Nomophobia - Mt Pibrac South Face

Nomophobia II 4 WI3 M3

Gear Beta:

Slim rock rack (0.4-2, medium wires), 8 ice screws (FA done with 3 but more would of been nice ;).

Approach:

FA came from ball pass, but access from the Mona Glacier mouth would be faster if traveling from the Hooker Lake side.

Decent:

Decent off Mt Pibrac was down the South Ridge to get back to the base of the route, otherwise very easy to be done off the North side if climbing with all your gear.

Nomophobia line of ascent. Red dots indicate where simul blocks ended

As all good climbs in Aoraki start, mentee of the New Zealand Alpine Team Reon Morrison and mentor Mason Gardener met on a Friday evening looking up to the forever imposing faces of Aoraki and the national park, eyes set on the southern peaks of the Mt Cook Range. With an incoming Saturday evening weather system, and huge intentions, a decision was made to go ‘Patagonia style’, leaving White Horse Hill at 7pm and expecting to climb throughout the night. I always found looking up to Aoraki as super imposing, and trying to put contours and distance to scale made everything always seem further away than it is. We started to ascend up to Ball Pass via the Hooker Lake side, proving to be quick travel initially till we were stumped by the many slips along the way. We were shocked at how this route has transformed, going from reasonable access, to a slog that extended over 7 hours to get up to the football fields. Already feeling fatigued from the monkey scrub and scree slides, a quick 2 hour bivvy gave us the energy to carry on. The weather over the last week has been constant freezing levels above 2000m, plenty of sun, and a well established isothermic snow pack. Travel was slow, the heat was intense, and the attempt at going ultralight didn’t feel that light anymore. 

Looking up to the route, Nomophobia follows the right hand ramp, then up ice gullies, JM goes tramping follows the line left of the climber

By the time we reached Turners Peak, we were questioning what we could get done before the storm rolled in, seeing ice on Mt Pibrac and Nazomi, with a looming grey cloud shielded by Aoraki. A decision and a quick brew was made, and then we were standing at the base of the route, taking the climbers right of the face. We were shocked with how much untouched real estate the peak’s South Face had, and even more when considering the other neighbouring South Faces. Swinging tools one after another, Mason led the first simul block, to our surprise, finding plastic WI3, more ice than our rack of screws could use, and the odd M3 step to remind you of warming winters. This line in previous topos looked to have ice from bottom to top, but every year we get reminded of how much the mountains change within our lifetimes. We continued flipping leads and both embraced the light flurries that turned heavy. The route climbed up a right leaning ramp, following obvious ice gullies that were broken with the odd snow slope. The final 50m climbs out of the gullies, up a rock step, heading straight for an ice gully direct to the summit. Enjoying the summit storm, we slowly descended the south ridge, linking up snow chutes. With an already high freezing level, we patiently hoped that it would drop and battling the storm would only mean dry snow. Warm storm systems are only becoming more and more common, so with this one doing the same, we arrived at our bivvy drenched, cold, and excited about our earlier decision of going ultralight on sleeping. Around 26 hours after we left the car, we slept well for a while, until I was woken to Mason’s teeth, chattering louder than the white noise I became accustomed to. We both lay there waiting intensely to catch the morning sun, still wet and cold but happy.  By morning the quick descent down to Hooker Glacier was slightly unknown if the Mona Glacier is still a viable route. We were pleasantly surprised by the beautiful serac’s looming above us, stopping for a moment to let us pass. In future, access to Nazomi and Mt Pibrac would be most viable up the Mona Glacier.

Although in thin conditions, the ice was plastic and took plenty of screws.

A slow plod along the moraine fields and we were reunited to Hooker Lake and the copious amounts of people. Before this moment, I was complacent and unaware of two major things; how quickly the mountains are changing around us, and how connected we are to technology. The walk back to the carpark had our eyes locked in to the insane amount of rockfall painting the snow slopes, and the normalisation of cell phones. It was a weird feeling, being so remote and exposed on Mt Pibrac, yet 4 hours later we were surrounded by people playing games, making calls, scrolling, and glued to the screens yet being in one of Aotearoa’s most majestic landscapes. Being reminded of the insane fluctuations in weather and how the mountains are falling apart, paired with people unable to disconnect or look up from their screen as they walk off the track, the juxtaposition couldn’t be more apparent.