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Mt Cook NP conditions in March? 6-Jan-2008 At 11:08:06 AM Epic Steve

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In 2004 I climbed Zurbriggens's Ridge on Aoraki over the 13th/14th March, *and we even had an unplanned 9 hour bivy at 3600m, in a shallow crevass, as we waited for daylight to reach the summit then descend the Summit Rocks and Linda Shelf) as well as Mt Dixon's East Ridge. Conditions were perfect as there had been a good winter with lots of snow in late 03 and also some in Jan 04. The lower Lida Glacier was still quite chopped up and route finding was a problem with two abseils into 20m deep crevasses needed, to link up with some footprints we saw on the walk out. The descent down Cinerama Col was the most dangerous bit of the whole trip (at the bottom of the Boys Glacier where you are on the scree, there were lots of flying rocks and ice coming down off the back of the Anzac Peaks and we saw a huge serac fall off the terminus of the Boys Glacier...keep your helmet on all the way to the valley floor, for safety!

Summer conditions over the past few years have been less than perfect around March/April as the winters have been rather mild...this year should be OK.

Climb safe!!!