packs and we had no lunches so that made for motivation to GTFO!
Peak Exposure 