The Remarkables - A Grand Traverse
The Remarkables range lies just east of Queenstown and it’s intense, jagged ridge-line is one of the first things that captures your attention when going to the small city. I have wanted to do the Grand Traverse for a number of years but have kept busy on other climbs in the area when visiting. The route takes you up and over three of the highest peaks on the ridge and while it isn’t technically difficult, (Mt Cook grade 3) it is a highly recommended climb — one of New Zealand’s classics.
It was 5:30 on a Tuesday morning and finally; I was waking up with that objective in mind.
Monday - Recce // Alpine Rock
I woke up to the obnoxious noise of my phones alarm. It was 4:30am, Monday morning. I was wrapped in a blanket in the drivers seat of my $400 Mistibishi parked at the Albert Town camp site, Wanaka. Only three hours prior I was looking at weather maps and deciding on a plan before packing my kit in the local New World carpark around 1am.
I slowly got up and flicked my gas stove on for a coffee. I’d been living and climbing out of my car for only two weeks and already had a wee morning routine going. Heater on, coffee, piss and go before the park ranger arrives to collect my fees. It wasn’t an ethical lifestyle — but I needed to save as much as I could if I was to get the next 2 months of climbing in without needing to work.
I arrived at my buddy Chris’s place and starting organising breakfast while the others got ready.
Jack, Benni, Chris and I arrived to howling winds and clouds of spindrift at the Remarkables carpark. We expected some wind but not this much, the windchill was well below freezing. It was obvious the others weren’t keen on getting out of the car so Jack and myself racked up and flicked through the guide book. We were having trouble trying to find easier rock that might have escaped being plastered in snow. We left the car park and reached the lake where we found shelter from the wind and assessed our options with what little dry rock we had.
We decided on the NE buttress of Single Cone and after some route confusion spotted a cool looking line which linked some crack systems together. The route wasn’t actually in the guide book but it looked easy enough that we could grovel a way up outselves.
Jack led the first and second pitch and made it quite clear that he wasn’t having a good time. The climbing wasn’t all that tough but the snow melting from above meant all of the cracks and lines of weakness we had seen from the bottom were now running waterways! That forced Jack onto the face which didn’t offer much protection. On top of that his hands were now numb from the cold, wet rock so he didn’t even know whether he was overgripping a hold or about to slip off. One hell of an effort.
“ he didn’t even know whether he was overgripping a hold or about to slip off”
I led the third and last pitch which was an easy but dicey traverse along a snow covered ledge then I followed a nice wide crack which took a couple cams to the top.
We were pretty happy to have got out and seen conditions in the park for the day, all the while having a cool wee alpine climbing experience of our own — even if it wasn’t the GT. The others were in the car once we got back and we were all eager to get something to eat. The weather for the next day looked stellar so we checked into our hostel after a feed and hit the hay.
Tuesday - The Grand Traverse
Alarm, yawn, roll over; nope, it’s time to get up, jacket on, cold water, piss, grab pack, noisey door, drop off keys, find car, heater, go.
We arrived at the same park as the day before but you would be forgiven if you didn’t recognise the view. Instead of the previous days strong winds and dark, ominous weather we had clear skys. Not even a breath of wind as we made breakfast in the dirt of the carpark. Coffee and oats; the same as every other early-morning-excursion breakfast in my recent life.
Jaimie - an IFMGA guide said a quick “morning” as he walked past with his client for the day. This was always a good sign and with the new snow around put my mind at ease. We hadn’t found any sign of avalanching the day before but just one week prior three people had been caught in a big slide heading up Mount Hicks. One lady survived and two guides (Wolfgang and Martin) died. I didn’t know Martin very well but had spent some time in Pioneer hut with him and he had done some work at Fox Guides while I was there. A very sad day for New Zealand’s climbing and guiding community.
We left the car park and Jacks (now smelly) rental behind and after an hours slog we arrived at the the ridge.
The beginning of the ridge was fairly straight forward. The beta we gathered told us that we had to stick to the left of the ridge. Easy scrambling kept us moving efficiently without a rope until we missed a gully that took you up to the ridge proper for about 20 meters. Instead, we kept low and after finding some old ab tat we figured we were off route. We found a snow gully that was soft enough to kick steps in and shot back up to the ridge where our first pitch awaited.
The first steep section was a well protected crack that relented after about 5 meters. This led us to the first summit of Double cone.
We had a quick snack and then dropped off the summit to the left. This involved a section of insecure down-climbing on shallow snow and slick rock. We rappelled down to the Petite Col and simul climbed the second peak of Double Cone and over the Grand Couilar to the final peak - Single Cone.
We reached the summit of Single Cone at the same time as another (guided) party of two coming up the North East Ridge. Dean, the guide, gave us some helpful information for the rappel. We stopped for some food and a few photos before following their steps on the ridge to the double bolt rap-rings.
The descent was fairly uneventful, apart from some quality boot-skiing and bum sliding back to the carpark.
All up the trip took us around 7-8hrs but we weren’t in any rush. I’d love to go back and knock it out faster next time.
THE GRAND TRAVERSE - REMARKABLES // Nov. 2018
Photos - Jack Schlinkert, Ryan Colley