Earnslaw Burn & Point 2026
Otago ● 26 – 27 Jan 2025
An overnight trip up Earnslaw burn and to the Point 2026 under Black Peak – it felt good to get an annual peak so early in the year. We walked out along the ridge, and I wished I had brought more water.
We had a relatively chill walk in on the first day as we only needed to reach the bushline to camp. We stayed in the rock bivvy marked on the topo map, and were pleasantly surprised it had many creature comforts such as mattresses and Monopoly Deal. We even had it all to ourselves despite this now being a popular walk – the next morning we passed at least 15 tents.
Crossing Earnslaw Burn at the bushline to reach the rock biv
A luxurious rock biv – and all to ourselves!
In the morning we walked up the valley to until the sidestream which comes from Lennox Pass, then climbed up to the pass. It was quite steep and in a couple of places was loose and dodgy underfoot. Initially we stayed in the stream bed, occasionally popping out on the true left to avoid sketchy sections, but around the 1200m contour we began following a smaller branch of the stream that isn’t shown on the topo map. Eventually we had to cut back across to get to the pass, although it would have been possible to take a more direct route to hit the ridge further north.
Starting to head up the stream to Lennox Pass the next morning
From Lennox pass we found the route information from ClimbNZ. Even though this was for the full climb to Earnslaw East Ridge it told us not to reach Point 2026 along the ridge, but instead to sidle to the east:
From Lennox Pass […] gain ledges under and east of Peak 2026 at 1650m, then sidle right to the ridge leading to Black Peak. Traverse Black Peak and descend to the col. Traverse snow slopes on eastern side of ridge crest until regaining ridge.
We found we actually sidled at the 1700m contour, using the quite narrow bands through the bluffs (but intially oblivious because we were clagged in). Once we had slightly overshot point 2026 we began climbing up through moderately less steep terrain, popping out of the clag as we reached the ridge.
View from just south of Lennos pass showing the bluffs you need to work through. Point 2026 not visible because of the cloud. We followed the ridge until the point where it begins rising (where it reaches cloud in this photo), then dropped ever so slightly to get through the bluffs at the 1700m contour
Scrambling up to point 2026
Popping out of the clag just in time to appreciate views of Earnslaw from Point 2026
Emily standing on Point 2026
To get out, we retraced our steps back to Lennox pass, then continued along the ridge. This began with a hot climb to pt 1644, then a fun sidle down to cut west of pt 1808. We could have cut lower to skip a steep section but instead down-climbed (right at the very edge of my comfort level). The rest of the travel was straightforward except for some interesting blocky terrain around pt 1296. The descent from pt 1256 was kind of brutal at the end of the day, especially in the hot sun and with all my water gone.
A couple of kea on the ridge back to Lennox Pass. Earnslaw burn in the background
Stunning visibility of Mt Earnslaw as the clag burned off later in the day. Sidling below pt 1942
Times
- Day one
- Carpark → Rock bivvy 5 hours
- Day two
- Rock bivvy → Lennox Pass 3 hours 15 mins
- Lennox Pass → Point 2026 1 hour 50 mins
- Point 2026 → Lennox Pass 1 hour 30 mins
- Lennox Pass → Carpark 6 hours 15 mins via ridge
- Overall 14 hours