Mount Aspiring / Tititea is New Zealand's 23rd-highest mountain. The peak's altitude of makes it the country's highest outside the

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a national park located in the Canterbury Region in the central-west of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established in October 1953 and takes its name from the highest mountain in New Zealand, Aora ...

region.

Names

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

named it ''Tititea'', after a chief of the Waitaha iwi, who were the first people to settle the

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. It was named ''Aspiring'' in December 1857 by the Chief Surveyor for the

Otago Province The Otago Province was a province of New Zealand until the abolition of provincial government in 1876. The capital of the province was Dunedin. Southland Province split from Otago in 1861, but became part of the province again in 1870. Area a ...

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Colonial Singapore, Singapore and New Zealan ...

.Wises New Zealand Index, 7th Edition, 1979. p. 15. It is also often called "the

Matterhorn The , ; ; ; or ; ; . is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the Main chain of the Alps, main watershed and border between Italy and Switzerland. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of the Pennine Alps, ...

of the South", for its pyramidal peak when seen from the

Matukituki River The Matukituki River is a short braided river in the Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island. Both its West Branch and East Branch originate from the Main Divide mountain ranges near Mount Aspiring / Tititea. Their largely glacier-fed wate ...

. The mountain's name was used for the surrounding

Mount Aspiring National Park Mount Aspiring National Park is in the Southern Alps of the South Island of New Zealand, north of Fiordland National Park, situated in Otago and Westland regions. The park forms part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site. History Moun ...

at its creation in 1964. The mountain's official name was updated to Mount Aspiring / Tititea in 1998, by the Treaty Settlement Legislation Section 269 and Schedule 96 of the

Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 The Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998 is an act of parliament passed in New Zealand relating to Ngāi Tahu, the principal Māori (tribe) of the South Island. The act's purpose is to settle all of the tribe's claims under the Treaty of Wa ...

Location

Mount Aspiring / Tititea sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of

Lake Wānaka Lake Wānaka is New Zealand's List of lakes in New Zealand#Largest lakes, fourth-largest lake and the seat of the town of Wānaka in the Otago region. The lake is 278 meters above sea level, covers , and is more than deep. "Wānaka" is the So ...

. It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems – the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and

Therma Therma or Thermē (, ) is the unknown city incorporated into the new city of Thessaloniki by the Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonians on its synoecism and foundation. Little is known of literary Therma, including its exact location. Thessal ...

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s, which both drain into the

Waiatoto River The Waiatoto River is a river of the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Formed from several small rivers which are fed by glaciers surrounding Mount Aspiring / Tititea, it flows north along a valley flanked in the west by the Haast Range ...

. The Waipara is a tributary of the

Arawhata River The Arawhata River (often spelt with the Ngāi Tahu Māori dialect spelling ''Arawata River'') is in the West Coast region of the South Island of New Zealand. The river has its headwaters in the Mount Aspiring National Park. It drains the we ...

, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the West Coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.

Climbing

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. The most used route to Mount Aspiring is up the West Matukituki Valley, which is at the end of a 50-kilometre road from

Wānaka Wānaka () is a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. At the southern end of Lake Wānaka, it is at the start of the Clutha River and is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. Wānaka ...

at Raspberry Flat. From here a network of huts provide staging points for climbers. The first is Mount Aspiring Hut, which is 8 kilometres (or approximately two hours' walk) from the end of the road. The next hut is an 8-12hr hike away that is mainly off trail. The trail only provides a route for the first half of the approach that winds through the flat valley floor. From the end of the trail one can either ascend the French Ridge and traverse the Bonar Glacier, or ascend Bevan Col to the Bonar Glacier. Both require good route finding skills and knowledge of rock climbing techniques and glacial travel. Many climbers opt to fly in via helicopter because of the gruelling approach. The mountain and park are popular with climbers and trampers, so has experienced a number of accidents and deaths.

References

External links

Prelude to Aspiring
A 1949 documentary by

Brian Brake John Brian Brake (27 June 1927 – 4 August 1988) was a photographer from New Zealand. He is best known for his 1955 photographs of Pablo Picasso at a bullfight, his 1957 and 1959 series of China, and his 1960 ''Monsoon'' series of India. Early ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aspiring, Mount Mount Aspiring National Park Southern Alps Mountains of the West Coast Region Westland District Pyramidal peaks Three-thousanders of New Zealand

Names

Location

Climbing

See also

References

External links