Elevation: 1468
Elevation Gain: 750m
Difficulty: 2nd to 3rd Class Scrambling. Route-finding on the upper part of the peak.
Access: Red Tarns Track – Mt Cook Village
Sebastopol sits behind our mountaineering Fortress at White Horse Hill.
Description:
A few years back Ruby and I decided to go to Mt. Cook village for a camping trip. We stayed at the White Horse Hill Campground in our 20 year old Macpac Olympus. This bomber, New Zealand Made, 4 season mountaineering tent kept us dry and safe in the mild 10 degree night in the valley bottom. Once morning had arrived it was time to make out for our objective for the day, Sebastopol. I found this peak while scrolling around on topomap.co.nz. After a quick google search I realized it was a pretty decent scramble and the beauty was that because of its size, it was well below the spring snow-line.
No reflection in the tarn.. What a disappointment.
We drove over to the trailhead for Red Tarns, which on its own is a really nice walk with a lot less traffic than the other popular locations in Mt. Cook Village. We followed the very well maintained trail to the tarns, stopping briefly to talk to a disgruntled man who felt like he wasted his time doing the walk because a breeze had caused there to be waves on the tarns so he didn’t get that perfect Mt. Cook reflection. We honestly thought about turning around right then and there.. No reflection?? This perfectly sunny, clear day had almost been ruined.
Nothing to see here. Definitely not a nice, flat spot with beautiful views and plenty of spots to pitch a tent.
Once we recovered from the news of the wind we decided to press forward. Above the upper loop on red tarns there is a very obvious scree slope. If you look at it you will see a very distinct track running through the scree to the upper bench of the mountain. We followed this track to said bench and had a stop for some water. Don’t tell anybody, but this would be a pretty sweet campsite. Theres a little tarn and the bench has views down both, the Tasman and Hooker Valleys. I’m pretty sure Sea to Summit did a photoshoot here.
Typical scrambling terrain on Sebastopol.
The rest of the route was a bit less straightforward. We followed a well-trodden track for a while but you reach a series of gullies and ridges. I don’t believe there is a particular right way to make it up this. We decided to traverse climbers left across the mountain through this diagonal gully system. This led to some easier scrambling and within a couple hundred metres we made it to the false summit. It’s not a real mountain unless it has at least one false peak. The upper ridge connecting the sub peak to the main peak offers some nice, slightly exposed alpine walking.
Sebastopol Summit
We were pleased! We had hit the summit. The only thing taking away from our satisfaction were the surrounding peaks, which were 2x, 3x, 4x etc. taller. Still, the views were stellar! We followed our route back and were back in the car mere hours after starting.
I would say this is a fantastic route for beginning scramblers, who want to test the waters but don’t want to commit to a bigger or more remote peak.