I had been spending my summer training a fresh bunch of instructors alongside an ex student and now friend Michael, a rope gun with the lungs a man fresh off the boat from Colorado. Through the 6 months or so of knowing the guy I got a good sense of his head space and eye for safety, something I appreciate in the mountains.

We’d briefly chatted about Aspiring, an odd comment or “what if we”. It was just before April and Michael mentioned a tiny weather window, 1 day of good weather for a summit with either side being marginal conditions but safe enough to try. I think he was a bit surprised when I said let’s do it, we called our friend Ben, he was in.

The drive down we discussed our mindset, approach with open eyes and turn around when it doesn’t make sense, but we wanted to try utilizing a window and test our forming of a partnership. It was exciting to have found a team we trusted in, that the calls all seem to feel right and that atleast one of us had a good car to get past the Fords.

We held a great pace as we strode through the darkness with headlamps lighting the way and conversation scattered amongst moments of silence and careful pondering.

We stopped for a quick snack at Aspiring hut where a few others had come down from unsuccessful attempts for the summit, we asked for any new beta, nothing unexpected so we pushed on up the valley

As we pushed through waist high shrubs and grass, we saw a helicopter fly over head likely a guide and client we thought, a good sign perhaps though we hoped that not many more would come as to give us a bunk that night.

We got our first view of the slabs of rock we were to navigate, wet slimy and reasonably tricky to navigate. Some tussock pulling near the top and we were past the first big hazard of the trip, the next was navigating in poor visibility up to bevan col.

It was pleasantly satisfying to navigate in this terrain, to actually put your skills to the test and rely on what you have always taught your students. Bearings and micro navigation came in very handy for the next 2 hours as we searched for Cairns and picked our way up.

Reaching Bevan Col was a relief and a lot of nice words were shared amongst the group, shattered by the sound of ice and rock fall somewhere in the white, not knowing where it came from was a feeling I had felt before but it still was heavy.

Night fell as white out conditions on the glacier had slowed us down considerably, but the bearing was still followed and minds still stable as we marched on with the crunching sounds of ice and water beneath rushing past us unseen.

Scrambling up the slopes, somewhere on the distance we knew the hut would be but it was still hard to imagine where it might be as the vis was still low and we no longer had absolute confidence in where we were exactly

Our heads were down carefully calculating each step, not wanting to slip nor push anything onto one another we staggered each other the best we could to mitigate the risk. Sending one of us at a time to explore gullys to find a clear path up.

Then I heard a sound carried on the wind, laughter! We lifted our heads to see that we were but a couple hundred meters from the hut, and we had made it above the layers of cloud, the hearts of these men were very light. We arrived at the hut to a hot brew from the guide who spotted our head lamps and shared in some stories and plans for the next day.

The next morning, the careful weather window was as good as we could of hoped for and we were presented a cool morning with light winds all day. An extremely leisurely 6 30am start, it was still dark but first light was only an hour away.

Abseiling onto the NW ridge proper and we had the first good look at the peak cloaked in power and majesty, the day was already warming up and consistent rock and ice fall was heard all around as we moved past the first gendarme.

Travel was pretty simple with the main hazard being checking your holds before you pull and not stopping for too many snack breaks, an all round pleasant experience.

Its not often you get no snow on the summit ramp and cap but this year it was scarily bare. It made for easy travel but reading accounts in the hut of glaciers being high enough you would walk from bevan col straight to Colin Todd hut was an eerie reminder.

We had mostly no problems on our way down bar one rappel, our rope got stuck due to the beal escaper and us not having a clear pull on it, a quick solo up for michael to resit the rappel and back down, it sucked up some time but we weren’t too far behind.

The last climb out, Ben had put his hand up to take the lead up to belay us two. Initially he had chosen a route under a bolt he could see, taking some careful moves to try find some protection. He struggled to find anything and as he was playing around a hold broke, time stood still as we were ready to see our friend take a devastating fall. Some how he held on, reflexes and luck allowing him a second chance, I scoped out another way up, much easier and I definitely had some reflecting, as I had a gut instinct it wasnt the way, but didnt speak up, a learning luckily without consequences.

Walking out we amazingly had a clear morning, perhaps we had got given a blessed day of clear for an easy descent back down the valley?

We found the rappel rings and made a call to use them, yes most of the terrain we could of walked with careful footing, but we had time and decided it was better than slipping and allowed us plenty of chat as we made our way down.

The guide had promised us a lift if we could make it to the hut below in time, but alas we taking the safer descent option missed out on that ride, so instead we reveled in our achievements, physical gains and shared passion.

A trip worth doing again, and with the weather window we had we felt great satisfaction as wind and rain ripped down the valley behind us, Kai whaka pai was a great place to share feelings, cool drinks and plans for other mountain excursions.