The Grand Traverse

This is the grand traverse in the Remarkables. It traverses the ridge that contains double cone and the single cone. The are all low grade rock climbs that require a lot of route finding.

This is a shot of them from near Arrowtown.

The mountains in the north

After the slogging walk up the scree slopes I spent an hour trying to find the right way to get to the climbing.

This is the view of lake Alta in the remarkables ski area. We walked there the day before for a look.

After climbing the first 2 cones I was finally on the last one. The previous 2 (Double cone) on the left.

This was the view from the first cone towards Queenstown. At some points I was on the top of the ridge with my left leg on the Alta lake face and my right on the Queenstown face.

Mostly done. Now for the long climb back down to Lake Alta to complete the Traverse

I brought a rope with me for the repels down this chute after the 3rd cone but I decided to down climb it instead as it was faster.

I had to get out the ice axe though to Traverse a sloping snow field at the bottom

Finally back down to Lake Alta on familiar ground.