Attending New Zealand's Ice and Mixed Festival

New Zealand’s annual Ice And Mixed Festival is held in Queenstown and brings some of the countries top climbers together. The NZ Alpine Team hold a bunch of clinics and there are evening events held in town but I went there with one aim in mind - to lead my first technical mixed route and climb as much as possible. Over the week I teamed up with Lucas, a good mate and college and also made a new friend Chris, as we tackled a bunch of classic routes together.

Lucas (another guide at Fox) and I sorted some time off work and headed down to Queenstown for the Mixed and Ice Climbing Festival last week. 
We were linking up with another climber Chris at the open night and weren’t too sure what our objectives were going to be at the beginning but had enough gear that we could tackle almost anything.

Day one:

Before the registration night Lucas and I went out to scope the ice conditions in the park. I read about the Alta Ice crag and knew it was close to the ski field so we set off for a day trip with light packs and snow shoes. Once we got there the ice looked very hollow and the top half of Altered States wasn’t connected to the wall. We decided to set a top rope up just to test it first. This in itself proved a problem as the access gully we were going to use was out of condition and had sections of snow that made it a painfully insecure underfoot. We rapped off and Lucas decided to lead Altered States getting to the disconnected crux and then rapping of a V- Thread.

Day two:

The first day of the festival kicked off after a storm. This made access tricky with a heightened avalanche risk and heaps of new snow. 
The forecast showed cold conditions and persistent snow fall but most of us still went out there to have a look for ourselves. 

We started on the “No.1 Gully” which was described as an easy mixed climb with good protection. It turned out to be a soft, 60 degree snow slope and once we got to the top of pitch 3 we all untied and basically walked back down the route from the ridge. 

Still having most of the day to climb we jumped on “Saturday Morning Special” a route just next to the gully. Right from the get-go this climb proved more involved than the last with the mixed sections feeling gradually more exposed and moves becoming committing but still relatively easy. After topping out we followed the ridge to the top of Telecom Tower. Once there the sky cleared and treated us to some great views before we headed down a spur to the ski field. We were one of only two cars left in the carpark that evening. Solid day in the hills!

Day 3: MK + Left variant 

On day three we ramped things up again and got on Minge Kunt, which was further over the on the West Face. The climb had a gradual start with all of the harder technical ground lying in whatever variant was picked for the top pitch. 
I jumped on the sharp end for pitch two and got to the section where I thought the climb split into the 4 different variants. I picked a steep rock gully to try and escape the steep, waist deep plodding in soft snow left behind from the storm. I started up a steep chimney and soon found myself in the hardest ground we had climbed so far, scrapping snow from cracks looking for protection while moving delicately on my front points. 
I built my anchor once I got over the tight chimney and bought Chris and Lucas up. 

“I soon found myself in the hardest ground we had climbed so far, scrapping snow from cracks looking for protection while moving delicately on my front points”

Chris swapped on lead and while belaying I noticed his pace was slower than usual and without being able to see him guessed he was in a difficult section. 
After a while he yelled out “I’d hate to be the person following this line” and laughed continuing up the pitch to the top. 
Once we were on belay I soon saw what he meant and found myself gingerly traversing right, over a delicate section above an exposed drop and then moving over a vertical face with very little holds for axes or hands. After that it was more or less a steep snow plod to the top ridge where Chris had set up.
Once we were down and in the car Chris and I looked at a few different guides and realised we had accidentally gone up a section that wasn’t part of the route at all. I had split left too early and we had climbed something harder than the M3 Minge Kunt variant. 
Not bad for our second day ever mixed climbing! 

Day 4: Fridays Fool 


After hearing so many good stories about a route named ‘Friday’s Fool’ we thought we’d better dedicate our last day to try get a go at it. The WI3 M4 climb was in great nick but in being so had received so much traffic over the week that it was hard to get on and there had been a literal queue every day. To ensure our spot we were the first up the mountain that day and were rewarded; not only with being the first ones on the climb but somehow we had the climb to ourselves for the whole day! 

The crux lies in the start and Chris did a great job moving efficiently up the ice and mixed terrain, placing good pro along the way. Pitch two was a nice 15m pure water ice climb to a fixed belay and then pitch 3 was a breezy snow slope where I got to place my first piton. Bloody stoked. Pitch 4 had some nice ice sections and I thought it would be a good one for Lucas to lead. So, once I was at the top in easy ground I untied and threw the ropes down after clipping into a bomber cam. While I was waiting I solo’d up easy ground to the bottom of the last vertical section. A short but steep vertical rock step hosting a crack that would take good pro and fun looking dry tooling. Lucas reached me and bought Chris up who then led the step to the ridge. The rock was great and I even got an under cling with my left tool which felt super solid.

We packed up our gear and headed to Wanaka that night and spent the next morning rock climbing before headed back to Fox. Solid week getting some technical practice in for spring conditions!

If you want to jump on next years festival you can sign up or get more information here: