A Great Week in the Mountains

About a month ago, Dan, James and I headed into the Southern Alps to climb some stuff. The main objective on this trip was Mt Cook, but we were happy to just have a crack at climbing whatever we could. The weather was amazingly good, too good in fact, with cracking sunny days for over a week and a freezing level that never fell lower than 3,500 m. This meant that we had to look at higher peaks and cross our fingers for a decent overnight freeze.

We did some multi-pitch rock climbing at Sebastopol Bluffs on the Saturday afternoon as a bit of a warm-up for three-person, two-rope climbing techniques (though it was a lot of fun in itself). On Sunday evening we flew in to Plateau Hut at 2,200 m and went to bed hoping for a freeze.

We actually got one and at 3 am we got up to climb Mt Dixon.

Mt Dixon - South Ridge on the left, East Ridge on the right

The conditions up at Cook were actually very bare for the end of November, probably more like typical late December conditions due to the lack of snowfall this winter and the warm weather since. The glaciers are all opening up and the bergshrunds ("schrunds" - big crevasse-type things at the top of snowslopes) have opened up too. Also a lot of stuff had fallen off.

We climbed the slightly harder South Ridge because there was no way onto the East Ridge due to the large shrund at its base, except for traversing the crumbly ridge from Glacier Dome which by all accounts is awful. However, the East Ridge was a suitable descent route because we could just abseil over the shrund.

Working our way through the glacier to the start of our climb actually turned out to be more intricate than we'd expected

On the South Ridge

We did 3 pitches up a snow/ice gully with rock steps onto the crest of the ridge, and a further short ice gully pitch at a step just below the summit. Apart from the strong winds on top (which meant we had to crab our way along, or at best walk very hunched over) the rest was reasonably straightforward and the descent of the East Ridge was quite quick in soft snow.

After a rest day (when there wasn't a decent freeze anyway) we got up at midnight to climb Cook via the Linda Glacier. We didn't get a lot of sleep the night before - due to nervousness, and the fact that we were only in bed for 2 1/2 hours!

Sunrise on the summit rocks



The start of the summit rocks



Past the summit rocks, just the icecap to go. I started to feel the altitude at this point (3,500 m)

Nearly there!

Boys on top. L-R Dan, me, Jim

Just have to get back down now!

Apart from an ice gully at the start, we soloed the summit rocks because they were so dry. This helped a lot with our speed because we were still quite slow pitching as a party of three. We had two ropes for the descent but only did full-length abseils for the last couple of pitches due to the nature of the terrain.

It was so warm that day that I got through at least three litres of water and probably could have drunk twice that. I was sweating a lot but particularly when I was puffing at the higher altitudes. It was completely still on top and I think I could have been quite comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts!

Teichelmann's Corner in the Linda Glacier. It was so soft coming down that I frequently sunk up to my groin and sometimes had to dig my foot out. The only way you could tell if you'd fallen into a hidden crevasse was to look for a bottomless hole where your foot had been once you'd pulled it out.

Fallen into a crevasse or just sunk into deep snow? He probably doesn't know either.

All up it took us 16.5 hours, not bad considering the soft conditions on the way back.

After a day of rest we headed out via Cinerama Col. Another early start was required to make the most of what freeze there was.

4 am and we're on the move


Traversing below the Anzac Peaks

Get our harnesses and warm clothes off for the last time - it's too hot now that it's 7 am and the sun's up!