Sabre Peak - North Buttress - Darran Mountains New Zealand 

Wow. That's quite the basic instruction course at age 16! Nowadays things are slightly more tame... well done getting over the traverse with that gear, route finding down west ridge was tricky. enjoy the reminscing.

@@NewZealandAlpineTeam I pretty much recall being on my own going down the west ridge because the instructors went on ahead to set up the abseils. We went down onto ledges on the face to the right. I remember at one stage going down from one ledge to another by sliding down a rope in my hands. Silly idea because I really burnt the palms of my hands. At least I didn't let go. I also recall climbing up Marion in rapidly fading light and looking down between my legs to the clouds below. A freaky experience for me. We spent an unplanned night on the top of Marion with no sleeping bags or food. I had a single barley sugar in my pocket and wondered how to get it from there to my mouth without anyone seeing me. It wasn't good for a young climber in those days. We were lacking good mentors to encourage us along. There were "natural climbers" who were good at it and us who were less confident were expected to keep up or get out. For me, I have enjoyed tramping all my life but was never able to feel confident with technical climbing. When I see people climbing in indoor gyms or on bolted crags I wonder what might have been if those sort of facilities were available to us then to gather the skills without the risk. We climbed at Long Beach at Dunedin and, if you were lucky, someone might top rope you, otherwise you took risks that probably wouldn't be acceptable now a days.

@@petermckellar563 Yes I can relate to that experience considerably. I was lucky that AUTC probably provided a somewhat better environment than the one you describe, but it was still a relatively high risk environment. Although in hindsight I am not sure though how much I would have changed.

Not that different from my own traverse in 1977: we were young and gutsy, but we were broke and the equipment was poor. On reflection, this climb was a life changing experience for me - I was 24 and my previous mountaineering experience was mainly climbing in Scotland - but I was fit and enjoyed the climb.

Hi Blair, exactly, north buttress to Sabre, then descend West Ridge to Sabre-Marian Col, then traverse Marian & Barrier to Gertrude saddle.

Hi Nathan, no snow on this one so no crampons axe. we used a 60m rope, cams #0.3-2 + 8 nuts + 8x 60cm QDs + 2x 120cm

Hi Michael yes exactly that. Descended sabre west ridge to marian col. Its a nice loop.

@@NewZealandAlpineTeam thanks. Very keen to add it to the wish list!

Its a new 15L fastpacking pack by Macpac to come out in Spring 2021. The vest style works really well for long alpine rock days! easy access to snacks & water on the front