Lady of the Snows

3-4 grade 16/17 pitches were used

From the waterfalls where the land becomes steep and scrubby at the head of Diamond Creek, head straight up on a bearing of more-or-less west. As you get above the scrub, bearing of more-or-less west. You will pass the steep gully used by Rhys Buckingham, but instead of going up here, continue to climb west, curving south as the ground steepens to bluffs further west. As you work south, stay reasonably close to the bluffs until a rocky, tussocky shelf with tarns is reached west of pt 1189. This area offers good camping. Between this shelf and the rock slopes and snowfields below Lady Of The Snows lies a bluff probably 60-80m high. Most parties will require a rope for at least part of this bluff. Roughly speaking, the route up the bluff involves heading up to a somewhat vegetated ledge to true right of one of the falls closest to the true left of the bluff. The route then sidles along this ledge before reaching a point where it is necessary to walk through the waterfall. The climb immediately on the true left of the waterfall is where our party required the rope for a pitch of perhaps 10 or 15 metres. The north face of Lady Of The Snows can be climbed in about 25 minutes from the uppermost point of the snowfields below her summit, although this route can require some fairly steep clambering.