A bold climb beginning near Richardson Bivvy. Climb the rock and ice until
the ridge is reached, turn a large gendarme on the eastern side, and regain
the ridge on solid red rock. Cross two chevals separated by a hand traverse
with a 600m drop on the west, before completing the final scramble on
deteriorating quality rock. An excellent alpine challenge.
The tremendous slabs of the south face are most imposing ... wrote Scott
Gilkison and Harry Stephenson in 1956. Imposing, and unclimbed, the 700 metre
high south west face remained until February 1993 when Bill McLeod and Peter
K.Dickson arrived during a fine spell.
To those who admire the Tall and Steep this face is a compelling sight from
Baker Creek. Well fortified with overhangs, verticality, and stone fall
zones. The route however is not threatened and is climbed on good rock with a
multitude of grips.
Bill McLeod, personal communication, February 1993.
P1
17
Alpine (Mt Cook)
6-
700m
Ascend features up centre of the face to finish just west of the summit. Begin at an obvious access slab between pronounced overhangs and move up to ledge beneath steep wall. Follow up and right to gain clean rib and continue on until the rib terminates beside a big gully. The route moves left along a weakness of blocky brown rock to gain another rib, which i sthe right side of a smaller gully.Climb the rib to it's conclusion then breach the steep upper band by continuing up a line of weaknesses above the rib then moving left onto easier angle and straight up.
23 Pitches
Here's a more general description that may help: Walk around the top of the
glacial lake from the magnificant bivvy rock beside the stream that drains
it. The highest bit of the face has a wide "V" gully feature on a scale of
about a third of the height of the wall. Start just to the left of this
central feature to avoid rockfall potentionally funneling down from the top.
There is only 1 place to start here because either side of it has overhanging
rock. Do not be tempted to start further out left of this because promising
rock invariably ends up in dangerously loose ground after 2 pitches. Use your
eyes to pick the correct line and make sure it all connects up. There is
only 1 possible line on this side of the 'funnel'. Climb easy ground
eventually moving onto an easy rib, this rib is essentially the left side of
the gully below this big "V" feature. At a particular point on the rib it
changes, (getting steeper?).
During inspection from the bottom of the face you should have already noted a
series of ascending ledges about 2/3 the way up, leading to the left like a
staircase. During this ledge traverse you will find a potential excellent
unused flat bivvy protected from above by an overhanging wall. After that
there are no flat bivvys and the one sitting bivvy is exposed to rockfall (we
started the climb at 2pm so had to bivvy). After going left up those ledges
go up an unlikely looking loose wide corner (17/18) using a 'rib' just to
the right of it to finally break through some steep ground and gain access to
the final headwall. The headwall overhang is intimidating. Towards the
right hand end of it, and hopefully now directly above you, you should see a
weakness that may have ice choking it. Chop this away and crank over it
(15/16). From here it is just 1 pitch to the top of the face, but expect a
few surprises after that.
P1
17
Alpine (Commitment)
VI
Alpine (Mt Cook)
6-
790m
Trad
Ascend features up centre of face to finish just west of summit. Begin at an obvious access slab between pronounced overhangs and move up to ledge beneath steep wall. Follow up and right to gain clean rib and continue on until the rib terminates beside a big gully. The route moves left along a weakness of blocky brown rock to gain another rib, which is the right side of a smaller gully. Climb the rib to its conclusion then breach the steep upper band by continuing up a line of weaknesses above the rib then moving left onto easier angle and straight up. 23 pitches, crux grade 17.
The three km long west ridge provides a slow but achievable route to the
summit over ricketty stacks.
The first two kilometres of the West Ridge are straight forward, providing
enjoyable climbing over steepening slopes and ridges. From point 2200m,
there is an unpleasant downclimb, followed by increasingly loose rickety
stacks. This continues up to the summit headwall, which is reached after a
couple of easy pitches, and a terribly loose rap to the base of the headwall.
From here, two stellar pitches (16 & 14) go someway to redeeming what is
otherwise a terrible route. The first ascentionists do not recommend
repeating or descending this route, and instead recommend the South Ridge as
a better descent option if a route on the SW Face tops out near the summit.
