So you’re navigating the Great Sky Island in your first hours of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. You’re tasked with seeking out the shrines to unlock various handy abilities for traversal but you find significant obstacles in your path after the Ukouh Shrine. If you’re needing to reach the shrine atop a snow mountain in the opening area of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s how to get to the Snow Mountain Shrine in Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.
Zelda: TOTK – How to Get to the Snow Mountain Shrine on Great Sky Island
To reach the Snow Mountain Shrine in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll want to take several steps and a careful approach. The shrine in the game is called Gutanbac Shrine, bestowing The Ability to Rise, and can be reached using the following method:
From the entrance to Ukouh Shrine, hit down on the right stick, point your camera to the southeast, and find the shrine, glowing green; hit ‘A’ to mark this location. Jump off the ledge southeast to land in the water, then head southeast across the grassy area past the steps to the Temple of Time.
You’ll reach the foot of the snow mountain where there’s a cooking pot nearby. A plant with Spicy Pepper is growing nearby: harvest these and cook them with other ingredients like Skyshroom or Raw Meat you find. Go southeast toward the mountain, and eat your spicy food, giving you minor Cold Resistance.
Climb the mountain, harvesting peppers as you go. Go south at the nearby fork, leading to a river with rafts. Speak to the Maker Construct to receive an Energy Cell; step onto the raft and strike the motor, using your new Energy Cell, and it’ll propel you forward.
Across the river, go up the nearby steps to the left, and climb the mountainside to the right. Go forward, up the path behind the waterfall. Climb the rocks to the right of the small waterfall ahead. Then, jump across the water to the next ledge: if you land in the water, climb up out quickly! This will be a nice shortcut if pulled off correctly, I found.
Climb the dark rocky patch behind the waterfall to the top. You’ll ascend a small hill here and see the Gutanbac Shrine of the Great Sky Island ahead.
There is one rule of thumb here: no matter your prior experience, don’t get cocky and try to swim through the icy water. I learned the hard way that it’ll burn through your food too quickly. You’ll also find Archaic Warm Greaves near the Shrine, that grant greater Cold Resistance for future cold region exploration! Complete this and the other Shrines, and you’ll reach the surface in no time.
This copy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was played on the Nintendo Switch OLED edition, using Ver. 1.1.0.
