Climbing Bold Peak (2118m) was a very satisfying hiking experience. It was adventurous enough to feel like an achievement, especially doing it by myself. The views of Lake Wakatipu are excellent, but even more impressive are those of a very rugged Mt Bonpland, and the big turquoise coloured tarn in neighbouring Sleepy Hollow. The walk up offers attractions too, from the start in ferny beech forest on a nicely graded track, to a rocky tarn shelf in the latter half of the walk.
But it’s not all fun and games. The crux of the walk is in the mid section, a 650m vertical climb up a gully over just 900m horizontal, and on rotten terrain – a mixture of slippery and spikey vegetation, loose rock, and bare earth. I slipped a few times and hurt my hand on one occasion. There was some swearing. Route notes at the end.
Bold Peak from the Glacier Burn Track: The Scenery
Route Notes
The route starts on the easygoing Glacier Burn Track, crossing the Glacier Burn (stream) at the start, then entering ferny beech forest. The track ends at the tree line, although there are cairns for a while. Navigation is simple enough however – keep going upstream until you see the start of a gully. You’ll need to cross back over the burn to enter the gully.
The scenery in this area is already spectacular, although there was low cloud so I saw almost nothing for almost two hours. Which is how long it took me to get up this very steep 900m section on unforgiving terrain. It took me 1.5 hours to get down it. (I can imagine this section would be a lot easier with snow cover).
When you finally reach the top there is a very short section of minor exposure as you sidle onto the beginning of a rocky shelf. As this flattens out you’ll pass by a number of tarns, with steep rocky slopes/ cliffs to your right, and Bold Peak straight ahead.
Climb up to the obvious notch in the ridge next to point 1973m, crossing to the south-western side. From there head across more rocky terrain and climb up a chute (see the picture below). This looks steep but is easy enough on not too crumbly rock. Cross back over to the east side of the mountain, and keep climbing.
Final Climb to the Summit
The route to the summit is not obvious, and for a while I thought my blog post would be titled ‘Bold Peak Attempt’. To start with, don’t go to the left / east of the summit, as you’ll just end up below a wall of rock. Instead go to the right / west. Following roughly the green route in my picture below will get you to the summit with barely any scrambling, nor much exposure.
Bottom picture: It took me a few goes to find a route to the summit. That route on the far right might have been okay, but the far left definitely wasn’t. The green route (approximate) ended up being fairly straightforward.
About 1900m change in elevation on sometimes challenging terrain. It took me 11 hours of walking with some time wasted trying to find my way up to the summit (maybe 30 minutes?). Add to that lunch and photos etc. I was out 13 hours in total (I took a lot of photos).
That looks Amazing.
Can I ask you how many hours did it take you to complete the hike( both way?)
Thank you for all these informations 🙌🏽
You blog is super helpful !
👌🏽
Hi Ciara. This was a very long day walk. Probably 11 hours of walking. I was out almost 13 hours in total (with time for lunch and photos). Totally worth it though. 😃👍
It’s a weird question but Can I ask you how fit are you?
Because we want to do it with my boyfriend but we’re not sure if we can make it in 11h…
We do a lot of hike but not as tricky as this one..
Well, I was 50 when I did this, but at peak fitness after 4 years of climbing a mountain most weeks (I did maybe 170 days of walking in those 4 years, most of them with a big ascent. So I’d say pretty fit for an old fella 😄. The middle section up the gully was genuinely hard work. Steep and loose. I suspect most people would do this walk as an overnighter. You could camp at Sleepy Hollow I guess.