Our first obstacle was crossing a bergschrund above the col. I went first using a small broken up snow bridge and my ice axe while Steve belayed me. Lisa and I were able to build a vertical snow anchor and I clipped in to belay Steve. Steve reached the anchor and continued climbing above me to where he built another snow anchor. We continued this process (called pitching) to get to the summit and in all used five snow anchors. It was fairly steep and once we were on the narrow ridge we had a lot of exposure. There was a big drop off (2000-3000 feet) on the west side and on the east side a steep slope that led into a large bergschrund. Definitely not a place to slip so we took our time and made sure we were certain of each step. Steve and I were roped in the whole time, but Lisa was never roped in and walked around like she was strolling around the park. The clouds were intermittent and we could see the Tasman sea and the west coast and had nice views of the Tasman Valley and our hut across the way. After a short break on the summit, we descended with Lisa short roping us (a guiding technique) to speed up our descent in case the weather worsened. It was exiting to climb our first peak!

This picture was taken of another climbing party on top of Mt. Aylmer during sunrise on our last day in the mountains (you can barely see the people on the summit if you view in original mode).