Mount Earnslaw, Mountain summit in Mount Aspiring National Park, New Zealand.
Mount Earnslaw / Pikirakatahi is a 2,819-metre mountain at the southern end of the Forbes Range in Mount Aspiring National Park, 25 kilometres north of Glenorchy. Its higher eastern peak is separated from the West Peak, 2.5 kilometres to the west-south-west, by a 200-metre-deep pass.
Reverend W.S. Green, with guides Emil Boss and Ulrich Kaufmann, attempted Earnslaw in March 1882 but turned back at 1,500 metres due to transport and weather problems. In 1890 Glenorchy guide Harry Birley reached the eastern peak and left a bent shilling in an Irish Moss bottle inside a stone cairn as proof. The lower West Peak was first climbed in 1914 by H.F. Wright and J. Robertson.
The mountain carries two names: Earnslaw from a Scottish village and Pikirakatahi in Maori, reflecting New Zealand's dual heritage. This dual naming shows how different peoples have shaped the landscape here.
The mountain lies 25 km north of Glenorchy, at the northern end of Lake Wakatipu, inside Mount Aspiring National Park. The higher West Peak stands 2.5 km west-south-west of the East Peak, separated by a 200 m deep pass, so the two summits are climbed as separate objectives. Approach and weather halted the 1882 party at about 1,500 m, so allow for slow travel and changeable conditions.
The higher West Peak, though only about 10 m above the East Peak, is far harder: it lies 2.5 km west-south-west across a 200 m deep pass and was not climbed until 1914, by H.F. Wright and J. Robertson. Harry Birley's 1890 proof of his East Peak ascent was a bent shilling in an Irish Moss bottle inside a stone cairn.
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