Oates for Breakfast

We got perfect weather for this trip. It paid off with no concerns about navigating down toward Taruahuna Pass. On this trip we climbed directly up the left side ridge from Lake Mavis and did not climb Oates or scramble around the traverse. Crossing at the lower point of 1874m and directly down to Anti Mavis with a little glissading for fun. We held to the left to travel above the 2-3 creeks, followed some cairns before descending to the grass and then on down into the jumble that is the debris from Falling Mountain. A very enjoyable 9:30hr day and clockwise direction felt best. A stop at The Bealey for refreshments before the drive home was ideal. Strava heat maps seem to show the best route from the high point down, but I would not want to be up there in a white out following a gps line or stumbling and trying to figure it out.

Christian Couper

December 7

Excellent adventure. We hiked this trail rather than ran, although we ran a little out of the Edward's valley to beat darkness. Took us 13 hours. We did take our boots off for the ~6 river crossings on the way up, and the ~5 on the way down. We also down climbed and up climbed to the higher Mt Oates peak which we enjoyed. We followed the advise in Nick's review and kept true left (orientation when looking downstream) on the way down, crossing the creek just below the tarn and skirting the ravines. note -someone has built cairns to mark the route to the Taruahuna pass, not always easy to spot but there. Another route note would be that when we exited Oates North along the ridge there are a number of buttresses to climb over. We were happy enough until we got to the last upclimb before the 1978m peak. We cut down the scree on the right side at this point and sidled around and up and over the ridge on the otherside of the peak because we did not want to do the upclimb at the 1978m peak. Looking at the topo now I wonder if cutting down the left side would have been shorter - if someone does that please comment.

Dave Rentoul

February 29, 2024

After reviewing my path, this path, and someone else's path they'd been recommended, I think you need to get onto the true left of the stream down to the pads a lot earlier than suggested on this map, ie at the level of the tarn.

Nick Begg

December 28, 2022

Some very steep grass descending toward the Taruahuna pass, unless we took the wrong route down (this was true right of the creek, whereas this route implies true left).

Nick Begg

April 25, 2022