The Matterhorn of the South

I made my way to Wanaka after the Nuns Veil trip. With a large pack, small pack, banana box full of food as well as a cooler bag full, hitching just wasn't an option, so I caught a bus. I was the only passenger from Cromwell onwards, so I sat up front with the driver. We had an excellent debate/discussion on mostly climate change but also tangents. We both genuinely enjoyed it, told each other as much on parting, and I was again reminded of how open and warm some of these Kiwi's can be.

I met up with Skye and Luke in Wanaka, friends from the Rockies back home. The weather was average, but I hardly needed that reason to justify a few rest days. I was starting to feel worn out from the amount I'd been doing with minimal rest days, so decided on doing as little as possible for the few days until Jimmy arrived. In contrast to Unwin, which is a relatively isolated place, I now felt like I was on holiday. For three days the BBQ saw an extraordinary amount of food get cooked on it, and I of course caught up on some NZ craft beer and coffee cake and paper time. Veritably, this was all in the name of carb-loading for our respective upcoming trips.

Jimmy arrived in Wanaka via Christchurch around 14:30 on Tuesday and hit the ground running - we had a short weather window to get in and climb Mt Aspiring. We'd both had this beautiful mountain, often referred to as the 'Matterhorn of the South', on our minds for some time. After quickly arranging his stuff, we were on our way within half an hour of his arrival, in the car of some lovely Swiss girls with whom I'd arranged a lift. After 7 odd hours of walking, we got to French Ridge hut some time after 23:00 and crashed out.

We were back out the door the next morning, continuing up French Ridge to gain the Bonar Glacier via the Quarterdeck. We met Luke and Skye over morning tea; they were coming down off Mt French. We had a good laugh about Jimmy being dressed as only a mountaineer from Orange would - in ruggers, fluoro plastic hand-me-down boots and old thermal cut down to short sleeves - and parted ways. As we crossed the Bonar we noticed an abnormal amount of helicopter activity around, and soon observed that it was concentrated around the SW ridge of Aspiring. We knew that two guys from Melbourne had set out to climb the route this day, and we hoped nothing untoward had happened. Our hopes, however, were not helped when we saw one helicopter leaving the bottom of the route with an object dangling from a cable below it. As we later found out, one of them had fallen off the route to his death. I cannot begin to imagine the pain his family and friends would have been feeling at his loss this Christmas. It was an admirable effort made by his partner, who climbed the rest of the route to the summit, around 200m, by himself, sought out a guided group who had come up he NW ridge in order to call in the emergency services, then descended the mountain with them.

After an afternoon's rest at the busy Colin Todd Hut, with intermittent thoughts and discussions about a death so close by, we rose at 03:00 to climb as planned. Our chosen route was the NW ridge, which we gained via 'The Kangaroo Patch'. Don't tell any New Zealanders, but I think it actually looks like a Kiwi! It was all good snow until the ridge, which was mostly rock. Not too loose, and just gentle enough that we soloed up through the dawn.

As we progressed up and along the ridge, we noticed that the top of the mountain was being buffeted by winds coming in from the north. It was an incredible display as they arced over the ridge. As we ascended into them, they proved to be only lightly affronting, their worst effect being reducing the visibility to around 20m. Lucky then that we were climbing a ridge to a most prominent point - no vis needed!

We summited around 08:20, though naturally our summit photos could have been taken anywhere with a grey background. In the 5 minutes we were on top, the clouds parted twice, momentarily, to afford a stretching vista and assure us we actually were on top. We passed two guided groups on our descent - 'great view up there!' - and made our way down in a measured manner, performing 3 rappels down the steeper section of ridge immediately above 'The Kangaroo'. Safely back at the hut, some 10 hours after setting out that morning, we hoed into some lunch and had as short as rest as we'd allow ourselves.

It was around 16:00 when we walked back out the door for the 5 hour trudge back across the Bonar - just another lazy 500m of ascent! - and back down to French Ridge hut. It was a beautiful time of day to be out walking and we were both feeling surprisingly energetic after climbing through the morning. We even entertained the thought of continuing all the way down past French Ridge Hut to Aspiring Hut, down in the valley. But no, this would mean about 3000m of descent in one day, which would be torture to our knees. By the time we got to French Ridge Hut we were well fatigued, but for myself it was a very pleasant form of tiredness, a feeling of utter contentment at having had such a great day and being able to finally sleep.

The morning greeted us as forecast - with rain. We were glad we'd pushed on to where we were, as the Bonar would likely be in whiteout conditions in such weather. It was down to the last push - back down and out of the valley. It was tempting to laze around the comfort of the hut indefinitely, but we steeled our wills and walked out the door into the wet. It certainly wasn't pleasant but, as always with Jimmy, we made good conversation and the metres passed us by. The last stretch back to the car park was pretty awful at the time, but who remembers the bad parts?

Back in Wanaka we very quickly became engaged in discussions with Luke and Skye on what to climb next. It took a little effort to put it out of my mind and concentrate on relaxing properly after our Aspiring trip. Overnight, I made the decision to cut my trip short by a week and go home early, a decision which fit in well with the others, and one which I was glad to make. It spelled the end to a nearly two month long trip, a trip in which I'd been far more active than I'd anticipated. I'd enjoyed the company of all the characters I'd been in the hills with over the length of the trip, but being out and about with Jimmy again was fantastic, we are on such similar wavelengths, and being in such company makes a trip a completely different experience. The Aspiring trip was the icing on the cake, a culmination of all the climbing I had been doing providing me with the fitness and confidence required to climb the NW Ridge in both good time and good style, walk in walk out. A fitting note to end on.