Patience & Persistence on Tititea
Photos By Ryan Colley
Wow! Where to begin? This post is about much more than just our climb of the stunningly beautiful Southwest Ridge of Tititea (Mt. Aspiring) 3033m, nicknamed the Matterhorn of the south! No, this is a story about trial and error, about varying conditions, about poor luck, perseverance, patience, and the will to climb…
When I arrived in New Zealand in early October, the stoke was high and it was time to climb. Chris Brinlee Jr. and I were ready to launch our project “Aspiring to Aoraki.” The project would take us to many of the Southern Alps’ classic peaks, climbing technical lines to stand on their summits. Traveling by foot from the carparks, to the summits, and back down where we’d hop in packrafts to ride out- we’d fully experience the scale and grandeur of New Zealand mountains.
Well, things didn’t go as originally planned. The weather has been terrible compared to other years here and thus it’s been hard to find the good weather and good conditions combo. Fittingly so, I’ve turned around on Tititea three times. First with Chris, Leigh McClurg and Jacob Moon. We planned to climb the South Face which would feature 10+ pitches of ice climbing. Then Chris and I returned but the snow conditions were deep and mushy. The freezing level had in fact been too high. We turned around in the rain and deep snow and packrafted out on the river. Things remained poor over the coming weeks and when the weather broke up again, I opted for the Fox Neve where with new partners I was able to climb some stellar routes in great weather and conditions.
Much time has gone by since our last trip to Tititea and it was time to go after it again. Much has changed too. Chris has moved on from the project but it lives on. West Coast Kiwi Ryan Colley and I teamed up for another go. After another failed attempt, we were ready to throw in the towel. On summit day we woke up to head off and the forecast hadn’t been spot on- snow was soft and wet, it was pouring rain.
After a short rest back in Wanaka, another weather window was on the horizon. This time, we opted to travel by helicopter to the Bonar Glacier. At this point I’d hiked over 115km to and from the mountain and I was over it. We flew in under blue skies and low winds. Landing at the Bevan Col, we made the two hour walk to the Colin Todd Hut (1800m) where we’d launch our summit push from of the Southwest Ridge. We got a good eye on the route and if the snow had a good freezing that night- it was a go.
The alarm went off at 1:30am Thursday Morning. The hut was full of guided parties climbing the classic moderate Northwest Ridge, which the hut sat lower down on, so we did our best to be quiet and timely as we were the first awake. We were walking around 2:20am. The snow was completely moosh, it hadn’t frozen.
After only about 30 minutes of trudging in deep snow up the glacier, we stopped and talked again about bailing to climb the Northwest Ridge instead as it was right beside us and in this snow, with a good pace, it would take another couple hours to get to the ridge and gain some ground on it. We opted to carry on, this was the line we came for, given the South Face being in questionable shape. After so many failed attempts it was obvious to me that the mountain was not going to hand over the summit- and that’s where we were going today. We wallowed through the night under a dark cloudy sky. A couple half crevasse falls had us wide awake and when the sky began to lighten, we’d moved up the glacier, taken a hard left, and we were almost off the lower Southwest Ridge and ready to unrope to Solo the steep snow slopes to the upper cliff band.
The snow was much better up high. Stuck in the clouds, we weren’t sure how far we were from the cliff. “I think we should be there any minute right?” Ryan called to me. “Shit man I hope so!” Just a moment later the clouds opened and for a few moments the blue sky bloomed, hues of blue and pink painted the glacier now far below us. “Wow! We are way off the deck!” I thought to myself, bursting with summit fever. And there above us, only 100 vertical meters away, was the ice smearing it’s way down a gully through the summit cliff band. “There it is!!” I yelled out. The stoke meter exceeded capacity and we were hootin’ and hollerin’ for the next few minutes. (We’d later hear that climber’s on the Northwest Ridge and even someone at the hut could hear us yelling from far away and high on the slopes of the Southwest Ridge: “We knew you guys were probably having a really good morning.”).
Ryan, seeking to gain valuable experience on alpine ice for his training to become a New Zealand Alpine guide, was really jonsed for leading the first pitch. I’m a little spoiled myself and have the opportunity to climb ice more or less year round so it was definitely all his! He put on “All Along The Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix and quested onward. This was the worst quality ice I’ve ever been on! Mushy and wet, delaminated from the wall and sounds of running water all around. He found some decent rock gear early on and quested for 40 meters to a couple rusty pitons and anchored off. When I came up the pitch behind him I was secretly relieved I didn’t have to lead it- Sketchy! I took over on the sharp end thus climbing back to back pitches which kept me warm and with good momentum. A seemingly vertical unconsolidated snow wall, several feet deep, towards the top of my pitch had the adrenaline pumping, a true “Watch me here dude!” moment. But when I’d run out the 60m to it’s true end, I was in the warm sun and with the summit ridge in sight! I was really stoked at this point! I brought Ryan up and we unroped in firm Neve to move to the ridge and onto the summit.
Those last moments were like non other I’ve ever experienced in the mountains. We were higher than any other point in Mt. Aspiring National Park, in misty clouds that we barely sat on top of, the clean cloud ceiling stretched on from us as far as the eye could see. Ryan coiled the rope and I pushed on to break trail to the summit- which I could now see glowing in the sun. Over the final meters, a wave of emotions rushed through me and watered my eyes. After all the attempts, the doubt, the fear of the project failure, Chris stepping away from our alpine plans, we were finally here and about to stand on the summit of the Matterhorn of the South.
Another couple minutes and I found myself alone on a white crystal snowcap. To my right, a steep drop of 70 or 80 degrees- the South Face. To my left, the less steep but seemingly equally as costly snow also vanished into the clouds. Beyond the summit, the Coxcomb Ridge was nearly knife-edged and winding out of sight. This was it. A surreal joy overtook me and I was bursting ear to ear with the grin of a child. I turned around and snapped a photo of Ryan coming up. I was feeling pretty thankful for this new friendship as we didn’t know each other just a month ago, but now we had shared both failure and success. After a few hugs and summit photos, we were making a hot brew and jamming out to “Old Time Rock N Roll” by Bob Seger.
It poured rain and the wind rose on our descent down the Northwest Ridge, which we did in a whiteout. Stumbling back through even deeper snow, we finally found our way to the hut and our joy was coming full circle. We ate, socialized with the others, and went off to bed for another alpine start to hike out. Leaving at 5:30am, we followed our tracks again up the glacier and then onward over a pass called the Quarterdeck which would bring us back to French Ridge Hut, moving fast, we made it all the way to the carpark by 2:30- 27km of drastic elevation change and with a full pack. When it was all said and done, I’d hiked over 150km to and from the mountain. I knew every step of the trail, how/where to cross every stream, every root and foothold on the steep portion to French Ridge and I’d even packrafted the West Matukituki River. The process had frustrated me quite a lot. Tititea was finally in the bag and had taught me more about life than any mountain has. It was time for some rest… and to regather ourselves for Aoraki. Mt. Cook.