A very long climb, recently made slightly moredifficult due to rockfall. The lower ridge is straight forward, but some parties have opted to avoid it by sidling on scree on the northside of the ridge, climbing back up to regain the ridge at a col at 2250m. From there, followthe ridge on good rock. At one point, a largechunk of the ridge has fallen off, leaving a notch with a very steep, smooth pillar of rock on the uphill (eastern) side. From the notch, traverse horizontally on the left (north) side—about grade12, but very exposed—to bypass the difficult rock, then climb up to regain the ridge. The ridge
has some sustained sections of grade 12 climbing then eases off before joining Route 5.95. Cross the cheval and continue another 200m higher to the summit.
- P1
- Alpine (Commitment) V
- Alpine (Technical) 4+
- Alpine (Mt Cook) 3+
In the new unreleased Mt.Cook guidebook the route description for the full West ridge describes a "staunch 18 pitch." I recently climbed Malte via the full West ridge (gained at 1700m) and did not feel like we ever came a cross a pitch of 18 let alone a staunch one.