Mount Jumbo route (Mt Aspiring Park)

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Has anyone gone up Mt Jumbo from Jumboland on the Wilkin River and down to Albert Burn? I have Moirs Guide North, but was wondering if anyone had first hand experience. I am estimating its 4hrs up, almost 7 hrs down - for 'only' just over 10km. I'm trying to avoid Rabbit Pass due to all the "don't do it unless you want to die" reports and emails. (i'm ok with extra effort with less risk).
Can't help you on Jumboland. But assess the stories of Rabbit pass based on your own actual experience level. I believe the scare stories are aimed at rightly dissuading inexperienced overseas walkers who view it as another great walk. However, the hype probably puts off many trampers experienced in NZ conditions who would find it an easy trip. In a walk from Mt Cook to the Aspiring roadend, Rabbit would have been the easiest pass of the 5 crossed (Rabbit, Makarora/Scrubby Burn, Wilson/Sth Temple, Jamieson Saddle, Little Canyon in increasing order of difficulty). I think it depends on your perspective: - From the viewpoint of an even moderately experienced tramper, Rabbit Pass is easier and safer than most untracked alpine passes you may attempt. - If you are a 'great walker' and used to broad tracks and roped/fenced dropoffs then Rabbit Pass will be a frightening prospect, and a challenging experience. The north side has a narrow track through tussock, with a short steep tussock slope below and then a significant dropoff. The track is easy to walk, but the consequences of falling would be serious. The south side is a descent down a gravel spur: reasonably simple stuff if you have experience on scree slopes. Whilst you could potentially take a slide of a few meters on gravel, the exposure is far less - i.e. you're not perched above bluffs to the same extent as the north side.
To add to madpom's reply... I did Rabbit Pass with a group back in 2009. You have possibly found a description of that trip on our Moa Hunter website. http://moahunters.org.nz/2011/02/02/rabbit-pass-9-9-on-the-sphincter-scale/ As madpom says, if you are used to well graded and maintained tracks, Rabbit Pass will be a daunting prospect. If you are reasonably experienced at route-finding and the lesser trodden trails, then Rabbit Pass is very doable. Two pieces of advice I would give you, if you choose that way: The first is from our experience. Don't rush into the ascent of the waterfall face. There are a few poles marking the way up. But it is still easy to follow what looks like the right track and end up in a difficult spot. Take your time. Stop often and assess where you are. If you stay on the correct route and go carefully, the climb is doable, though certainly still very challenging and not without risk. And the second one is fairly well documented. Don't attempt it during or directly after wet weather. The track is steep and trying the ascent in slippery conditions would be very dangerous.
Cant help you with Mt Jumbo but I am the author of the Rabbit Pass guide on this site: http://tramper.co.nz/?5298 I stand by everything I wrote in the article, Rabbit Pass is very difficult, and the Matukituki side is just as dangerous as the considerably more infamous Wilkin side. However, if you have good weather and some experinece then you can certainly take it on successfully. If your goal is to reach the Matukituki I would certainly undertake this marked route (even as Wobblyadam says a couple of the "marks" are misleadingly placed, I agree with him) over some offtrack crosscountry rock scramble.
Interesting Yarmoss - your description of the southern descent sounds nothing like my recollection of an easy descent of a scree-covered face / ridge. Hard to believe they're the same place - I certainly don't recall either your ledge or cliff on the descent. You describe the southern descent as 'descending a cliff', where as I recall heading SE above and past the cliffs until a good scree face / ridge was attained. On the northern side, I do recall climbing up a steep tussock gut, with plenty to hang onto - so guess I didn't make the above-documented mistake of attempting to ascend the rock face and thus avoided the scary bits on that side. My main memory is that I had been dreading the Rabbit Pass for the preceding couple of weeks of tramping owing to it's reputation, and was surprised by how easy both the ascent and descent were. I'll dig out my trip notes and have a reread tonight - maybe it's a case of rose-tinted memory, or maybe scree conditions change, or the route has been altered. What year was your report from?
