Traverse of Turret Head and Seven Sister Ridge

The Seven Sister Ridge from Turret head to the West Peak of Mt Earnslaw has always interested me since I had a close up of it years ago in spring, bivvying on top of Turret Head. When I suggested we should have a closer inspection Peter was keen. We met on Friday evening in Queenstown after a medical course and drove up to Dan’s Paddock in the lower Dart Valley. Here we parked Pete’s car and set off up the obvious spur to the right of the creek draining Turret Head. I knew there was a marked route up the spur from my previous visit but it took some time to locate it. At 900 meters we reached a nice flat open area still in the bush and bivvied there. There was no wind and it was pleasantly warm and we slept soundly.

Next morning it was calm and clear as we set off early and climbed rapidly to bush-line. Then it was up tussock and scree slopes to the couloir on Turret Head. There were several hundred feet of hard frozen snow as we climbed up carefully to a small headwall where we dry tooled up some rock to the crest. This brought us onto a wide snow col and from here there was another short climb up rock to the summit at 2350 metres. There was a cold wind blowing from the north as we dropped down towards a breche on the Seven Sister Ridge. Here we did a short abseil and continued on down to a snow gully that dropped towards the Earnslaw Burn. Then it was a slow hot climb up softening snow back to a col 2240 metres. Above this there was a pyramid of snow and rock and beyond that a steep buttress of rock and snow slopes that had been wind-slabbing. We clearly did not have enough time to complete the climb and the weather was showing signs of a change for the worse.

From the snow col on the Seven Sister Ridge we set off down a short rock cliff onto snow and scree slopes on the Dart side. On down we went trying to sidle right to Spaniard Valley but cliffs and bluffs blocked our way forcing us to descend about 1000 meters directly down into a maze of steep sided gullies caused by eroding streams coming down the face. Eventually we found a lead across these and had to drop almost to bush-line before we could cross the last one. Then it was across tussock slopes sidling towards Spaniard Valley. Closer to it we could see some steep gullies on the outer rim of it and on one of them was a goat or deer trail which we followed successfully into the valley. From the lip of the valley I picked up an old cairn marking the trail down the cliff to the huge rock bivi. Pete headed off to get some water off the route and then we pulled into the welcome bivi for a rest and peaceful night.

The bivi is from the deer culler days when lone hunters would climb up here and hunt deer for the government. Year ago I climbed up here one winter with Mick Hutchins and Dave Waugh on our way up Pluto. I remember we lit a fire that night and Mick told us the history of the area as shadows danced on the dark walls and enormous roof. At 2.00 AM we set off across Spaniard Valley to climb up the Pluto Couloir in deep snow.

Next morning I was up early to seek water that necessitated a climb back up towards the lip of Spaniard Valley. It’s aptly named as there are loads of Wild Irishmen on the hillsides! After a leisurely breakfast we set off and descended the indistinct ridge running to the SW of Velpy’s Pass. Then it was a slow descent down to Chinaman’s Flat and back to Dan’s Paddock.

An ascent of Turret Head and the Seven Sister Ridge on 4/5 December 2010 by Peter O’Neill and Stan Mulvany