Fear the Cone

“The big daddy of New Zealand’s South Island fields has a reputation for being big, bad and nasty — in a good way,” Rachael Oakes-Ash writes for The Sydney Morning Herald. “Some whisper about Treble Cone in fear, others just try to keep it a big secret. Treble Cone is a local’s mountain. It doesn’t have the big marketing money of Coronet Peak and the Remarkables to help put it forefront in the minds of cashed-up travellers. With Lake Wanaka below and a Southern Alps vista that stretches for miles, the view alone is worth the life-threatening 2-minute drive — on un-tarred roads that a mountain goat would think twice about attempting. As with most reputations, Treble Cone’s starts with a hint of truth: yes, it has extreme terrain but it has plenty for intermediates, too. I suspect the rumours have been created by diehard Treble Coners who want this mountain to themselves. After my first trip, I could see why.”