remarkables – Peak Exposure

July 23, 2023

MK Gully, Remarkables West Face

A classic moderate M3 mixed climb on the west face of the Remarks, previously unskiied. Back in July 2021, Maria and I had taken some friends there a few days earlier for an intro to mixed climbing, and as we were wallowing up the route through knee deep powder I got thinking this would be a great ski line. Luckily I was off work the next day so came back with the skis to open the line. Farily hectic line : short but technical and exposed at the top, with a mandatory air into the steepest narrowest part of the gully, just above another cliff band. High pressure stuff! Bumped into Grice who was working patrol and told him my plans and was keen to join me, but sadly couldn’t get out of work duties. But it did mean he was at the top of the line to take these rad photos! Chur!

Skiing the top section of MK gully, above the mandatory air

At the top of MK gully. I used the huge block to the right to rap off — Standing at the entry to MK gully. Block to the right is good to rap off

Length – The climbing route to Queens Drive is 150m. But you can keep going beyond there until the snow runs out, I made it about another 300m.
Steepness – Initially around 40-45. After the air its steep (around 45-50) and you havent got long to control your speed before the next drop
Exposure – Critical in the top section. Gets its M3 grade from several vertical rock steps which are linked by snow ramps. Once your through this your cruising
Aspect – West
Difficulty – 5.2 E3. Difficulty really all comes in sticking the air and controlling your speed in the narrow and steep mid section before the next cliff. Falling on the landing would cause a really nasty tumble through the next cliff band
Equipment – 60m rad line. Crampons and 1x tool. Picket and rap tat

Rapping through the rock back at the top of MK gully. — Got the rope out right at the top to get into the main part of the line.

As with all of these climbing lines, its critical to check theres nobody coming up the route before you start skiing it.

Start by going up Shadow chair and head up past the chutes across the top of diangulator all the way up to the ridgeline. The top of MK is just in front of you at a flat section. The climb has several different topouts – the furthest skiiers left is the most skiiable. The large block in the above photo is the best landmark to ID it, and also works well as a rap anchor. I rapped about 5m over the rocks at the top – after getting through it and seeing the snow on the other side, it totally would have gone to just jump the rocks. Maybe next time!

The line is in 2 distinct halves – above and below Queens Drive. Above is the climb – steep, narrow, and tight with several rock steps you have to either air or rap. The very top section from the ridge takes you diagnoally down and right to the main fall line, and the first rock step. Roughly 2-3m high into the steepest and narrowest part of the line, with only about 20m or so after to control your speed before the next cliff. I went off the skiiers left of the block where the drop was smaller but you land in a really narrow part of the gully. A more heroic option would be straight off the end of the block, but you really dont have long to stop before the next cliff, and falling through it would be seriously bad.

If you were going to rap this middle cliff a picket would be the way. Unusal to get good ice just there and scraping around for rock pro would be a pain.

The next cliff is a similar height, but had ice on the landing when I was there so I put the crampons on and downclimbed. But again I reckon it would go late season in a big snow year!

Once the skis are back on the pressure is off and its type 1 fun – blast down through Queens Drive and down the gully until the snow runs out! I then just hiked back up to Queens Drive and out to the ski field. I would definitely NOT recommend carrying on down the West Face – did this on a previous trip down Morning Glory and it turned into the quest of all quests

Youtube link below for the POV

May 5, 2022

Mt Tuwhakakaroria North East Face

The big obvious ski line visible in the distance when looking south from Wye saddle, I’d been wanting to ski this peak for years before finally getting round to it. Beautiful north facing spring corn in a striking couloir from the highest peak in the range make this a very worthwhile outing. It makes a great day trip from Lake Hope, or a big mission with a very early start from the Remarkables. We skiied the line marked in the photo on the North East aspect. A slightly steeper couloir on the North face looks excellent, but had a bare rock step that would have required a rap when we were there

Alex on the summit, with double cone visible in the background

Length – 600m (300m main line, further 300m bowl to bottom of valley)
Steepness – 35 deg average. Steeper at the top before opening into a wide open 35 deg bowl
Exposure – Nil on descent.
Aspect – North East facing. Perfect for spring corn early in the day
Extras –
Difficulty – 3.2 E1
Equipment – Crampons, 2x tools (1x will be ok if your climbing the ski line and your confident on your crampons. Traversing from the West is a bit more involved and 2 tool was nice.) Snow stake, rap tat if your taking the central couloir as it may need a rap. Otherwise no rope needed.

