Arrowsmith has long been on my tick list for a while, it is one of the 15 “Classic Peaks”. However it has a reputation for rebuffing many honest attempts. For anytime of the year apart from a three to four week window around October to November, there is either too much snow so too avalanchy, or too little snow so danger of rockfall and crevasse travel becomes difficult. Which is tricky as well as this time of the year the weather is fairly unstable. So one day in early November I met up with Paul “Action” Mason for an attempt on its eastern face. “Action” had just come from a weekend multisport event, his car is chocka with three kayaks, two mountainbikes and lots of stuff – very cool. We went in from the Mt Arrowsmith road end (near Lake Heron Station) and up the Cameron River. What a cracker day for a walk in, turned out to be one of the last of the good ones, though it did rain heavily the night before. Heading up the Cameron in the afternoon, the track is discontinuous in places but it would have been reasonably easy going apart from the 22 kg pack! Took me 6.5 hours to get to the hut – too late to go further. We headed up the middle of the Cameron glacier the next day in deteriorating weather. The “Carriageway” up and on top of the moraine on the true right used to be the standard access route, but the glacier has dropped way too far for this to work now. At 1700 m we took a left turn (right goes to Jagged col), and then headed further left up a wide couloir next to a rock buttress at 1900 m. It was rather confusing to pick the right line but Paul had been here before. After the buttress at 2000 m we headed on a rising traverse left under an icefall. After 4 hours from the hut we reached an open area (2170m). Here on the South Cameron Glacier we pitched our tent and built a snow wall around it in winds that gradually rose to 70 kph. Viz dropped to 50 m. Next day the wind had stopped however it continued to snow lightly all day. Unbelievably the temperature inside the tent rose from 2C to 25C by 11am, and then topped out at 36C by 2pm! There was enough UV filtering through, which after it converted to IR on hitting the snow, just couldn’t escape through the mist. Turning the place into a microwave oven. It only stopped snowing at 8pm but visibility was still bad at 10.30pm so we didn’t hold out much hope. We set the alarm at 2am for a look-see. It’s 2am and it’s all clear – yay! Plus there’s been a slight freeze. Only about three to four inches of snow has fallen too. 3.10am and we’re off! We needed to rope up soon after leaving the tent, as we are in crevassed terrain. Paul heads off at a cracker pace, and by 5am we’ve climbed to 2500 m and are at the base of two snow couloirs – one leads directly to the summit, the other to the right. We select the right hand couloir which ascends slightly less steeply with no mixed terrain. The direct one appeared to have a rock step about 50 m up from its base. The sun comes up at 6am, we are near the top of the couloir, and the temperature starts to rocket away – we are facing directly towards it. From the summit ridge, the summit is 200 m away. We try to pitch the rocks but quickly abandon this idea – too loose and icy. We traverse onto the steep shaded (right) side and do two traversing pitches over icy snow, before reacquiring the ridge for the last 100 m of easy travel to the summit. We arrive at 8am in little wind, fabulous views and a blue sky day. As we look down we see early morning mist filling the valleys to the east. In the distance are Cook and Tasman. After a short break we start to rap down the main couloir which is rapidly softening using two 50 m ropes, rapping off protruding rocks from the summit ridge and from the rock buttress on the right (five raps). At 10am we are back at the base of the couloirs which are now very soft and at risk of avalanching. It is way too difficult/ dangerous to climb these couloirs now and explains why so few (less than 10%) are successful on Arrowsmith. You must arrive at their base no later than an hour before sunrise, which means starting from the hut you would probably need to go from 10pm? It is a very straight forward grade 1-2 climb if your timing is good. There are about six possible routes from the South Cameron Glacier, however all involve crossing the glacier and ascending steep snow couloirs. As all these possibilities are east facing they go rapidly out of condition in the morning sun. We were back at the tent by 11.30am, then down to the hut by 2pm. “Action” leads the way (wants to go kayaking the next day) and so in one non-stop push we are out to the roadend by 8pm in deteriorating weather. On the walk out it starts to rain heavily, we made our climb but only just in the narrowest of weather windows. Tackle the North Wall The alpine weather has got the better of the north wall of our hut at Tukino. So we’re recladding it and we need as much help as possible. We’ll consider anybody no matter what your skills are. We’ve got lots of jobs, ranging from painting, stuffing insulation, to fastening the cladding. It should be a fun weekend, and if we have enough people, you might be able to sneak off for a little while to scout out some of the rock climbing potential. When: 23rd to 25th March (reserve weekend April 20–22) Interested? Then contact Don French on 027 445 2980 or email don.f@xtra.co.nz Wellington Section Webmaster Vacancy (volunteer role) The Wellington Section is looking for a new webmaster. The role entails keeping the Section’s website up-to-date with information relevant to members, including Section night information,
