Mount Aspiring
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| Mount Aspiring (Tititea) | |
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| Elevation | 3,033 metres (9,950 ft) |
| Location | South Island, New Zealand |
| Range | Southern Alps |
| Prominence | 2,475 m (8,120 ft) |
| Coordinates | |
| First ascent | 1909 |
Mount Aspiring/Tititea[1] is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Aoraki/Mount Cook region.
Set within Otago's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres. Māori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak. Named in December 1857 by the Chief Surveyor for the Otago Province, John Turnbull Thomson.[2] It is also often called 'the Matterhorn of the South,' for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Dart River. The first ascent was on 23 November 1909 by Major Bernard Head and guides Jack Clarke and Alec Graham. Head's party climbed to the summit ridge by the west face from the Bonar Glacier, a route not repeated until 1965.[3]
Mt Aspiring sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of Lake Wanaka.[2] It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems — the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and Therma Glaciers, which both drain into the Waitoto River. The Waipara is a tributary of the Arawhata River, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the west coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.
The most used route to Mt Aspiring is up the West Matukituki Valley, which is at the end of a 50-kilometre road from Wanaka at Raspberry Flat. From here a network of huts provide staging points for climbers. The first is Mt Aspiring Hut, which is 8 kilometres (or approximately two hours' walk) from the end of the road.
[edit] References
- ^ New Zealand Geographic Placenames Database, Place Name Detail, Mount Aspiring/Tititea, Land Information New Zealand website, retrieved 23 March 2008.
- ^ a b Wises New Zealand Index, 7th Edition, 1979. p. 15.
- ^ Logan, H. (1990) 'Great peaks of New Zealand', New Zealand Alpine Club, Wellington, and John McIndoe Limited, Dunedin, New Zealand, ISBN 0 86868 125 3.
[edit] See also
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