Things have been pretty warm around Queenstown the past few weeks. Wye Creek Ice is in a dangerous condition and we don’t recommend climbing at Wye Creek unless the freezing level drops and stays low for a few days.
The South Face of Single Cone is looking great as is the West Face of Double Cone.
Most of the classic gully lines on the Telecom Tower are formed including Fridays Fool, Saturday Morning Special, Minge Cunt etc. The steep rock sections are free of rime and in general conditions are pretty good.
There is still ice at Lake Alta, however some very large cracks have appeared and we would be scared to climb on it with the current temperatures.
The Flight Deck and Boarder Crag have some ice and these two areas could provide a substantial amount of new routes with further exploration. Most of the lines are one to two pitches long and these venues provide great cragging at all grades from M3-M9+. Plus they are both a short walk from the car park!
The Wall of Evening Light is basically free of ice and rime due to its sunny aspect. However its steep clean rock is an excellent place to practice advanced dry tooling.
While no one has gone into the Routeburn to check the ice conditions we suspect its just been two warm for that area.
Colder temps and snow are forecast for next week leading into the festival and in general with the exception of Wye Creek we think conditions look pretty good. Definitely a firm tract for the Osprey Packs Traverse Race, 2013 might even see Steve Fortunes record time broken if the snow pack stays firm under foot! For anyone keen to get in a good selection of first ascents during the festival we suggest checking out the East Face of Double Cone, The Flight Deck (between the Alta ice and Border Crag), Border Crag and the Wall of Evening Light. There are still numerous moderate to hard lines also waiting on the Telecom Tower and Double – Single Cone however most of the easy lines have already been picked off.