Approach

We did this as a day trip from Lake Hope, where we were camping for a few nights. This is the easiest access – its a quick skin from the lake up to the ridge East of 2080. Its then straighforward to gain the 2000m contour and climb up the gully from the West, traversing the peak and then gaining the coulor. It took us 3 hours from the camp site to the summit.

Climbing the NW face, the line we took from Lake Hope marked in red

The alternative is to skin out from the Remarkables – I did this route on a seperate trip, and have attached the GPX file below. You can do this as a big day trip but you have to start very early. It took us about 4 hours from Remarks base building to the bottom of the face, and leave at least another 1.5 to 2 hours to climb the face. When we were there the corn was good to go 10:30-11 so you need to be at the summit around then. Skin to Wye saddle then point it down to the ridge west of point 2046 , then sidle up to the col between 2115 and 2122. The cruise down the the Doolans Left Branch and then head up to the small lake between 1964 and 2130. Climb the small headwall above the lake and then its a short ski down to the bottom of the face.

The approach from Remarkables ski area to the bottom of the ski line. Doolans creek left branch on the right of the photo. Point 1986 the peak in the middle of the pic (looks like a sick ski line!)

The climb is straightforward – even more so if you just climb the ski line. Just boost straight up the face and you shouldnt have any problems. Coming in from the Lake Hope side is slighlty more involved as you have to traverse across a couple of rock steps on the way to the summit. Once on the sumit its a short easy downclimb to the start of the skiing.

Traversing across from the NW face towards the summit

Ski Descent

A short downclimb from the summit puts you at the top of the snow field. From here you can blast down a 40 degree couloir for the first 500m or so, before the angle mellows to around 30 deg and it opens up into a wide open snowfield. From the 1700m countour we had to pick our way down a narrow strip of snow to the large flat area at 1500 where there was some much needed running water. If you time the corn right thiis is a super fun cruisy descent and you can really open it up and point it.

A short easy downclimb puts you onto the ski line, visible just to the right of Alex

From here, its easy to get back to Lake Hope – head up the river and round the back of 1911 then up the ridge to the col between 2087 and 2080. Be carefull as these slopes are also North facing so if youve timed the ski line right these slopes are going to be getting really soft. This ridge is pretty low angle and also when we were there you could actually stay on a rock rib almost the whole way and avoid the avvy risk completely.

The ski line. A shorter variation is posisble from the shoulder on the left, and a harder steeper one from the summit straight down the middle couloir. Check if the rock step is in or not – would have required a rap (or hero send) when we were there

Option 2 is to or start the long skin back to the Remarks. When we skinned it we took a slighlty different route back to the way we came in, which is visible on the GPX file. Same we loose risk applies as your crossing a bunch of north facing slopes late in the day. We started the same way over the col just west of 1964, but then went down north to the left branch. We then skinned basically up the river bed following the low angle slopes to the 2115/1967 col. We followed the ridge past 2020 and 2046 – this puts you on top of some super fun couloirs that drop from around 2017 down to upper Wye Creek. If you time it right these makes for a super fun short ski to end the day.

Doing this as a day trip from Remarks is a big old day – around 3000m of climbing and 25km distance. I’d expect the whole trip to be around 12 hours.

On the skin back to lake Hope. Taken from just above 1911 looking north. 2130 in the background (another fun looking south facing ski!)

Standing at the flat area at 1500m looking back up at the line. The thin stip of snow we took down to the base in the middle of the shot.

April 5, 2022April 5, 2022

South Face Classic, Single Cone

We took Maia on this climb as a warm up for Aspiring SW ridge. An absolute winter delight.

