It was 7pm, 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 4 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 Alistairs video from his first one day climb which made it all look very easy. 

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

We ranged from taking full gear, rope, harnesses, crampons, two ice axes to

Micro spikes and one light weight 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 the mountain. Our weather window only worked for us to start from Aspiring Hut, a full days travel from Colin Todd.

Alistair suggested it would take 11 hours to summit from Aspiring Hut so we started just before 6.

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, steep waterfall and rock slabs, it required lots of attention. 

The view from the Col is jaw dropping, 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 steapend for the last 100 metres, this required all my focus, carefully placing my feet and ice axe. It was nerve-wracking. My water bottle fall out of my pack and slid down the slope adding to the tension. We arrived to the top of the patch to eye ball 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 most of this would look OK. 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 so 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 thinking 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, now we just 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 I.

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.