THE GRAND TRAVERSE – UNSWOC Beanie Grant

“I’M SAFE! TAKE ME OFF BELAY!”

A snow covered mountain

Description automatically generated — *Figure 1: A map of the Grand Traverse.*

“TAKING YOU OFF BELAY!”

“YOU ARE OFF BELAY!”

“THANKS!”

“THATS ME!”

“YOU ARE ON BELAY!”

“CLIMBING!”

“CLIMB ON!”

A typical conversation between the leader and the second right? But not so typical when its 3 in the morning on the Grand Traverse in the Remarkables. How did we get there you asked? I wish I have the answer.

The Grand Traverse of Single and Double Cone is one of the classic single day alpine routes in Queenstown. The steep and exposed ridge line provides excellent rock climbing and incredible views of Lake Alta and Lake Wakatipu. Typically, the Grand Traverse requires an early start or what people call an alpine start and takes 8 – 10 hours to complete. Naturally, we left the carpark at 1045.

Text Box: Figure 1: A map of The Grand Traverse — *Figure 2: Lake Alta in the background as we hike up to the ridge for our ascent of the Grand Traverse. Time 11:34.*

Since this is our first climb in New Zealand, Jenny, Ash, Stephen and I were feeling confident and keen. We roped up at the heli pad where the climb starts to get more exposed and more committing. In summer conditions, the route is mostly long rock scramble with some steep sections. A week before we arrived, the Queenstown region received a lot of rain and in an alpine environment, its snow. Snow and ice increased the difficulty of the climb. Our mountaineering boots also didn’t help with climbing on wet icy rock.

Text Box: Figure 2: Lake Alta in the background as we hike up to ridge for our ascent of the Grand Traverse. Time (1134) — *Figure 3: A panoramic view of Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown just before the telecom tower on the Grand Traverse.*

A flock of seagulls standing on a snow covered mountain

Description automatically generated — Figure 4: Ash leading a pitch up the double cone. Time 19:44.

The climb itself is superb. You get an incredible view of Lake Alta and Lake Wakatipu. As the day went by, we realised that we are running behind schedule. At one point, I was still hopeful that we might finish before dark. When it was around 9pm, I sort of gave up and accepted that we will not get back to the car anytime soon.

Stephen and I caught up to Ash and Jenny at around 11pm and were discussing what to do next. Ash and Jenny were relatively tired from the long day and had decided to call it. They found a sheltered spot and laid their rope on the snow and bivied on top of it. Still hyped up by our first alpine experience, Stephen and I decided to keep going in order to stay warm.

Text Box: Figure 3: A panoramic view of Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown just before the telecom tower on the Grand Traverse — Figure 5: Ash belaying Jenny for the next pitch while Stephen was getting off the rope after rapping off double cone. Time 2208.

With very little night climbing experience, I took my time leading a pitch up a pinnacle before Single Cone. About 10m into the next pitch, I suspected that we might be off route. To continue, I will need to down climb onto thin holds and traverse out and around. I wasn’t sure if I can place gear to protect Stephen. It was a hard decision to make because to retreat would mean the past two hours were wasted. I struggled to make the call. To me it was a decision between my ego and safety. I did not want to give up our hard work and to go back meant we had made a mistake. The bragging rights of sending a hard and potentially dangerous climb is also tempting. But is it worth taking the risk? The euphoria from doing something difficult and potentially risky might justify it. I am proud to say that we did turned around and down climb the last two pitches.

3 hours had gone by and we were no more than 30 meters away from where we left Ash and Jenny. (They told us later that at about 5 in the morning, they could still hear Stephen and I screaming to each other.) The detour did eat away our energy and hinder our spirits. The wind was picking up and it was getting colder as dawn was slowly creeping up on us. At the second last pitch before the summit of Single Cone, the sun rose. My heart was filled with joy and relieve as we survived the night like how sunflowers always smile for the sun. We got to the rap point at around 8am and started the decent. We made it back to the car at exactly 24 hours later.

Figure 7: Jenny enjoying a much deserved nap at the Remarkables car park after the climb. Time 15.30.

For sure there are room for improvement between our 24 hours ascent with Alastair’s 1.5 hour speed record. So what went wrong? We learnt from the hard way that confidence does not translate to competence. This climb might be too hard for us, even though we made it but at what cost? It was Stephen and my first climb together, we can definitely be more efficient. Route finding wasn’t easy either, Stephen and I spent a lot of time discussing where to go. Lucky for us, Ash and Jenny did an excellent job with route finding on the first day, otherwise it would have taken us much longer. I am most proud of the ascent when we turned around at single cone, it showed self-control. To me, being a good climber is not necessarily being the strongest. It is also about your ability to self access, your ability to use your head and training to turn a potentially dangerous environment into a safe one. I did not let my ego get in the way. Sometimes climbing is about the performance more than the goal and our performance on the Grand Traverse showed character and discipline. I am not going to keep going because I am not good enough yet, but one day, I will be.

Ref:

https://www.thecrag.com/climbing/new-zealand/queenstown/remarkables/area/1014679305

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