Mike Rowe and Andrew Finnigan's possible new route on the west face of The Remarkables.

Most new routes are new for a reason; they are often obscenely difficult, remote or uninspiring. I was trying to figure out what was wrong with this 1700m face right off the highway with one ascent recorded in the 1974 Alpine Journal. With huge couloirs, stepped ridges and the potential for 10 new routes, I can hardly believe this face has received so little attention. Maybe it's been climbed heaps, I don’t know.

The climb begins with a 2-hour bush bash through head-high scrub. It is a slow start to a big day. Two hours to climb 100m. This is the kind of scrub where you can’t decide whether to crawl through, push through standing tall or try and balance on top of the canopy. Aggression sometimes helps but usually just wastes energy. The vegetation begins thinning out as dawn arrives and we see a tussock spur that could have taken us past most of the scrub. Nevermind.

How do you protect 60-degree tussock slopes?

Progress improves as we pass enticing schist crags below the headwall that marks the start of our route. The headwall, beginning at 1100m, would be a very staunch direct start to the route but we opt to skirt left. Steep tussock and rock are easily climbed but a slip will result in a long tumble.

We gain the ridge above the headwall and cover some easy ground to the next big step on the ridge. A right-tending ramp takes us part way up and we set up a solid belay from a nice ledge. A short traverse right leads to a shallow rock, snow and tussock corner and I make the mistake of starting up it with no crampons or axes. I get a couple of good pieces of rock pro low down as I work up the corner. Handfuls of tussock, a few crimpers – things are pretty thin and I manage to get both my axes off my pack.

Tools swing hard into frozen turf and a bit of campusing gets me up the pitch with my only two pieces of pro a good 10m below. Our doubled-up half rope and minimal rack necessitate short pitches and I am stoked to find a waist deep rock crevice about 20m up. I jump in the crack and belay Mike off my harness. There is no way he could pull me out but he does try a few times. We swap places and I continue up the corner.

Easy snow slopes above the mixed ground.

The second pitch is easier but has absolutely no protection! I wish for a warthog or Spectre but manage the remaining 10m of the corner, now better equipped with crampons on. I run out another 10m on easy snow to a bomber rock belay under an overhang. It was a pretty sketchy pitch. Maybe that’s an understatement.....no runners and the anchor was a human waist-deep in a rock crevice. To his credit, Mike had staunchly kept me on belay. Back on the ridge crest, Mike runs out 30m on easy ground to another good rock belay.

The fourth pitch is good fun, relatively straightforward with pro where you need it. This takes us to the top of the rock step and easier ground.

A long section of easy travel follows on the crest of the ridge, through at times waist-deep snow, to the next rock step. A right-leaning slab takes us all the way up and around this step with some interesting balancing on small but positive rock edges. There is minimal or no pro and I solo up, hoping I'm not climbing into a corner. I find a good anchor at the top of the slab and the seconder has the benefit of a top rope.

The ground mellows out a bit and some serious mid-thigh 40-degree snow plodding takes us back to the ridge crest. More easy travel sees us reach a flat point on the ridge. Darkness is only an hour away and the forecast SW change is kicking in, with strengthening wind and snow. We make the call to move right into a broad couloir that will lead us all the way to the Queens Drive. This 200m couloir could take us 20 minutes or 2 hours, depending on the snow.

Luckily, it is better than we have dared hope for and we pigeon hole our way into the storm. We had hoped to finish on the summit of Double Cone but 13 hours of climbing, a 1700m ascent and a full storm brewing sends us along the Queens Drive.

The crux rock step. Mike and Andrew climbed just right of the crest up a series of corners for four 20m pitches.

I guess our line could be called the west ridge but there are about six ridges on the west face. You could call it the central buttress but that's not really clear either. This is not an easy route to grade. There was no ice; the mixed climbing isn’t the traditional mix of ice and rock but a mix of frozen turf, tussock, rock and snow. It felt like an M4 crux although I suspect the crux would be significantly easier in summer or if there were some ice in the corners. I give the route a Mt Cook grade 4. The crux is very hard for a grade 4 but the technical difficulties are short. The lack of protection and the different climbing style make this a route for climbers strong at the grade. It is a great adventure on a face that deserves more attention.

Shooting the Breeze, west face of The Remarkables, Mt Cook grade 4. Mike Rowe and Andrew Finnigan, July 2009.

If anyone knows more about previous ascents of the full west face of The Remarkables and would like to comment, please use the forum or contact Mountainz.

Left: Snow on the shady side and rock on the sunny side, with Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown forming the backdrop. Right: The weather begins to turn, luckily after the technical climbing. Mike is visible in the foreground.