It was 7pm and we were descending from the summit of Mt Aspiring Tititea. The day had been a perfect summit day, except for the moments where I was scared 😱 I don’t go adventuring to get scared – I love the challenge of rough wild terrain, long days, uncertain weather and exploring new backcountry.

The fear you experience when exposed to steep drop-offs is a reaction, deeply rooted in our aversion to potential danger and the fear of falling. This response can be overwhelming, manifesting as a heightened sense of vulnerability and a keen awareness of the physical risks involved. The sheer verticality and the vast, open space below can trigger a dizzying sense of disorientation and vertigo, making you acutely aware of our fragility in the face of nature’s grandeur. This fear, while daunting, is also a critical component of our respect for the mountain, reminding us of the importance of caution, preparation, and respect for the environment we are navigating.

We had a few options for our four days in Mt Aspiring National Park:

• A traverse from Arrowtown over the Harris Mountains, Rees Saddle, Dart Glacier and Cascade Saddle.
• A loop from Raspberry Flat, shot over saddle, Lake Lochnager and Cascade Saddle.
• If the weather worked out, climbing Mt Aspiring Tititea (the Matterhorn of the South).

As we flew south, Alistair McDowell had broken the fastest know time for climbing Tititea, just over 9 hours!!! We had lunch in Wanaka with Alistair where he gave us the beta from his amazing run up and down Aspiring. We had studied Alistair’s video from his first one-day climb, which made it all look very easy.

Aspiring Tititea NW ridge is classified as Grade 2+, which means sustained snow slopes or sustained steep rock scrambling, a steep pitch of snow or Grade 14 rock. Ridge travel may involve some tricky and very exposed sections.

We ranged from taking full gear, rope, harnesses, crampons, two ice axes to micro-spikes and one lightweight axe like Alistair had carried. We settled on crampons and one ice axe with a plan to turn around if that was not enough to make it safe.

Normally the plan would be to walk into Colin Todd Hut above the Bonar Glacier, stay the night and do an ‘out and back to’ climb of the mountain. Our weather window only worked for us to start from Aspiring Hut, a full day’s travel from Colin Todd. Alistair suggested it would take 11 hours to summit from Aspiring Hut, so we started just before 6am.

These are the days we treasure – clear sky, no wind and a big mission. Within a few hours, we were off the track and into the backcountry making our way up to Bevan Col. This is a pretty gnarly route with steep waterfall and rock slabs, which required lots of attention. The view from the Col is jaw-dropping, with the Bonar Glacier as far as you can see with Aspiring raising above.

We crunched across the Glacier in our crampons and climbed up the Kangaroo Patch. The snow slope steepened for the last 100 metres. This required all my focus, carefully placing my feet and ice axe. It was nerve-wracking. Adding to the tension, my water bottle fell out of my pack and slid down the slope. We arrived to the top of the patch to eyeball the next obstacle, the rock slabs and the buttress.

We dropped our night gear and hid it from those curious kea.

If it wasn’t for the 1000m drop-offs on either side of the ridge, the rest of the day would’ve looked okay. I tried to block out the wider view and concentrated on the next section. We got a little off-track, but found a way onto the ridgeline where the slope eased and we could walk to the top.

11 hours after leaving the hut, we arrived on the summit. It was Paul’s 57th birthday and Marta had carried a bottle of bubbles all the way to celebrate. We collected our gear from below the buttress and headed along the ridge towards Colin Todd Hut, allowing ourselves to think that the tricky obstacles had finished.

Soon we were climbing up and down the sections using the fixed slings and ropes. Making it to the Therma Glacier was a big relief – we only needed to walk on the snow down to the hut . . . hopefully before the darkness arrived. The cloud rolled in and towards the bottom, we got a few glimpses of the lower section of the Iso Glacier far below the Shipowner Ridge. It looked like a scary spot.

That night we ate cake to celebrate getting to the top of one of our 3,000m peaks, a first for Marta and me.

Some key learning from this adventure:

• Parts of this adventure would have been more comfortable with a guide.
• Having another axe on the steep part of the Kangaroo Patch would have been better.
• Having better crampons would have provided more confidence.
• Carrying a rope might have been useful on the ridge.

I think I need an adventure moderator – someone I can run future trip plans past to have more great adventures without the scary moments.

FMC thanks Andy Carruthers for his permission to reproduce this article, first published on his ‘Great Walk Adventures’ blog (April 2024).