Mt Aspring –  3033m – Northwest Ridge, NZ 2+

At 6.30pm, on Sunday 4^th Jan 2015, Phil Huddy and I left the carpark at the end of Wanaka-Mount Aspiring Rd.  This would be our second attempt on this mountain, with the previous effort barely getting us to the snowline (we were stuck in Mt French hut for 4 days of rain!).

Our packs were pretty heavy, over the 20kg mark because we were allowing for four nights and I had insisted that we carry in rope and a small set of trad gear.  Whilst we had been told the two of us could probably free solo the climb, I felt that I wasn’t up for that kind of risk.

From the carpark to Mt Aspiring hut is an easy two hour walk, and we rocked up to a busy Aspiring hut at 8.30pm.  This is a big hut, and one that most climbers would bypass, to avoid the large number of trekkers with kids in tow, but our late start meant we didn’t have much choice, and we grabbed a window bench to sleep in the main room (we didn’t want the noise of the bunk room!).

Next morning we had a leisurely start to the day and got to the ridge after 90 mins, at around 1pm.  From there, 2 hrs up of steep hiking, then into the French Ridge hut.

Tues morning, alarm goes at four, and we are out the door at five.  By six am we were at the start of the quarterdeck and already doing better than our previous attempt.  Here we roped up, and travelled glacier style.  At 8 we were on top of the pass, and in another two hours we rolled into Colin Todd hut after a pretty epic morning.  We spent the afternoon doing a bit of reconnaissance – we didn’t have any accurate map of our route!

In the afternoon we watched a single man approaching across the Bonar glacier.  It was quite the spectacle – where we had been roped, he was solo, and where we had been protected from the sun from head to toe, he was wearing shorts!  In a really good lesson of not to judge a book by its cover, this turned out to be Craig Jefferies, the author of the NZAC guide to the Darran Mountains.  He had come in light and fast, without rope, and was happy to join us on our summit attempt the next day.

Wed 7^th, our alarm went off at 4am.  We were out the door at five, and heading up the rocky ramp that marks the start of the Northwest Ridge.  We diverted onto the glacier a little before the top of the ramp, and got a spectacular view of the Rolling Pin in the dawn light.  Back onto the ridge Phil and I roped up, while Craig stayed solo.  We unroped for the slab section below the snow summit, and then pitched this last section while Craig waited for us at the top!  We topped out at 1pm to a spectacular view of the Southern Alps.

Our descent followed the same route initially, as we had read that the “ramp” was out of condition.  It has also been the site of numerous fatalities as tired climbers attempt to descend this steep ramp of snow.  A little lower on the ridge Craig found a rock that had plenty of anchor slings on it.  This allowed for a rappel down onto the glacier, which would save a considerable amount of rock scrambling.  We convinced ourselves that there was no need to use any of our new webbing, and down we went!

After 13 hrs we were back at the hut and rather happy with ourselves.  This was only the second peak that Phil and I had teamed up on unguided, and although we were a bit slower than expected 10-12 hr guided times, we had practiced a lot of our snow and ice techniques, and had climbed safely and successfully.

For our egress on Thursday we had decided to take the Bevan Col route.  We set the alarm for five, and were out the door at 6.30.  It took us four hrs to hit Scott’s biv, and almost another three to be at Aspiring hut at 1.15pm.  From there another 2hrs to carpark.  A long day, but goes to show that you could do the whole climb in three long days.