Tasman - via Syme and Silberhorn Ridges

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Tasman - via Syme and Silberhorn Ridges Richard Gavey Stuffed out of my little mind I grovel The infamous north should was in through thigh deep snow for a couple pretty good nick and after a couple of hundred feet before collapsing into of pitches we were over it. From there a heap yet again. Malcolm staggers a slow but steady plod brought us to over and does likewise. "I think I'll the summit at 11 a.m. We stayed here die before we reach the hut. Better for a couple of hours performing the have that smoke now". Too stuffed to usual and some not so usual summit argue he lights up. Ever tried lickrituals = like throwing a $600 Minolta ing a paper with a dry mouth. A few away and inventing some new words for drags and my mind wanders. . "The Shorter Oxford". At midnight we left Haast Ridge hut The descent to Mt Silberhorn was in and climbed to the top of Glacier a word "bloody hairy". Lots of steep Dome where we were suddenly confronted hard ice in which an ice piton took with the huge massif of Tasman's East thirty odd blows to hold. Fixed Face. Recent weather had been very warm belaying and placing runners was very with no frosts. The whole area looked time consuming, but it was the only horribly cut up compared to what it had way off assuring that we weren't a been like a few weeks previously when I splat mark on the Balfour Glacier had climbed the East Ridge of Cook with 2000 feet below. Silberhorn was duly Steven Rawnsley. reached where we saw the beginning of a fantastic sunset; the whole Balfour was coloured a bright orange A small avalanche-prone basin beneath (Teddy liked it too!). Tasman known as the "Mad Mile" is the usual access to Syme Ridge. In the We then descended the fairly straightwarm weather it looked pretty ugly forward ridge to the Grand Plateau. sO we opted to climb into the Lenden- Talk about sucked, Trev, we still had feld - Haast cirque and gain the ridge half a mile of knee to waist deep via a steep slushy gut with two small porridge between us and the hut. but hard rock steps. Once on the ridge it was fairly well in the hand P.S. We eventually reached the hut apart from three traverses onto the because one Teddy between two doesn't East Face to negotiate schrunds. keep you very warm.