Six of us headed up the Matukituki Valley about 2pm one fine day at the start of January (me, Jeremy, Guy, Terra, Alyn, Sophie), made our way up to Aspiring Hut with ridiculously heavy 10 day packs and decided to keep going up to Cascade Saddle. Oddly enough the steep slopes were kinder on the feet and back than the flats (me and Jeremy had rigid Makalus) and we made short work of the 1300m climb to be up near the saddle round 8.30pm. Finding a long-drop beside the alpine stream draining over the Cascade we decided to camp here and proceed down the Dart the next day. Our rather ambitious plans were to head up by Margaret Burn, over the Barrier Range to the Forgotten, onto the Olivine Plateau and out via Richies route down Destiny, Joe, Arawhata Saddle, etc - glad we didn't get that far from what I heard later!
We had a sweltering 25km walk down the Dart to Daleys Flat on a highway (beginning to regret my Makalus as my feet were slowly destroyed). Jeremy had already destroyed his feet however, probably breaking his toe on a slackline at Paynes Ford so his boots and the Codeine were the only thing holding his feet together - next day he decided he wasn't up for it (could only walk up hills, not down them) so he walked out down to Glenorchy way and hitched to Mt Cook, our next climbing destination.
The five of us continued over the Dart and up the spur near Margaret Burn, an easy, almost pleasant bush bash up to the bush line with no scrub whatsoever. We hadn't exactly had an early start (mistaking the sound of 10,000 sandflies bouncing off our tents for rain) and camped by a stream at about 1500m, planning for a big day across Desperation Pass, Derivation Neve and Possibility Col to the Forgotten, before the crap weather hit. The next day started perfectly and we got going about 5am, making quick time up to the snow line, with a bit of scrambling up rocks. Unfortunately the wind picked up at this point and the cloud started pouring over the main divide, making it all look quite dark and unpleasant.
We fairly quickly decided that the steep slopes around Desperation Pass really did require more than a few metres of visibility and that a whole day on the tops above 2000m in the clag wouldn't be all that smart or pleasant! So we turned around (knowing the next two days were going to be rained out too) and reluctantly headed back down to the Dart. It felt like a totally different spur coming down (though went in and came out at exactly the same points) - there were just all these huge house size boulders forming deep narrow ravines on the uphill sides which made downhill navigation rather tricky. However we got back down to the Dart and Daleys Flat hut about 4pm, just in time for the tourists to start arriving at the end of their day. They were quite surprised then to see us packing up again after a late lunch and heading off for the road end, the next 'day' of their tramp. After a couple of swims in the Dart (was still sunny down there) we made it to the shelter and watched all the tourists arriving the next day in the pouring rain!
Eventually we got a ride back to Queenstown in the afternoon and hitched back to Wanaka, only day 5 of our trip. After visiting the DOC centre and checking out the forecast for the next few days we decided we might as well have a crack at Mt Aspiring. So we camped in the bushes in Wanaka and hitched back into the roadend, learning on the way that about a dozen cars had been broken into the night before. Luckily my wagon was safe, probably cause it looked too old and crappy. So with a sense of deja vu we headed back up towards Aspiring Hut, about 4pm this time and camped at the bottom of the liverpool hut spur. Ran into a couple of friendly trampers from HVTC at the road end who were also heading up Aspiring (and had yummy sour worms...) and kept on bumping into them for the whole trip.
Next morning we headed up to Bevan Col which was easier than we thought, though still glad to have a route description as the head of the Matukituki looks pretty imposing. Was a nice sidle round the waterfall though and the slabs were quite easy even with heavy packs - would be pretty tricky in the rain though or icy conditions I'd imagine. We then wound our way up through snow and rocky ledges to the Col and set up camp there about lunchtime (weren't keen on paying for the hut). A pleasant afternoon of scrambling round Bevan, and lying in the sun followed though we didn't get much of a view of the route as the Bonar was filled with cloud - nice view of the summit though!
We didn't really have much of a clue where we were going to go, having heard reports that the ramp was 'totally out of condition' and all these Aussies talking about going up the Kangaroo. There was a vaguely Kangaroo shaped patch of snow below the buttress that we glimpsed through a crack in the clouds. Given this we thought an alpine start would give us plenty of time to figure it all out, and so Terra was jumping up and down outside our tents about midnight after only two and a half hours sleep. After the rest of us ignored her for a while we eventually got going about 2am - Alyn unfortunately had a bout of food poisoning, so was throwing up and feeling pretty wretched, leaving the four of us (me, Terra, Guy, Sophie) to make the ascent. We stumbled our way across the glacier, winding our way through the crevasse fields and up the steepish sides to the bottom of the ramp. The reflections of shooting stars whizzing across the glacier were pretty cool.
The ramp was indeed quite out of condition (just a sheer rock wall in the night) so we wandered around a bit more and found a whole load of footprints leading up to the schrund at a place where it almost kissed the rock with only a small snowbridge and scramble up rock required - the Kangaroo we assumed. Then we got onto a steep icy slope that we could have used a rope on if it wasn't so short (think we went up the *** of the kangaroo instead of its head which might have been easier). A quick scramble round some rock took us onto the North West Ridge proper however, just below the buttress. From here it was just starting to get light, so we followed the broad ledges of rock (almost a track) round on the Therma side and followed up round easy snow slopes to the ridge again above the buttress. From here it was just a walk up easily graded rock and slabs to the snow cap on the summit. Was a windy morning though with some wicked gusts on the ridge, but forecast to die down so we kept having hour long breaks and went to sleep a couple of times on the way up.
By midday it was dropping, but our little possie about 100m below the summit was still getting gusts every 5 minutes that you could hardly stand in. Hesitating about what to do, whether to use ropes, etc we saw a guide and his leashed client just wander up the ridge past us a bit higher up - deciding that it wasn't as windy as it seemed, we charged on up to discover that the summit cap was largely sheltered and while icy, no steeper and with no more exposure than Taranaki in winter. So we didn't bother with the rope and just wandered up past the guide who was now belaying his client off his pick. The summit itself was dead calm with perfect 360 degree views up to Cook in the north, the west coast and Fiordland (maybe Tutuko) to the south. We took a few summit photos, sat around for a while looking down the somewhat steep south face and south-west ridge, before heading down back past the guide and client still diligently belaying up the slope. We were the first on top at about midday, with 12 in all summitting that day so seemed rather crowded to us. The way down was straightforward and 90% on rock so soft afternoon snow was not such an issue, with us back at the Bevan Col camp by 5.30pm including a stop to melt snow and have lunch on the way down.
It was a fantastic climb on a neat mountain - so much higher than anything around us - but was also so much easier than we thought it would be, and quite a bit easier than the things we climbed round Mt Cook (Sealy, Nuns Veil, Hochstetter) that were graded at least 1 below it on the alpine scale! Definetely made up for not getting to the Olivine Ice Plateau though, but Jeremy was a bit gutted to learn that his ice hammer had made a second ascent of Aspiring without him!
Kieran,
Co-Treasurer