May 23rd, 2026
~ submitted by Nicholas Fisch
On a partly cloudy Saturday in May, myself and another Rambler set out for Mount McQuillan from the trailhead at Father and Son Lake.
The trail is a steep jaunt up to the lake and then proceeds to contour the lake. Halfway around the lake, we left the Father and Son Trail to begin our bushwack up to a connecting ridge that leads to a twin-peaked bump at just over 1500m. We found some flagging that actually did a half decent job at taking us up to the ridge. Upon gaining it, the bushwack continued on the ridge gaining elevation until the last steep section to gain the top of the bump.
The bump is really two bumps, and in between them a gulley. We scanned the terrain which looked pretty gnarly going straight up so we opted for the gulley. It was steep and full of snow but doable. In fact, the snow may have helped as it might be a scree slope underneath.
Once the bump was summited, we had to descend 175 m to the bottom of the saddle in between the bump and McQuillan. From there, it was what I like to call a pick-your-own poison scramble to the summit. This means “choose the path you are most comfortable with as there does not appear to be an obvious route”. We each zigzagged our own way up to the summit. Previous reports suggest it is a class 3 scramble. I am not doubting the reports, but I think it would have taken quite a bit of route-finding to make the whole scramble to the summit class 3. At the summit both remarked that we had traversed at least class 4 terrain. The way down appeared easier (usually the opposite).
Overall a solid day in the South Island mountains.
Total time-ish: 9am-2:30pm, Elevation gain: 1158m, Distance: ~10km