Bit of difficulty route finding at the top lead to a bit of time in stasis for me and Maia. The cold was character building! After the trip, Maia invested in some new gloves – and perhaps new friends…

Touch Down is a section on the S face of Single cone that consistently sees good ice year on year. It’s a great area for those learning/honing their ice climbing skills as there is a double bolt anchor at the top allowing you to top rope/rappel easily. If you’ve climbed here and feel confident, then the S face classic route is a natural progression. The route is 300m long. In reality, the hardest ice climbing is at the beginning and the rest is largely snow. The crux of the climb was definitely the routefinding.

To give you an idea of the route (in reverse), here is Joe skiing it. Note it is much later in the season with an exceptional amount of snow.

Difficulty: WI3
Equipment: 2x semi technical tools. Ice screws – enough for a full 60m pitch (depends on your tolerance of running it out; we brought 10). 1x picket each. We climbed on 2x half ropes as a team of 3 but as a 2 a single 60 would be fine.
Approach time: 2h from Lake Alta, 3h from Remarkables ski base
Climb time: 8h (we had some route finding difficulty, could be done in 6-7)
Season: mid-late winter allowing time for the ice to be established
Party: Joe, Maria, Maia 06/08/21

Approach

We chose to camp the night before to get an early start the next day. From the base building at Remarks, we walked up towards Lake Alta and chose a spot to sleep under the stars. Joe had recently finished exams so to celebrate we had lugged a bottle of bubbly up (courtesy of the Collinson parents!). After the fizz had settled, so did we.

Woke up at 7am – leisurely! Access is via the back of single cone. From Lake Alta walk up and over Wye Saddle then towards the E face of Single cone before heading down an obvious gully. As you go over, you’ll see Wye Creek for miles and the Doolans to the left.

Walk another 150m across to get to the first of the routes on the South Face. A further 100m or so is where Touch Down, and the start of the route is.

Yellow marks our belay spots; blue marks where we initially tried to go up

The Climb

We started climbing at 10.30am.
P1: WI3, 60m. Straight up touch down, once over the edge the DBA is on the RHS
P2: 60m. Up the snow gully trending left; we made an anchor just before the snow field
P3: 50m. Trend left across the snow field until it narrows up a snow gully
P4: 50m. Head up through the rocks, squeezing through onto another snow ramp. Go up and left onto an obvious ledge.
P5: 50m. We wanted to head straight up (blue line below), but there was just a thin layer of snow on bare rock (yeesh) so we came back down and traversed 50m out to the right before heading up another snow gully towards the ridge
P6: 30m. Up the rock step to the ridge

Coming up the snow gully, end of 3rd pitch

We reached the ridge just after 6pm. Too tired we forgot to take a group summit pic. Boosted down towards Lake Alta, picked up our camping gear then retraced our steps down to the carpark at remarks. Down in 1h or so. Time for curry.

Such a fun winter trip. Would do it again!

April 1, 2022April 5, 2022

South Face Classic, South Face Single Cone

untitled image — The South Face Classic, Single Cone, Remarkables. DBA in yellow.

Hectic line which is up there in terms of New Zealand steep skiing, and only half an hour from a chair lift. Best known as a winter mixed climbing route, the south face is very steep and has continuous exposure meaning you can’t afford any mistakes on this line. Id been wanting to ski the South Face for at the last few years but never thought the conditions were really right. In late September 2021 a couple of good storms came through, and I headed out on a couple of trips into the Remarks backcountry to ski Lake Hope and Tuwhakaroria, and all the S faces were absolutely coated and stability was good. Seemed as good a time as ever to take a look, and the conditions on the face did not disappoint. The conditions were so good that after skiing the S face classic I climbed back up and skied a second line, Cookies and Cream, straight after. Dave MacLeod who is my local oracle of all mountain things says the South Face Classic has been skiied before but reckons that Cookes and Cream was a first descent….get in!

