steep skiing – Peak Exposure

The wild side of Aoraki! A long and serious approach with no heli access gives the Hooker a wild and remote feel. This was my first trip to Aoraki back in 2018 and it was definitely jumping in at the deep end. While not too much steeper than the East face the NW couloirs is winding, technical and exposed nature make it a much more serious undertaking, and as such it is sees far fewer descents. You’ll be rewarded with an incredible ski line and a feeling of isolation that is definitely missing on the Plateau side. We climbed to the top of the skiiable line and turned round, but some easy mixed climbing would take you to Low Peak a couple of hundred metres higher. You would then need to make a couple of raps to get back to the line.

The line we skiied in red – we stopped at the rock just below the summit. Empress hut at the X. Alternate descent in blue from the base of the couloir to save you a trip back to the hut – wasnt in condition when we were there.

Length – From Empress Hut (2500m) to Low peak (3593m) is just over 1000m. Then around another 1700m down to the car park at 880m. When we were there the couloir was skiable from around 3300m
Steepness – Crux at the top of the couloir. 50-55 deg for 100-200m. Remainder of couloir 45 deg. Once on the Empress glacier eases to 35-40 deg
Exposure – Very exposed at the top, as the couloir winds over some big cliffs. Once you reach the Empress shelf this improves. Couloir prone to significant rock fall once it warms up, particularly late in the season. Very large crevasses and active ice cliffs on both sides of the Hooker.
Aspect – NW. Good corn skiing late season, but significant loose wet and rockfall risk late in the day
Extras – We needed to make 1x 15m rap right at the bottom of the couloir to cross a small rock band
Difficulty – Climb 3. Ski 5.3 E3
Equipment – Glacier equipment. 30m half rope. Tat and snow stake for raps. Screws x2 each and V thread equipment.

Approach

Looking back down towards the Hooker lake from the Hooker glacier

It took us just under 12 hours in total to get from the car to Empress hut. Head up the Hooker track to the Hooker lake. We then rock hopped at the shore line most of the way up the west side of the lake. Just before after Stewart stream the moraine got too steep due to a washout and we had to climb vertically up the moraine wall to around 1200m before traversing along flatter ground and then dropping back down to the main Hooker glacier. This section was really difficult especially with heavy packs. The morraine was incredibly loose and you constantly had to be looking above you for spontaneous rockfall coming down to the lake. Taking a step into the loose morraine would cause everything to shift and would cause rocks 30m above you to start moving and coming down. It would also be easy to slip and fall all the way down into the lake which would be suboptimal while strapped into a heavy pack. Overall we felt this was the most dangerous part of the trip and we were super stoked when it was over.

Easy rock hopping up the side of the Hooker lake, before the moraine walls got steep and sketchy

Towards the top of the lake you get into this terrain – steep and loose moraine wall which is pretty sketchy. Stay a long way away from you partner and the inevitable stream of rocks they knock down

Much easier ground on the flat moraine between the lake and the Hooker glacier. South face of Mt Cook ahead

From the top of the lake we headed north staying pretty much in the middle of the glacier until we reached snow. This was the same loose moraine but on flatter ground. Tiring but safe. After a few hours of this it was a relief to be finally able to put the skis and boots on and start skinning.

The way you pass the lower ice fall on the Hooker is very condition dependent. When we were there the true left (Pudding Rock) was completely cut off and so the only option was the true right. We were tucked right into the far west of the glacier and skinned up under Dilema peak, the end of the Straunchon glacier and finally under La Perouse. Everything was very open here and we were picking our way through the crevasses over winding and narrow snow bridges (check out the end of the video below to get an idea). Complex route finding but relatively safe as what you see is what you get. From around the 2000m contour things open up and we were back to skinning straight up the glacier for the remainder to the hut.

Looking up the Hooker. The way you get past the major icefall will depend on the state of the glacier. We stuck to the far left of the picture but when its more filled in you can stick to the far right (Pudding rock)

The crevasses here are humongous – we would regularly cross 20cm wide cracks in the snow, and only when directly on top of the crack get to look straight down to see that in fact we were on a snowbridge spanning a gaping monster that disappeared down into the depths of the earth. Several times the 10m of rope between us was barely enough to keep us from both being on the same bridge at the same time. In addition the ice cliff on the east of the glacier at 2200m (just below the words Empress Glacier on the map) was highly active, regularly throwing off car sized chunks. We were thankfully able to stay far enough west to be out of the firing line. However the east faces of Dilemma and La Perouse had regular rockfall once the morning sun started warming them up and there was no way to stay clear of both and get through the crevasse maze, so we had to move fast and keep our fingers crossed.

