Following a very long lay-off from mountaineering, and likely the result of some sort of mid-life crisis, I decided that 2025 was the year to give it another crack. To achieve my goals I contacted Doug from Aspiring Guides in Wanaka in mid-2024. Over the next few months we sorted out where my level was at and what sort of trip would suit. Andrea Bruni was locked in as guide for the week, mid-January 2025 the date, with Doug undertaking to find me a climbing partner of similar ability.
As the date closed in I still didn’t have a partner and the trip was looking unlikely, but with only days to spare Doug lined me up with Sheryn Deane, an ultra-running Sydneysider. I immediately questioned my fitness.
In any case, we were soon meeting in Wanaka, reviewing and packing gear, then on the road north to Franz Josef for the flight in to Centennial Hut, arriving mid-afternoon. The drive up, along with a string of pre-trip emails, gave us plenty of time to settle on objectives for the week: a lot of learning, and a hopeful climb of the Minarets.
The afternoon of our arrival, and the next day, were spent getting to know each other on the Chamberlin Snowfield and the rock near the hut. It was good to be refreshing old skills on steep ice and in crevasses, and picking up some modern changes to technique, and a good chance to gauge Sheryn’s fitness for the Minarets climb ahead. There was no doubt she was fit, and Andrea’s lean, mountain-guide build made his own fitness just as obvious. I expected a tough day.
The good weather window held, and with a 4am start we were off for the Minarets. Centennial Hut sits at 2,400m and the Minarets at 3,031m, so 600m of climbing lay ahead, which didn’t seem unreasonable.
Crossing the Chamberlin Snowfield and skirting beneath the ridge dropping north-west from Mt Rudolf passed quickly in the early morning light. The warmth had left the snowpack softer than ideal; the only other party in the hut, a guide and client, were already heading back, having decided against the climb, well before our climbing proper began.
Once on the west face we found a harder surface and good climbing, a real calf-burner, with around 300m of front-pointing and steep terrain. The climbing itself was superb, and Sheryn and I pitched our way up toward the saddle separating De la Bêche from the Minarets, where the gradient eased for the final 100m to the higher of the two Minarets peaks.
Into the saddle, I was certainly puffing to keep pace with these two mountain goats for the last stretch to the summit, but we made it together, in good time to watch the morning sun rise from the north-east. From the top we could see across to the Tasman Glacier and Kelman Hut, and peaks I’d climbed many years before, while Andrea pointed out numerous climbs he’d guided along the Malte Brun Range, fuel for trips to come.
The return to the hut was uneventful, if bloody hot, but we were back in time for a long lunch, followed by some rock climbing behind the hut toilet, craftily suspended out from the hut itself.
Flying out a little early to beat a bad weather window gave us time to climb at a few crags around Wanaka and spend a day on the Remarkables, climbing Double Cone.
All in all, a magic week, with great instruction from Andrea.
North of the Saddle 
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