Length – 300m
Steepness – Very steep at the top. 55-60 degrees for 50m. Then roughly 50 deg for remainder
Exposure – Extreme and unrelenting. Your on narrow traversing terraces above large cliffs continuously. A fall or small avalanche almost certainly fatal
Aspect – South facing
Extras – I made 1x 15m rap to enter the face. Good large block to sling. 15m rap to connect top and bottom snow fields – I left a snow stake. DBA at bottom for final rap, 60m to ground. If you traverse skiiers left from this DBA there is another one at 30m so a single 60m rope is ok. I was able to ski the bottom section from this lower DBA but this is unusual (normally WI3 ice route)
Difficulty – 5.3 E4
Equipment – 60m rad line. Crampons, 2x tools. Snow stake, rap tat, nuts for anchor if needed.

Looking down from the top of the line. I rapped to where Hamish (in yellow) to start the ski. You can see the tracks down – the entrance to the lower ramp is the red arrow ( not where my tracks go, I went too far and had to turn back)

When skiing a climbing line like this its your responsibility to make sure your not going to knock any climmbers off the route. Its a climbing line first and nobody is going to expect a skiier to come down it – even small sluffs can knock the leader off the face and cause a serious accident. This line and Cookies and Cream are relatively safe from that perspective as the line traverses the whole way across the face so your generally not above the climbing line – but still take extra care and wait for the climbers if needed.

Approach

Jump on Curvey chair lift (or if your feeling keen skin up from the base) and traverse across to Wye saddle. Skin up the East face of Single Cone as if you were heading up to the starndard couloir route. You want to drop in right at the top of the snow slope which is just to the East of the notch. Theres a nice big boulder you can put a sling round to rap.

Descent

Rapping down from the top to bottom snow ramps. 60m total, I left 2x pickets (which I luckily got back from Hamish and Beate!)

The first rap gets you past some rocks at the very top of the line and establishes you on the face. Also gives a chance for some final assessment of the stability and snow conditions before pulling the rope. If you have any doubts at all just ascend the rope and bail. This starting spot is very steep and exposed, and was the one spot on the route for me with firmer snow. I transitioned to my skis while still on the rope and made some very cautious jumpturns and had to side step over a couple of rocks, before jumping over one final small rock into the main upper snowfield. Here the snow was much better, confidence inspiring boottop poweder, and the angle eased off to around 50 deg.

Steep and narrow just after the middle rap

Cut diagonally right across the face towards a big boulder at the far skiiers right of the face. From here cut left and find the entrace to the lower snow ramp. I sound it easily as Id climbed the route just a few weeks earlier, but this could be a tricky spot to find otherwise. Your looking for a narrow rock and ice gully that trends sharply to lookers left and is around 40m long, so 1 rap is only going to get you part way. I left 2x snow stakes so I could rap this section, but in the interests of developing steep skiing in the Remakables I’m planning on putting in a few DBAs next year – watch this space.

Immediately at the bottom of the gully there is another short section of very steep narrow skiing, pushing 55-60 degrees. Few more jump turns here and your into the lower left trending snow ramp which takes you all the way to the DBAs at the top of touchdown ice. This was the best skiing, the angle eases off to 45-50 deg and the snow was superb, light boottop powder. Just before the DBA the angle increases a little. Take extra care here – at some point it transitions to ice, you dont want to take one turn to many and find yourself falling off touchdown.

Getting into some excellent skiing on the lower ramp

I bumped into Hamish and Beate at this point who had just started climbing the route – was becoming a bit of a running joke that we had keep running into each other in slightly outlandish spots throughout the season! Hamish was brining Beate up to the top of touchdown ice just as I got to the final gully above the DBA. I waited at the top of the section for them to get past me, and after a quick catch up and conditions chat I headed on down (as a bonus also meant I could ask them to retrieve my snow stakes, win!).

The DBA can be completely buried late season, and I had to go digging to find it. If you dont know exactly where to look this is impossible. See photos!

The location of the gully to link the two snow fields – difficult to spot from above

I was assuming I was going to have to rap a full 60m down to the snow but it was so filled in I actually only made a 15m or so rap to skiiers left onto a snow ramp and could then ski down to the base. In more normal conditions if you only have 1 rope, either expect to make a V thread or rap down and across to skiiers left where theres another DBA at 30m (again hard to find late season)

To get back to civilization , head east. Either climb the access gully to get back to the East face of single cone, or enjoy a cruisy ski south east to the lake just below the 1700m contour and then skin back up the Wye Creek route.