| Summary | None |
| Owner | Eric Gilbertson |
| Creation Date | 2012-11-19 19:31:31 UTC-0500 |
| Description | Aoraki/Mt Cook (12,316ft) – Highest Mountain in New Zealand
Eric and Matthew Gilbertson November 4-6, 2012 Link to our Country Highpoints Webpage “NOOOO MOOOORE ROOOPE” Matthew yelled across the icy ridge to me as the lines tied to my harness went taut. I cursed loudly, but the wind blew the words out of my mouth before they could reach Matthew. “CAN I HAVE JUST 15 MORE FEET?” I yelled hopefully, louder this time. I was perched precariously, balancing on the four front-points of my crampons each poked a half-inch into the steep ice, with my two ice tools hooked over the top of the knife-edge ice ridge I was traversing. I looked down at the 5,000ft of mountain falling away beneath my feet. It was not the place to build an anchor and start belaying. I twisted another screw into the ice and clipped it to the rope. The summit of Mount Cook was literally close enough to throw a snowball at, if not for the wind that would have blown the snowball away. “NOOOO MOOOORE ROOOPE” Matthew yelled back again. ----- Day 0 “Nobody’s been up Cook yet this season,” the ranger on the other end of the phone warned me. It was Saturday, November 3, and I had just called up the Mt Cook ranger station to check in before heading up to the mountains. “We’ve had a snowy winter, and the weather hasn’t been clear for the past 5 weeks. A crew just went up to Plateau Hut last weekend to check up on it after the winter. Do you know the avy conditions up there?” “Yes,” I replied, “I saw today was forecasted to be considerable above 2000m.” “Well, we’d really like to talk to you in person before you head up, but it’s not required.” “I’ll try to make it to the station in person,” I replied, before giving him the details of my itinerary, planned return day, and emergency contact information. The ranger’s response was a little surprising to me. I thought November was the standard start of the climbing season for Mount Cook, and that there’d already be all kinds of climbers up there. Over the phone he had seemed concerned that we knew what we were getting ourselves into, and I hoped to dispel his concerns when we met in person... View the full trip report here |