Mitre Peak / Rahotu
5th–6th February 2022
Milford Sound / Piopiotahi,
Fiordland National Park
Climb with Rachel Jones and Alice Payn.
When a red warning of rain put paid to our canyoning plans on the West Coast, we ironically headed to the rainiest place in the country where the forecast was for nothing but sunshine. Alice collected me from Christchurch and we drove down to Homer Hut on Friday, collecting Rachel and a couple of kayaks in Queenstown en route. You aren’t able to get a water taxi or hire kayaks from Milford Sound for a trip to Mitre Peak, so it’s very much a BYO boat trip.
Rachel and Alice paddle a double sit-on-top kayak across from Milford Sound to Sinbad Gully. They had all three of our packs stashed inside large pack liners in an attempt to keep them dry. It mainly worked.
Rounding the corner, Mitre Peak came back into view. The ~3.5km paddle took us about 30mins, thanks to a strong tailwind. The return journey the next day would take us almost an hour.
As soon as you leave the shore, the climb starts steeply up through the bush following a vague trail.
We were warned of the many false trails we’d come across in the bush. However, we found the route up to be quite straightforward to follow.
On the way down, on the other hand, on several occasions the obvious paths we followed petered out into nothing, requiring a bush-bash to regain the correct route.
We reached the Footstool (835m) after just under four hours. From a small gap in the bush, Mitre Peak still looked a long way away, both horizontally and vertically.
We’d planned to camp in a small clearing at the saddle after the Footstool (~690m), but a couple of guys on their way down the mountain told us about a better spot just above the bush line at about the 1000m contour.
Our campsite had plenty of room for the three of us to spread out our bivvy bags and enjoy a beautiful evening.
The views were stunning. My particular spot looked across Milford Sound to Mt Pembroke / Puhipuhi-takiwai and the Pembroke Glacier / Hakatere, glowing orange in the sunset.
At sunrise on Sunday morning we reluctantly emerged from the warmth of our sleeping bags, ready to begin the climb to the summit.
From our camp, the ridge became more and more rocky and exposed. However, the granite was dry and very grippy.
Approaching Pt1302, we we afforded amazing views of the sheer cliffs and curved bedrock of Mitre Peak’s south face.
Beyond Pt1302 the ridge drops steeply, with incredible exposure down to the fiord below.
The climb on the other side seems to be the crux of the route, but is quite straightforward. There is a ring bolt at the top (~20m) which we used to belay/abseil on the way back down.
Despite the days of rain leading into this trip, the rock was bone dry by thr time we were on it, and grip wasn’t an issue. The scrambling to the summit was very enjoyable.
360° panorama from the summit of Mitre Peak/Rahotu. The whole of Milford Sound/Piopiotahi was visible, from the Tasman Sea/Te Tai-o-Rēhua to the head of the fiord. Across the water was Mt Pembroke/Puhipuhi-takiwai with the Pembroke Glacier/Hakatere, and beyond Tūtoko stood above the rest of Fiordland.