Mount Cook
Jamie McLellan | May 30th, 2007
Photos by Henrik Tjaerby
I recently visited Aoraki / Mount Cook on a rock climbing trip with my good friend Henrik.
The hour-long diversion from Twizel along the Mount Cook highway is stunning. The drive follows the length of Lake Pukaki, which is an intense opaque turquoise colour, I think from all the rock ground up by the melting glaciers that feed it.
Accommodation at the base of the mountain ranges from the touristy Hermitage Hotel to a camp ground near the start of the walking track. Opting for the full adventure experience we slept with cheeky keas and possums and rabbits and sand flies in the campground, although we still drank Hermitage bought espressos in the morning.
The rock climbing was fantastic. As a novice it was at times pretty challenging but this didn’t seem to register with Henrik, my lead climber. On our second day we climbed a 5 pitch route which had us finish hundreds of feet above our starting point. From here the scenery was so beautiful and grandiose and silent it felt like being inside a landscape painting.
For dinner we ate at The Old Mountaineers Café And Bar which seemed fantastic at the time but I suspect wouldn’t taste as good without having ascended a multi-pitch climb beforehand. Great views up the mountain also.
Supposedly there are great walks up to the Tasman Glacier, however we were strictly here for the climbing according to Henrik.
