Mount Rolleston is the crown of Arthurs Pass National Park on the South Island of New Zealand. The mountain stands proudly above all the other peaks in the area. When riding at Temple Basin one just stares and drools at such a beautiful mountain and I kept hoping that one day I would ski it. The day came in late November 2015 when Ryan Nicol came up with a plan to do a triple peak tour climbing Armstrong, Mount Rolleston via the high peak and Philistine in a single day push.
It would be a long day but it was possible with an alpine start. It was obvious that it would be an ambitions mission but I was happy to go along with it, Finally we were going for in a zone I had dreamed of snowboarding for years.
Looking across at Mount Rolleston while hiking up to Temple Basin Ski field.
Climbing the Otira Valley to Mount Rolleston
We climbed up the Otira valley after a headlight departure from Ryan’s car making quick work getting to the lower slopes of the mountain.
Ryan had eyed a new approach to get us access to the Eastern slopes of Rolleston via a low col which would require some technical climbing so we put on our crampons and pulled out two ice axes before front pointing the firm snow making it up 1,000 feet of technical climbing.
Once finally at the col and in a safe zone I finally got a look down what we had climbed and happy that it was over with as a slip in the area would have devastating effects but with the main crux of the day over with it was time to climb mellower slopes and tag some summits.
Climbing Armstrong
With the snow still semi firm we and the summit of Mount Rolleston still in the clouds we decided to head towards the more mellow slopes of Armstrong riding our snowboards a bit lower in the valley before switching to skinning.
Looking back at Mount Rolleston hoping that the clouds would break in an hour or two.
Before long we were cramponing up the final steep slopes of Armstrong all the while looking over our shoulders at the next climb up Mount Rolleston in perfect view and clear of clouds.
When we got to the top of Armstrong we were blown away by the surrounding mountains. There is a lifetime of adventures in the Arthurs Pass area and the views made me wish that I could spend more time in the area.
Surrounding us was hundreds of big mountains in every direction as we were standing on the Main Divide, the spine of the Southern Alps.
This was the ridge that we would have to exit via to get to the summit of Philistine on the right hand side.
Our line on Mount Rolleston was the Sampson couloir on the left side of the ridge and off the true summit.
Before long we got our gear together and snowboarded off the NW face of Armstrong dropping 1,000 feet into the valley below.
We rode as far as our snowboards could take us before stopping at a creek and grabbing some water before switching to skins for the climb up Rolleston
Climbing up Mount Rolleston
The sun had softened the snow up quite nice as we skinned towards the base of the couloir knowing that what stood in front of us was going to be a great line.
Climbing up the Sampson couloir
Conditions were perfect for cramponing as we quickly made our way to the summit of Mount Rollestons, finally tagging a peak I’d been interested in for many years. It was a good feeling being on there and we were excited about our descent knowing after that we would have a long exit ahead of us to get to the top of Philistine.
Before long we were strapped into our boards and ready for the descent. We would have to travel across the ridge in the distance behind me next to the summit of Philistine.
Ryan dropped in first with beautiful arcing turns along the way. Conditions were prime and made our way down fast, hooting and hollering along the way. With Armstrong to the left and our exit route to Philistine on the right.
The snow was great and the pitch was continuous as we rode fall line into the valley below
Climbing to our exit run of Philistine
We decided to stop riding a few hundred feet below the col so we could farm good fall line turns. So after 5 minutes of riding we were transitioning and grabbing some food and water than switching to crampons for the hours of scrambling to Philistine ahead .
As we got onto the ridge the clouds had started to roll in and the sun was slowly starting to set so we made a quick pace trying to beat the darkness for our final descent.
Ryan had hoped it would take only two hours but in all actuality it took twice as long as we raced the sunset. Making a descent pass through lots of ups and downs on an exposed ridge to the summit of Philistine.
We finally got to Armstrong about an hour after sunset deciding that we would downclimb the first 300 feet of steep before switching to snowboards and riding for another 1,000 feet. Once at the end of the snow line we followed a loosely defined climbers trail through cliffs and steep snowgrass finally making it back to the Otira valley sometime around midnight.
We were back at the car by 1a.m. and at our accommodations by 2 a.m. a bit beaten up and my feet were in semi bad conditions but all in all it was such a great trip and I had a blast hanging out with the human goat. Over the years we have had some amazing trips and this one was the icing on the cake even though it was 20 hours of nonstop moving. New Zealand is covered in beautiful and wild adventures and I was happy that I had finally got to snowboard of Mount Rolleston and had bonus descents of Philistine and Armstrong but man were my feet worked!!
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