His name had not been released last night, as his wife had not been notified.
The man and his 62-year-old male climbing partner, also of Wanaka, were 200m from the summit of Mt Aspiring - just underneath the southwest couloir (passage) - when the accident happened, about 11am.
They were not roped together during the climb.
Four members of the Wanaka Alpine Search and Rescue team flew in by helicopter about noon to retrieve the body and the other climber, Sergeant Aaron Nicholson said.
The dead man's companion was left stranded at the couloir after his friend fell.
The Alpine Cliff SAR team used a long-line strop to retrieve the man and the body.
The dead man, who was not a mountain guide, was understood by police to have been an experienced climber.
His companion was "relatively inexperienced", Sgt Nicholson said.
The pair had tramped in to the Colin Todd Hut on Tuesday to attempt the summit climb during a "good weather window," he said.
Several other climbing groups had taken advantage of fine, clear weather conditions and "excellent climbing conditions" yesterday to attempt a summit of Mt Aspiring.
The body was taken to Dunedin for a postmortem and the death had been referred to the coroner.
The accident is the third fatality in the Mt Aspiring National Park this year.
Melbourne man Alan Beck (49) died after falling underneath an ice slab near the Bonar Col in March and Dunedin student Leon Phease (19) fell to his death near the Liverpool Hut in July.
Thirty people have died in the Mt Aspiring National Park since 1987, including 14 climbers on Mt Aspiring.