Skinning up through the maze of crevasses on the Hooker icefall

All in all this was a pretty hectic experience and I got to the hut feeling like I never wanted to come up the Hooker again. From speaking to friends who have been up to Empress I think it was especially scary when we were there and this isn’t a typical experience – later in the year and everything would be more open with no hidden surprises, earlier everything would be more filled in. Either way it put me firmly into the ’we should open the Hooker to heli access’ camp, especially as the whole way in we could hear the buzz of scenic flights overhead in anycase. Maybe not a popular opinion with the purists, but Im sure would increase the number of people who would enjoy the epic terrain above the Empress hut.

View out from Empress hut, La Perouse on the right

Empress Hut is a pretty special place – the difficult access means it not many people make it up there and so you can flick through decades of entries in the hut book and soak up the history of the area.

Climb

Will booting up the lower section of the couloir. This part is wide and straight and is the easiest skiing meaning yo ucan open it up a bit

Pretty straightforward when the conditions are good. We had a good overnight freeze and so fast efficient cramponing conditions. We skinned (ski crampons were essential) south from the hut to the base of the couloir just south of the NW ridge. From here we transitioned to crampons and booted up the route. We used the rope to cross the shrund at the base but otherwise we soloed the whole way making fast progress. The couloir fans out into a couple of possible exits at the top – if you continue directly up fall line it turns into some M2 mixed climbing up to the West ridge and Low Peak. We wanted to just maximise the amount of skiing and so didnt bring equipment for mixed climbing or raps, and headed to climbers left up a narrow couloir onto an open snow fan at around 3300m. Another option from here would be traversing north to Porter Col if you wanted the summit without any mixed climbing. For us that would have been bare ice on this section, so once the snow ran out we transitioned to skis. This was a technical transition, on very steep exposed and firm snow, and any equipment (or people) dropped at this point would end up on the Empress shelf 1000m below. We protected it with a snow stake belay.

It took us around 3 hours from the hut to climb the route. We had perfect conditions and soloed the whole route so it may take longer than this

Ski Descent

We started skiing at 9am. This was too early and the snow was still pretty firm, which given the exposure made things pretty spicy. We had to be back in the village that evening though and didnt want to be coming back down over those snowbridges too late in the day. Time to put the edges through their paces!

Joe making turns on the lower part of the couloir

The initial snow fan was a touch under 50 degrees, and wide and open (but with serious exposure to the right). Once we hit the couloir the steepness ramped up to over 50 deg, and initially only just wider than a ski length. Cue cautious high pressure jump turns. This steep technical skiing lasted around 100-200m before the couloir gets much wider and the angle eases slightly and we opened it up a little bit more. Your still pretty exposed in this section as there is a dog leg and small cliff right at the bottom of the couloir to negotiate.

Will coming out through the crux, the choke at the top of the couloir.

Right at the bottom we made a 15m rap to get through the dog bone, putting us just above the shrund. There was a good spike to leave tat around for the rap. From here we just had to make the obligatory shrund send to get into the sun and beautiful corn on mellow 35 degree slopes. Sometimes a route might go from here south crossing the Noeline Glacier to drop you at the bottom of the Hooker (passing just to the left of the W of West ridge on the map) but we had scoped this on the way in and it was a no go. So we skiied back to the hut, grabbed the rest of our kit and headed down the same way we came.

The dog bone at the bottom of the route. We made a short rap here

We blasted it down the top section of the glacier until reaching the ice fall under Baker saddle. Given how open this section is we decided to ski down through it while roped together. This is pretty difficult and theres a real risk of it causing more harm than good – if you dont have perfect timing and very clear communication as you cross the gaps you risk just pinging your partner off balance and throwing them into the crevasse. We had our system dialled and were moving slowly carefully and precisely through the crevasses – until a rock fall released from the Baker Saddle area 200m directly above us. Caution had to go out the window and we started straight lining it through the maze of narrow snowbridges to a safe spot out of the firing line. Probably one of the scarier experiences Ive had in the mountains!

Picking our way through the lower ice fall

Once through this it was a case of reversing the Moraine slog. It was pretty scorching by this point, but there are a couple of hidden water sources on the morraine to get us through. We made it back down in time for a feed and post mission beer in Twizel before hitting the road back to Chch

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.

Tag: steep skiing

Aoraki / Mt Cook NW Couloir – Ski Descent

South Face Classic, South Face Single Cone

Approach

Descent