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Balfour Face

Type

Part of

Mt Tasman Horokoau

All routes are accessed from the Upper Balfour Neve

Aspect

South

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Routes

Reference	Title	Grade	Length	Pro	Quality	Alert	Operations
	Mists of Avalon, 6+	6+	0m		1.02
P1 Alpine (Mt Cook) 6+ Ascend steep ice left of the buttress followed by the Left Buttress Route. Thirteen pitches (first four are the crux). Reportedly harder than the original line.
	Left Buttress, 6	6	0m		0
P1 Alpine (Mt Cook) 6 Ascend the rock buttress on the left side of the face, but right of the prominent icecliffs. Steep climbing on rock gives way to mixed ground and then steep ice onto the summit icefields.
	Rattus Balfourus, 6	6	0m		1.02
P1 Alpine (Mt Cook) 6 Just right of the Left Buttress is a narrow couloir leading up to the headwall ice shared with the Original Route. From here it is possible to either ascend the icewalls out left or tend right towards the Tasman-Silberhorn ridge.
	Original Route, 6	6	0m		0
The route that started it all. Ascend the gully (or the rib on its right) in the centre of the face before being confronted by rising icewalls. Climb these tending left and finish up 45o ice slopes to the summit. Some parties have climbed the ice walls direct and finished on the Tasman-Silberhorn ridge. P1 Alpine (Mt Cook) 6 A few lines have been added to the right side of the face, Dave Andrews and Neil Harding-Roberts completed a buttress route in winter 1984, but it is not clear where this goes. The following routes exit onto the Tasman-Silberhorn ridge.
	Whimp/ Lindblade, 6-	6-	0m		0
P1 Alpine (Mt Cook) 6- Gully right of the Original Route. Steep, with hard ice in winter.
	Mr Curly’s Big Adventure, 16,5	16,5	0m		0
P1 16 Alpine (Mt Cook) 5 Climb the Right Buttress involving 200m of rock. The first pitch is solid, but the rest is more exciting (crux 16). 200m of ice follows the rock, starting at 70o and kicking back, as the route joins the Silberhorn-Tasman ridge at mid height.
	A Right Buttress Variant		0m		0
P1 100m right of the Original Route.

Comments

Attribution

Alex Palman

UUID

bc2b9e78-44d8-4f55-b53a-a40050c1c274