Two days up Tititea
Climbing Mt Aspiring in under 48hrs from Raspberry Flat carpark
Standing at 3033m high, Tititea (Mt Aspiring) is the highest mountain in Aotearoa outside of Aoraki National Park. It’s height and the beauty of this peak has put Tititea on my want to climb list ever since I visited Aspiring National Park. So when I saw a three day weather window I was very eager to go! My climbing partner and I drove to Raspberry Flat carpark, set up camp for the night, packed our bags, and set alarms for 6am. Sunday 22nd January started nice and early with a slog on the 4wd track to Aspiring hut, where 90minutes later we attempted to have breakfast before being driven onwards by swarms of sandflies - the joys of the Matukituki. We reached the head of the valley, the Bevan col slabs, just before midday and enjoyed a quick splash in the waterfall and a snack before continuing upwards, route finding made a lot easier by the descent bolts installed by guides. Bevan col itself was beautiful, and I promised myself I’d have a swim on the way back down as the clouds closing in over the summit of Aspiring were beginning to look a little menacing. The threat of rain was fulfilled just as we were gearing up to cross the bonar glacier, but all was well as we were off the rock slabs and the hut was in sight! Tragically the bonar was showing signs of glacial recession, with access ramps only a few seasons away from being threatened by shrunds, and an ice swamp developing in the middle where we discovered you could sink thigh deep in slush.
We finally arrived at Colin Todd hut at 4pm to find that the bunks were fully occupied by guided parties that had flown in early that day, luckily they kindly sourced us a spare mattress for the floor and offered us some goodies from the guides food boxes! Morale was further raised when we discovered that three friends of ours were already in the hut and also planning to climb the North West ridge the following morning. The guided parties announced that alarms would be going off at 4am, so wanting to get ahead of the crowds we packed our summit bags for a quick get away the next morning and tucked into a sneaky radix meal before hitting the sack early.
4am came around all too quickly, and soon we were out the door and moving up the ridge, head torches on and eager to see the sunrise. Rock scrambling feels even spookier in the dark and although not technically challenging, the north west ridge does have decent exposure as narrow catwalk ledges around gendarmes provide views straight down to the Therma glacier. I was feeling both relived and awestruck when the sun did finally peak above the horizon, turning the surrounding glaciers light orange. After a few hours of rock soloing, there was the final snow plod up the summit ice cap and by 9:30am we were finally there! Standing on the summit of Mt Aspiring, looking out over the entire national park was a pretty incredible feeling. By 10am we were beginning our descent back down the ridge, and we were back down at the hut by 2pm. Deciding that our legs would be sore tomorrow anyways, and we’d prefer if they were sore whilst sitting by the lake not sore with a big walk out to complete, we decided to finish the trip in two days and walk all the way back out that afternoon.
By 5pm we’d reached Bevan Col, and my previous ambitions of swimming in the snow surrounded lakes there were tossed aside with the goal of getting as far as possible before head torchers were needed. Knees suffered down the slabs, but morale was boosted by a quick chocolate break upon reaching the valley floor, and the thought of getting past the French ridge hut turn off and back onto the easier track. Head torchers were turned on at Shovel flat at 10pm, and we reached Aspiring hut just after 11pm where we had cunningly hidden two energy drinks to power our final charge! The car was reached a little after midnight, legs were sore, feet were tender, and we were still half asleep at 7 the next morning as we drove into Wanaka new world to acquire a well earned pastry.
