- P1
- Alpine (Commitment) IV
- Alpine (Mt Cook) 5
Access to the East Face is via the Rainbow Valley and gullies on the south side of Wilmot Saddle to a notch at the base of the East Ridge. This notch leads down onto a large terrace that bisects the bottom of the face. The East Face is a spectacular sweep of rock. The upper third is the steepest section. The first ascent of the face took a line up the center, topping out close to the summit. The route starts on the right hand side of three faint pillars in the middle of the face. Careful route finding is required through the top of these, at grade 16, as you move slightly left to line up with the top of the summit pyramid. It then carries on up to a pocketed slab on fantastic rock (grade 14 or not, take heaps of cams from size #1 Friend to #1 Camalot because you will wish to belay this if possible because the route is very hard to read from one move to the next due to it all being on horizontal pockets). This steepens and merges with the summit pyramid, a loose blocky grade 17. Sveticic & Dickson soloed most of the route, belaying only two pitches, in three and a half hours. Other rock routes are possible on this huge face. Note the summit pyramid is not the summit, the real summit is several hundred metres to the west. Descent was down the North Ridge, scrambling down ledge systems to the big terrace that bisects the bottom of the face, an easy descent route.
Convention is alphabetic...
In reply to Convention is alphabetic... by cragrat
No Simon, convention is that the "leader" or dominant member of the new route gets their name first ahead of the "second' or minor party.
For example 'On the Dark Shore' the first south face of Mt Percy Smith is accredited to Peter D, Bill McLeod, whereas Rumblestitlzkin on the East face of Aoraki/Mt Cook is attributed to Bill McLeod, Peter D.
This is the common convention as it was taught to me by Bill himself.
Despite the pic showing a snowed up face the original face route was entirely on rock, and the line marked on the pic is only an approximate indication of the route climbed during the first ascent.
The correct spelling of the Slovenians name is Miroslav Sveticic. His name should come before mine out of respect for his abilities and achievements.