Area A

For the ice routes at Area A:
Walk approximately
3 hours from the main
carpark, past the Routeburn Flats Hut
and up the North Branch of the Routeburn.
On the True Right of the North
Branch of the river, opposite the climbs, there
is a great dry rock bivy. From the bivy
to the base of the routes its approximately
20 minutes walk. These routes
can be done in a day trip from Queenstown
and are on the west buttress of
Mt. Somnus, to the right hand side of
the main gully.

Type:

Area

Reference	Title	Grade	Length	Quality
A1	Mid Winter Christmas	WI3 M5		0
	WI3+, M5. 9 Pitches. Start up the ice smear right of the main gully, before traversing back left at the end of pitch 3. Continue up the obvious corner system and ice lines to the top of the buttress. Andrew Finnigan, Julian Webster, 2010.
A2	Somnolence	WI3 M4		1.02
	Protected with mostly ice screws and some rock pieces - hexes and pitons were great. Rob Frost, Scott Blackford Scheele, July 2010.
A3	Un-named	WI3	30m	0
	Single pitch ice route on the right hand side of the main gulley. There are plenty of further oppurtunities for more short ice routes to be climbed on either side of the gulley. Rupert Gardiner, Thierry Thouvard, John Burrows, 2012.

(3 routes)