New Zealand - Plunket Ice Dome

Five day Mountaineering on the Plunket Ice Dome located above the West Matukituki Valley. Base town was Wanaka village. We tramped from Raseberry carpark to the NZAC Aspiring Hut. We ascended the very steep Cascade Saddle route from 430m to 1850m. Following this we establish a base camp beside Cascade creek for our mountaineering adventures on Plunket Ice dome.

After traversing the Governors Ridge to the base of Plunket Dome we roped-up and began ascending the Reid Glacier towards the summit of Plunket Dome. At about 30m from the summit we were forced to begin our descent due to very open crevasses, a large bergschrund and lack of time. However the weather was kind to us and we received good views to higher peaks and the Matukituki valley some 1.6km below.

On the fourth night we were kept awake from 2am to 5am by a Kea, which was relentless in its pursuit of destroying our equipment. The damn parrot was possessed!

Exhausted from lack of sleep we descended to the valley floor on the fifth day.

Brad transitioning from ridge to glacier for the ascent of Plunket Ice dome

Melissa looking up the heavily crevassed Plunket Dome.

Melissa near the summit of Plunket Dome. A large burgshrund and time halted our progress.

Suspect Tent Vandal

Brad back down in the Matukituki Valley with Plunket Dome, Islington Dome (2425) and Mount Barff (2252m) running from left to right.

For more images of this tramp goto the following page -> PicasaWeb Album of Plunket Ice Dome

Static view of the Route

For a Dynamic view of the route using Google Maps, Click here.