Mount Cook glacier tours compared, from free track to heli hike

By helicopter you climb the valley in minutes, spend up to 2 hours on the glacier behind a guide and fly back, 3 hours in all from Mount Cook Airport. It starts from $528 on GetYourGuide, in groups of up to 11. The operator runs its glacier trips all year round, with crampons in summer and crampons or snowshoes in winter.^12,13

It asks the most of you. Guests should handle stairs without the rail and sustain an unhurried walk of up to 2 hours, the guiding company says.¹⁴ Children can join from 9 years, with an adult, and there is an individual weight limit of 116 kg because of the aircraft.^15,16 The listing itself does not recommend the trip for people with limited mobility.

What it gives in return is contact. You crunch across the ice in crampons, peer into crevasses and meltwater channels, and follow your guide as steps are cut where the slope steepens.¹⁷ Alpine Guides describes moulins, runnels and blue ice features on its own Tasman trips.¹⁸ No other option on this page puts you among those formations.

A scenic flight trades walking for altitude. The Glacier Highlights flight from Mount Cook Airport takes 45 minutes, of which 10 to 15 are spent standing on the glacier, and costs NZD 699 per adult on the operator's page.^2,21 A Tasman Glacier helicopter ride with an alpine landing, the 25-minute Tasman Taster, is listed at NZD 379, though its landing site may have no snow from about December to March.^19,33

The ski plane is the signature of this valley. Ski planes, the operator says, fly nowhere else south of the equator, and once on the snow the pilot cuts the engine so you can hear the mountains.^34,35 On GetYourGuide, a 45-minute flight that uses a ski plane one way and a helicopter the other starts from $323. Pilatus Porter ski planes seat 9 people.³⁶

Any age can fly, and the operator supplies ear protection and lap belts for little ones; no fitness is needed.²⁹ Seats are assigned on the day by weight, so a window seat is never guaranteed.³⁷ A glacier landing promises snow underfoot more reliably than an alpine landing, which is worth checking when you choose a flight.³⁸ Our flights page compares the routes.

For keen travelers there is more. The ski plane company lists a guided ice-climbing day on the Tasman with Mt Cook Glacier Guiding at NZD 1,375 per person.⁴⁴ Alpine Guides runs a similar Ice Climbing Adventure for people aged 16 and over, a full day out in the elements for at least 7 hours.^45,46 These are for fit people who want to learn crampon and ice axe technique, not for a casual morning.

Higher up, the glacier changes character. Mt Cook Glacier Guiding offers a trip to the upper snowfield, which it describes as the place where the glacier's 23-kilometre journey begins.⁴⁷ Heli-skiers have used the upper glacier since the early 1970s, and in winter skiing the Tasman is its own adventure, covered on our skiing page.⁴⁸

These options cost far more than the standard heli hike and depend even more on weather and conditions. They also need longer windows in your plans. If you are deciding between them and the 3-hour heli hike, start with the shorter trip: it shows you whether a full day on the ice is for you. Ask the guides on the day, too, since they know which longer trips the current ice allows.