Westside, Mt Aoraki/Mt Cook

“In Māori legend, Aoraki was a young boy who, along with his three brothers, were the sons of Rakinui, the Sky Father. On their voyage around the Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother, their canoe became stranded on a reef and tilted. Aoraki and his brothers climbed onto the top side of their canoe. However, the south wind froze them and turned them to stone.

Their canoe became the Te Waka o Aoraki, the South Island. Aoraki the tallest, became the highest peak, and his brothers created the Kā Tiritiri o te Moana, the Southern Alps. The Ngāi Tahu, the main iwi (tribe) of New Zealand’s southern region, consider Aoraki as the most sacred of the ancestors that they had descended from.

The height of Aoraki/Mount Cook was established in 1881 by G. J. Roberts (from the west side) and in 1889 by T. N. Brodrick (from the Canterbury side). Their measurements agreed closely at 12,349 feet (3,764 m).

The height was reduced by 10 metres (33 ft) when approximately 12-14 million cubic metres of rock and ice fell off the northern peak on 14 December 1991. Mt Cook lies in the centre of the distinctive alpine fault, a 650km long active fault in the Southern Alps. It is responsible for the uplift of Mt Cook and is considerd to move every 100-300 years.

The first recorded European attempt on the summit was made by the Irishman Rev. William S. Green and the Swiss hotelier Emil Boss and the Swiss mountain guide Ulrich Kaufmann on 2 March 1882 via the Tasman and Linda Glaciers. Mt Cook Guidebook author Hugh Logan considers they reached within 50 metres of the true summit.

The First Ascent

The first ascent was on 25 December 1894, when New Zealanders Tom Fyfe, James (Jack) Clarke and George Graham successfully reached the summit via the Hooker Valley and the north ridge. Despite an earlier failed attempt on 20 December, the local climbers were spurred on by their desire for the first ascent to be made by New Zealand mountaineers amid reports that an Englishman Edward FitzGerald had his eye on the summit.

The party reached the summit at approximately 1:30pm after bounding up the last leg of the mountain full of excitement at reaching the top. The route they had successfully traversed was not repeated again until the 100th ascent over 60 years later in 1955. Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen made the second ascent on 14 March 1895 from the Tasman Glacier side, via the ridge that now bears his name.

The First Solo Ascent

This is credited as the first solo ascent, although Zurbriggen was accompanied part of the way up the ridge by J Adamson. After Zurbriggen’s ascent it was another ten years before the mountain was climbed again. In February 1905 James Clarke with four others completed the third ascent following Zurbriggen’s route. So Clarke therefore became the first person to do a repeat ascent.

The First Woman

The first woman to ascend the mountain was Freda du Faur, an Australian, on 3 December 1910. Local guide George Bannister, a descendant of Te Koeti Turanga of Ngāi Tahu, was the first Māori to successfully scale the peak in 1912. A traverse of the three peaks was first accomplished in 1913 by Freda du Faur and guides Peter and Alex Graham.

Hillary Ridge

Sir Edmund Hillary made his first ascent in January 1948. In February 1948 with Ruth Adams, Harry Ayres and Mick Sullivan, Sir Ed made the first ascent of the South Ridge to the Low Peak. In order to celebrate the life of Hillary the South Ridge was renamed as Hillary Ridge in August 2011.”