Up The Mountain

Winter in New Zealand

This was shot on the path up Mount Aspiring in New Zealand. Until our descent, we only encountered one other group. We would not say that the ascent is treacherous, but there were some tricky spots where a miss step would lead to a deathly fall. Kathleen can attest to this.

Set within Otago’s Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres (9,950 feet). Maori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak.  It is also often called ‘the Matterhorn of the South, for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Dart River. The first ascent was on 23 November 1909 by Major Bernard Head and guides Jack Clarke and Alec Graham. Head’s party climbed to the summit ridge by the west face from the Bonar Glacier, a route not repeated until 1965.

The most used route to Mount Aspiring is up the West Matukituki Valley, which is at the end of a 50-kilometre road from Wanaka at Raspberry Flat. From here a network of huts provide staging points for climbers. The first is Mount Aspiring Hut, which is 8 kilometres (or approximately two hours’ walk) from the end of the road. A great “Tramp” www.kerstenbeck.com