Mount Lendenfeld – 3192m

Superbly climbable,  Mount Lendenfeld sits majestically on the main divide of the Southern Alps with its 3192m massif being partly based in Mt Cook National Park and partly in Westland National Park.

It is the sixth highest peak in NZ and offers a truly big, classic peak, snow and ice climb experience.

Pioneer hut – base for a climb of Mt Lendenfeld

This guided expedition starts with a very scenic drive from Wanaka over Haast Pass to the West Coast and to the small and charming  village of Fox Glacier . From there, we fly by helicopter up to Pioneer hut, the comfortable hut base for the climb.

Some training and ‘warm up’ peaks may be a suitable thing to do, depending on your experience, conditions or the weather.

The guided climb itself involves glacier travel across the Albert Glacier’s upper neve, and then moderate angle cramponing up snow slopes to gain the upper reaches of the glacier and access across the bergshrund to gain Marcel col.

Marcel col is an awesome view point as you can see down into the Eastern side of the main divide and onto the Grand Plateau.

The climb from Marcel col to the summit usually involves pitched climbing up classic snow/ice terrain. The summit is a fine viewpoint indeed.

The descent from the summit to Pioneer hut usually involves lowering, down climbing and glacier travel.

Descending to Chancellor hut, Fox Glacier

This guided of climb of Mt Lendenfeld is a classic West coast adventure, involving working in and around West coast weather, timing access and egress and experiencing the wilderness and uniqueness that mountaineering on the West coast of NZ’s Southern Alps can provide.

My 30 years of experience in this region is an asset you can tap into to make a trip into this wilderness zone as successful as possible.

If you are looking for a classic snow and ice peak with big wilderness feel but not too taxing physically or mentally, then this could be your next – or first – mountaineering objective. This could be an ideal trip to combine mountaineering instruction as well as a start to ‘peak bagging’.

This trip is 6 – 7 days long and can be 1:1 or 1:2 ratio