# | Ewbank | Alpine (Technical) | Alpine (Commitment) | Alpine (Mt Cook) | Aid | Water Ice | Mixed | Boulder (Hueco) | Length | Bolts | Trad |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 13 | 3+ | 0m | No | |||||||
Starting 15 minutes up the Copland Track from Douglas Rock Hut, this magnificent 2000m climb leads directly to the summit. Climb slabs on northern side of the Jasper Glacier Stream. The ridge then rises up a number of rock buttresses before flattening out and merging into a glacial bulge. Then ascend a vague snow rib to reach a shelf just below the summit. Above this either climb direct to the summit, or traverse south onto the West Ridge. | |||||||||||
2 | 13 | 4 | 2200m | No | |||||||
Starting 15 minutes up the Copland Track from Douglas Rock Hut, this magnificent 2000m climb leads directly to the summit. Climb slabs on northern side of the Jasper Glacier Stream. The ridge then rises up a number of rock buttresses before flattening out and merging into a glacial bulge. Then ascend a vague snow rib to reach a shelf just below the summit. Above this either climb direct to the summit, or traverse south onto the West Ridge. |
North Ridge
Type:
Alpine
Description:
Long route (2200m of ascent), with rotten rock at the beginning and
improving along the way, with sustained steep scrambling until circa 2500m of
altitude.
Pitching of crux moves in places might be necessary even for good
climbers.
Steep until the glacier start (2500m), crux moves at about grade 12-13.
It is a steep route with few opportunities for good anchors to rap off if you
need to retreat, making it a committing route (NZ Alpine 4) with sustained
steep downclimbing on greasy ground in places.
Approach:
The route starts around 700m 15-20mins after the Douglas Rock Hut climbing
left (East) of a fairly obvious ice gully (see picture), which requires a bit
of bush bashing to be reached from the track. The ascent is about 2200m going
all the way to the summit through steep (rock) slopes until flattening at
around 2500m of altitude where the glacier starts.
The route:
Route finding is OK in good weather but requires careful navigation in
places, in foggy condition could require a GPS . Follow the stream from 700m
to 1500m then begin an ascending traverse leftwards to acquire the left side
(N-East) of the buttress at 1700m.
The ridge is well defined by a sheer drop on the whole of the left (N-east)
side all the way to the summit. This obvious line could be used as a guide in
case of tricky navigation conditions, the scramble alongside it, is regular
and fairly good rock overall.
Bear left (northwards) until about 2200m, then going more rightwards (SW)
towards flatter ground on approaching the glacier start (2500m).
Note: The first part of the scramble is fairly greasy and grassy with lots of
loose rocks, not the most pleasant, then above 1700m it really improves while
it still gets even steeper but the rock quality dramatically increases and
giving you good grip, making for a much safer and faster scramble.
Bivvy can be required, for the route is long even in good conditions, even
for a fairly fast party, especially since the glacier can turn out to be
really broken with huge crevasses (it was the case for us, our attempt was
early April).
Gears
snow stakes, 2-4 ice screws, 50m rope, 2 axes, bivvy gears.
Photos:
1) The route seen from the Valley 700m
2) Route from circa 1500m
3) Route from 1650m
4) Scrambling steep but good rock circa 2000m
5) Scrambling steep but good rock circa 2070m rope required in places
6) Scrambling steep but good rock circa 2100m
7) Scrambling steep but good rock circa 2200m rope requires in places
8) The Glacier from the top of the rock ridge circa 2400m
9) onto the glacier circa 2700m, with the top of the ridge on the left, mount
cook in the back
9) Traverse around 3000m toward Douglas Neve
10) Descent towards Douglas Neve circa 2850m
11) Douglas Neve well broken
Pitch(es):
Grade:
3+ 13,4 13
Quality:
Gone:
0
Length:
2200m
Bolts:
0
Natural pro:
0
Attribution:
Photos Copyrights Romain Sacchettini 2016, can be reproduced with permission.
Ascent:
Bruce Harrison, Nick Von Tunzelmann, Aat Vervoorn, Dec 1964.
Nick Cradock, 1991.
UUID:
eec1b0b4-0cc8-4977-9ef4-d0e2d17fcdba
Comments
Looks amazing (great
Looks amazing (great photos!).
If that were my type of climbing, I would so want to do it too.
Hey sbaclimber, If you wanna
Hey sbaclimber, If you wanna go for Mount Sefton through a much easier way, use the route that goes up from the Copland Track's Scott Creek, then up the Douglas Neve. Fairly straightforward if glacier well covered in snow and ice meaning preferably in the end of winter (late Oct early Nov).
You can bivvy at the Welcome Pass (not too cold) for a short first day and longer summit day or start early push it to the summit and sleep on top of the Douglas Neve and descend next day meaning sleeping high up meaning you need a very good bivvy/sleeping bag + good stable weather. But other than that, not very technical, just a bit long.
We got only one life and need to go for it sometimes ! Better to live with Remorse than regrets ;-)))
Friendly yours.
Romain
Great pictures. I am a little
Great pictures. I am a little confused where the Gr 16 came from. 3 of us climbed it slowly one Easter in Alpine boots and we never used a rope ( that I recall) until we went from the ridge to the ice cap. You would not get me soloing anything that hard in plastics. Maybe 10?.
Simon
Hi cragat, We had to take the
Hi cragat, We had to take the rope out on 2 or 3 pitches that defo felt at least 15 if we wanna be flexible 14 but really not below. I am not that experienced after all (6 years of climbing in the Alps) but my mate Willy which is a lot more experienced (9 years of climbing numerous 4000ders in the Alps, long rock routes and mixed routes) ascertained that feeling.
The max I climbed in boots (and roped up) is a technical variation of the super popular Cosmic Arete in Chamonix, small holds on granit, was french 5+ which is about 16. And it felt just a bit harder that the crux pitches on Sefton.
But mostly that north ridge isn't really a ridge it rather looks like a buttress so we might not have chosen the easiest way after all.
I suppose it could be up to
I suppose it could be up to grade 16 if you don't take the best route. If you take the best line and you're familiar with appropriate use of the lower grades (i.e. if you've climbed at Arapiles) it's about grade 6.
Agree with the other comments
Agree with the other comments. Mainly lots of somewhat exposed scrambling with some easy rock climbing, definitely easier than 16 (or 14) with good routefinding. Line shown on topo is quite close to what we took, except from the top of the initial slabs, we stuck more closely to the ridge, with slight weaves right or (less often) left to follow the easiest ground. Was ok in summer boots, didn't need the rope. Rock was mainly good, and often excellent, especially low on the route. Is OK as a day trip from douglas rock if you're moving well, comfortable and experienced in this sort of ground and scale of route, though planning that avoids walking back uphill to Douglas rock at days end would be preferable!
The glacier for us nowhere
The glacier for us nowhere approached 60 degrees, somewhere in the 40 to 50 at most. It was Feb but on a good snow year (2020), we didn't use any pro or rope. Mainly snow with a little soft ice on thelower steep section of glacier. 2 of us (guides) were comfortable with one axe. The third was a more occasional mountaineer and was happy to have two tools and stiff boots (but wore approach shoes on the walking and rock). Notably, early in the day there was a substantial serac fall as we gained the ridge, which may have made it onto the (crevassed, dirty) snow fan you approach the base of the rock on. These Jasper Glacier seracs remained quite active in the daylight.