2. NZ
  3. South Island
  4. Darrans
  5. Darran Mountains
  6. Moraine Creek
  7. Great White Slabs

Great White Slabs

(7 routes)

These slabs, behind Gill’s Bivvy in the Adelaide Cirque, cemented the Darrans’ reputation for quality friction climbing.
A beautiful sweep of rock located directly up and right of Gills Bivvy. Once popular for its smooth sustained slab climbing the area has been neglected over the past decade with the slow deterioration of the bolts. There is a danger of being hit early season by rock and ice from the shelf above, particularly on the left-hand side.

Flutterby and Braustin Ooks share the same initial pitch. Starting somewhere in the middle of the slab, climb up unprotectable ground to a belay on natural pro in a little right-facing corner.

Type: 
Crag
Aspect: 
North
New Zealand map

Map, Topo

Lat/Lon: 
-44.737039920000, 168.030438420000
NZMS260: 
D40 166 960
Topo50: 
CB09 065 342
@@@@@@
Reference Title Grade Length Quality Bolts Gone Natural pro Link to edit content
6 Zinzinbar 20
0
On the smooth left side of the slabs, follow a slightly dry streak kept clean by frequent avalanches. A hint for falling off this route - turn and run! Strictly a late summer climb. “Just follow the line of mangled unusable bolts” Dave Vass
Dave Vass, Steve Moore, 1986.
7 Flutterby 19
2.01
 1
Four pitches. Initial climbing tends up and right before curving back left past some well spaced 25 year old bolts.
Bill Atkinson, Brian Fish, Al Cutler, Rick McGregor, Peter Newton, 1979.
8 Rockaway Beach 19
2.01
Four pitches. The last pitch takes an unlikely traverse below an overlap followed by a mantelshelf through the overlap.
Brian Fish, Chris Morris, Feb 1980.
9 Braustin Ooks 19
2.01
 1
Four pitches. Initial climbing tends up and right before curving back left past some well spaced 25 year old bolts.
Bill Atkinson, Brian Fish, Al Cutler, Rick McGregor, Peter Newton, 1979.
Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained 14 , 16 , 16 , 16
0
 wire representing trad
A moderate slab route, protected with 10mm stainless steel bolts. Follows the driest area of the slabs
#EwbankAlpine (Technical)Alpine (Commitment)Alpine (Mt Cook)AidWater IceMixedBoulder (Hueco)LengthBoltsTrad
1140mYes
 

scramble up to a wide ledge then follow a seam up the slab with a few cam placements til the start of the bolts.
2160mNo
3160mNo
4160mNo
 

a couple of moves through the bulge to reach the belay
Murray Judge, Nick Cradock, January 2008
10 Rabbit Test
1.02
Brian Fish, Richard Mortensen, Feb 1980.
11 Rear Entry Burns
0
“Named after meeting him, he’d fallen on lead while putting in a bolt in the slabs and had skinned his butt” Phil de Joux.
Al Mark, Phil de Joux, 1985.

This place appears in

UUID: 
5887e696-adf5-4d67-b66c-f0c9c719f43e