Mount Ollivier, Mountain summit in Canterbury Region, New Zealand.
Mount Ollivier is a 1,933 m peak in the Sealy Range of the Southern Alps, about 2.5 km west of Mount Cook Village in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The summit is reached by a rock scramble from nearby Mueller Hut, not a technical climb. The mountain rises above the Hooker Valley, with views of surrounding peaks and glaciers.
Mount Ollivier was Sir Edmund Hillary's first major climb, in 1939, before his later expeditions. The 1,933 m peak in the Sealy Range is named after mountaineer Arthur Ollivier, who died in 1897. After Hillary's death in 2008, a proposal to rename the peak Mount Hillary was opposed by Arthur Ollivier's family.
The peak's name honours Arthur Ollivier, a mountaineer who died in 1897. In 2008, after Edmund Hillary's death, a proposal to rename it Mount Hillary as a memorial was opposed by Ollivier's family, and the original name stayed. Hillary's 1939 ascent is the fact most often told about the mountain.
Visitors typically follow the Mueller Hut Route, a hiking trail that climbs through alpine grasslands with increasingly steep sections approaching the summit. The terrain becomes exposed at higher elevations, so hikers need solid mountain experience and should plan for variable weather conditions.
The peak honours Arthur Ollivier, a mountaineer who died in 1897. After Sir Edmund Hillary, who made his first major climb here in 1939, died in 2008, a proposal to rename the peak Mount Hillary was opposed by Arthur Ollivier's family, and the name stayed.
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