I did Rabbit Pass at Easter (start of April) 2010 with a Scottish guy off these forums. Came up the Wilkin in heavy rain. Had a "flood" day at Top Forks hut, then another damp day where we went up to the Wilkin lakes, then finally the sun came out day 4 to for Rabbit Pass. As we followed the marker polls east along the Matukituki cliff the very last marker poll was at the top of a scree slope. This however terminated after about 20 metres at the top of a cliff... kind of a verticle rocky gut. There was a marker poll at the bottom of this gut suggesting that this was the way down. There was a ledge descending in a westerly directing down the face of the cliff, the one I talk about in the route guide. I tried the gut, I really did. There were no footholds for a decent. I literally was hanging by my fingers at one point while my feet scrambled around on nothing. Scarey stuff. We went down the ledge which was loose crumbly rock and mainly shimmied and slid down on our butts. The ledge took us down to near the bottom of the cliff, off to the side of the gut, from where we climbed over the edge and jumped the last metre or so to the bottom after chucking our packs down. Once at the bottom of the cliff, there were long scree slopes desending westwards which took us toards the big waterfall falling off the main part of the Matukituki cliff and then it was down snowgrass to the valley below. I hope things have got better there since then. Moirs Guide North 7th ed says "a moderately steep, slabby rock ramp leads out through bluffs [to gain the shelf at the top of the Matukituki cliff]". There sure as shit wasnt a "ramp" there when we went down it, unless they are refering to the ledge. Ive just yesterday placed an order for Moirs North 8th ed which was published end of last year... perhaps it might say something more descriptive?
@Yarmoss: your report is 4-5 years more up-to-date than mine then. Couldn't track down the book with my trip notes in - I guess they must be in a box in storage - so I can't check my memory against my actual records. However, sounds like it is now gnarlier than I've advised above.
2nd attempt at response so hopefully this (more or less) doesn't turn up twice at some point...... The route from the Matakitaki to Rabbit Pass hasn’t changed. I did this route several decades ago and again last year, both times South to North (opposite direction to being discussed) and it was much the same last year as it was decades ago, although much better marked now of course. My perception of the route up to Rabbit Pass from the Matakitaki is that once you have climbed up the tussock and up the slope away from the waterfall that there is a short (maybe 10m) near vertical climb which is quite daunting but does have sufficient hand and foot holds - not in the gut but just to the right when facing the climb (climbing up is easier than climbing down). Above this is a short steep rock slope to the ridge line. I found this climb on the Matakitaki side more daunting than the decent down the waterfall face, which for me while being slow due to taking care was not difficult or frightening even though the consequences of falling from the Waterfall Face are infinately worse than falling from the climb on the Matakitaki side. My partner who is quite a mountain goat didn’t bat an eyelid at any of it. While the conditions on the day (we had frozen rock) and the exact line you take for a climb can influence how hard it is the perceived difficulty mostly depends on the person. I suspect madpom that you are a mountain goat like my partner and don’t even register things that other people may find challenging, difficult, frightening or even terrifying. This difference in perceptions makes it hard to describe a routes difficulty to someone else unless you know them pretty well.
@stunted: you climbed up the cliff to the right of the gut? That would be east of it, right? The ledge we went down was on the left of the gut (west) if you are facing it from the Matukituki. I didnt look for a route down further east of our desent point... maybe thats where the "ramp" is Moirs talks about?
Thank you all for your replies. We too have a mountain goat in our party who laughs at DOC's strong warnings, as well as doubts all the web sites & reports describing the difficulty. We are all experienced trampers and like a challenge, but like to minimize risk. The 'exposure' part of the climb gives us the most consideration. We also need to make sure the route is ok for all members of the party. (especially those that don't like to look down). We are going north to south, and feel we can handle the Matukituki side descent. Throwing backpacks, or using our emergency climbing rope to belay people down. This site has a great number of photos: http://www.david-noble.net/NZ/Jan09/Wilkins/Day8.html They do not mention this ~20m cliff, but I have also had emails from people describing it, and other emails from people barely batting an eyelid with the descent. What seems to be of the biggest concern (assuming we follow the right route) is the last 50m of the Wilkin side ascent, using a 1 foot wide track, with only grass for support. The penalty for a mistake here seems bad.
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Forum Tracks, routes, and huts
Started by biship
On 17 January 2013
Replies 13
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