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East Face

Type
Face
Part of
Aoraki Mt Cook

Many variations exist on this 1600m high face. The routes are long sustained ice climbs and can involve high objective danger from rockfall. In 1991 a major rock avalanche swept down the face below High Peak, lowering its height by 10m. The debris jetted across the Plateau, spewed down the Hochstetter Icefall, across the Tasman Glacier and slightly up the moraine wall on the other side of the Tasman Valley.

East Face
Rights credit
Tai Naka
Aoraki East and North aspect
Rights credit
Gavin Lang First Light Photography
Aspect
East
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Routes

Reference Title Grade Length Pro Quality Alert Operations
4.14 4.14Great Gully, V,4,5 V,4,5 0m
0

A prominent route parallel to the East Ridge.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Commitment) V
  • Alpine (Technical) 4
  • Alpine (Mt Cook) 5

A prominent route parallel to the East Ridge. A right side variant of the Atkinson/Hall line exists, finishing on Middle Peak. Sveticic Slavko Miroslav, Mar 1990.
4.15 4.15 Great Gully Variant, V,4 V,4 0m
0

A right side variant of the Great Gully, finishing near Middle Peak.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Commitment) V
  • Alpine (Technical) 4
4.16 4.16Rumblestiltzskin, VII,5+,6,WI4,M5 VII,5+,6,WI4,M5 0m
0

This is the central gully between two prominent arêtes when viewed from a distance. The first ascent required three bivvies. No known repeats.
Follows a prominent gully up through the rock buttress in a direct fall line from Middle Peak. Approach via the snowfield under the Great Gully, traversing right beneath the rock buttress into a steep gully. Move right to a small snowfield, following its left edge to a final rock wall. Just right of the Middle Peak apex, ice formations lead through the rock—take the left branch to finish near the summit of Middle Peak.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Commitment) VII
  • Alpine (Technical) 5+
  • Alpine (Mt Cook) 6
  • Water Ice WI4
  • Mixed M5
4.20 4.20Zurbriggen Ridge, IV,3+ IV,3+ 0m
1.02

A classic route from a historical perspective, but it’s really a long grind that gets a lot of early sun. Begin by climbing snow slopes on the edge of the lower east face. The original route gained the ridge 400m above the Plateau, up a step of poor rock, then up the rocky ridge interspersed with snow slopes to gain the Summit Rocks, where the Linda Glacier route intersects.
More recently, the standard practice is to avoid the ridge proper by staying on the edge of the east face, on snow all the way, until the Summit Rocks. Snow was avoided where possible on the first ascent because Zurbriggen and Adamson didn’t have crampons—only ice axes and a bottle of red wine!
Above the Summit Rocks ascend the North East Arête, commonly referred to as the ‘ice cap,’ to the summit—refer to Route 4.29 for details. The easiest descent is down the Linda Glacier, but it may be necessary to reverse the ridge (as on the first ascent), if avalanche or crevasse conditions in the Linda are unfavourable.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Commitment) IV
  • Alpine (Technical) 3+
4.17 4.17Boogie 'Til You Puke, VII,5+,17,6 VII,5+,17,6 0m
0
  • P1
  • 17
  • Alpine (Commitment) VII
  • Alpine (Technical) 5+
  • Alpine (Mt Cook) 6

Ascend mixed ground on icefields and rock ribs between the large gully on the left of the face and the Jones Route. Finishes up the rightmost of two prominent arêtes directly to Middle Peak (crux grade 17—the highest rock climbing in New Zealand).

4.18 4.18Jones Route, VI,4,4+ VI,4,4+ 0m
0

From the large shelf below the face, head 900m up the left edge of the large snow face, then out on a ramp leading left and up, joining the summit ridge just north of the Middle Peak. Murray returned and climbed the direct finish with Vicky Thompson.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Commitment) VI
  • Alpine (Technical) 4
  • Alpine (Mt Cook) 4+
 High Peak Route, 4+ 4+ 0m
0

This (was) the standard route on the East Face. From the shelf near Zurbriggens ascend left towards the south side of two prominent buttresses (variations ascend the buttresses when the rocks are not iced up), then up slopes to the left of the buttresses and through the rock band to reach the summit ridge either just below the summit or direct to the summit itself.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Mt Cook) 4+

This route, and variations of it, were obliterated by the 1991 rock avalanche.

4.19 4.19Right side, V,3 V,3 0m
0

aka The skiers route. These days, a much easier alternative branches out right to the shelf above the summit rocks and is popular with the skiing fraternity these days.

  • P1
  • Alpine (Commitment) V
  • Alpine (Technical) 3
Comments
This place appears in
Aoraki Tai Poutini: a guide for mountaineers, 2018
Buy this guidebook
Attribution
Aoraki Tai Poutini,(2018), Rob Frost
UUID
 
56841d9f-1987-4107-bdff-a74a410a17b4