Mount Aspiring

Mount Aspiring (Tititea)
Elevation	3,033 metres (9,950 ft)
Location	South Island, New Zealand
Range	Southern Alps
Prominence	2,475 m (8,120 ft)
Coordinates	44°23′S, 168°43′E
First ascent	1909

Mount Aspiring is New Zealand's highest mountain outside the Mount Cook region.

Set within the South Island's Mount Aspiring National Park, it has a height of 3,033 metres. Māori named it Tititea, which translates as Glistening Peak. Named in December 1857 by the Chief Surveyor for the Otago Province, John Turnbull Thompson.^[1] It is also often called 'the Matterhorn of the South,' for its pyramidal peak when seen from the Dart River. It was first climbed in 1909 by Major Bernard Head.

Mt Aspiring sits slightly to the west of the main divide, 30 kilometres west of Lake Wanaka.^[1] It lies at the junction of three major glacial systems — the Bonar Glacier, which drains into the Waipara River, and the Volta and Therma Glaciers, which both drain into the Waitoto River. The Waipara is a tributary of the Arawhata River, and both the Arawhata and Waitoto Rivers flow out to the west coast in between Haast and Jackson Bay.

The peak is usually accessed via the West Matukituki Valley, which is reached by a 50-kilometre road from Wanaka to a trailhead at Raspberry Flat. From here a network of huts provide staging points for climbers. The first is Mt Aspiring Hut, which is 8 kilometres (or approximately two hours' walk) from the trailhead.

References

See also

• List of mountains of New Zealand by height

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