In 2016, Ballard established several new rock, mixed and dry tool routes. He established a new 26-pitch rock climb Dirty Harry on the northwest face of Civetta and a new mixed route Titanic on the north face of the Eiger. He also created what was at the time the world's hardest dry-tooling climb, A line above the sky in the Dolomites. He attempted the previously unclimbed North East face of Link Sar in Pakistan with Italian climber Daniele Nardi in 2017.