Cragging at Wanaka

September 30th-October 2nd



Friday evening I cooked up a dinner to go, and enjoyed it on the road in Steve’s huge old 4-wheel-drive SUV packed between Dan (NZ climber from the gym, real mechanic sort of guy) and Tim (German guy who just arrived to NZ) in back, with Steve and Paul in the front. We were headed to Wanaka-a popular climbing area that has some crags next to the road to provide enjoyment for even the laziest sport climber (basically like Rumney, minus the lines of people-NZ doesn’t have a big enough population for that); with views of Aspiring National Park to soak in as you enjoy your victory atop some of the crags.

We arrived at the camp ground probably around 9:00. There we met up with Debbie (Otago PhD student who studied Keas for her masters and now ducks; pretty awesome and hilarious woman who soon became my workout partner at the gyms), Tim (Debbie’s fiancé-well now husband as of December 10th, been climbing since he was like 5 or 10 years old-needless to say, a strong climber), Dave (once a very strong climber who’s decided to take a more relaxed approach to climbing, while taking up fishing; I’m now in a race with him to lead a 25 (5.12aish) clean-he’s climbed it before, but not since his changed approach to climbing and his scale reading 10kg higher), and Anni Ka (Dave’s partner who was from Germany but is determined to live in NZ).

Next morning, after a slow start (everyone must have their stove-top made coffee before anything happens) we headed to the crags with eyes to the forbidding clouds above. We managed to sneak in 4 climbs before the sky started to fall lightly. We thought it would pass, so waited down the road at an overhanging rock. While the others brewed themselves some fresh coffee, Dan and I had fun working an overhanging boulder problem before it was completely soaked. By then we accepted the fact that climbing outdoors was not going to happen that afternoon and headed back into town. We made a short stop at this recycle shop, an indoor climbing gym (too expensive for most of us, and too touristy, so we only left Dan and Paul behind there), and then headed to The pub. It’s actually one of the oldest pubs in NZ (not saying too much, compared to US or Europe), from the gold rush days, and a classic place to go. There we enjoyed a couple of drinks in a dim, candlelit corner (kind of LOTR’s feeling) before heading to back to pick up Paul and Dan, and then back to the site for dinner. There we set up a tarp to eat under and brewed up some mulled wine (I wouldn’t recommend using gara masala as your spice of choice for this; Paul was in a bit of a rush when he packed it).

Next day was another slow start, but early in the morning, fog and drizzle are not a huge motivator to get out of bed on a climbing trip; an hour or two later I woke with a start to find the sun breaking up the clouds and blue skies making an appearance. We enjoyed a lovely day in the sun on the crags before heading back home in the evening.

We had a slight delay on the way back-stopped at about 8:00 in a small town for gas with the indicator on empty (in a diesel car), only to find that gas station had closed at like 7:00. Luckily in small towns everyone knows everyone, so from the pub we called up the gas station owner who reopened the gas station for a fee. We decided then to just enjoy dinner there and watch the All Blacks rugby game at the pub before we continued our way home.

October 7-9th

Another climbing trip to Wanaka that was far more successful on the climbing front-weather was basically perfect the whole time. Two full days of climbing-quite satisfying, despite having homework to work on in the evenings. Finally managed to get on some hard sport climbs and lead the hardest I’ve ever led clean (first try too! beautiful flash). Led an easier climb too that had its own excitement-it was a chimney and about half way up I almost grabbed a bird’s nest with a very big and very live baby chick-I became a wee-bit afraid that it was a hawk’s baby and I’d have the parents dive-bombing me. Luckily it turned out to be just a wood pigeon. The parents just squawked at us a bit and flew by.

The week following I lived at the computer finishing my 2 big English papers-one on setting up a large scale composting program for the Otago University’s housing (fingers crossed it actually makes a difference), and another on why people do high risked activities like mountaineering (there’s actually so much information on the subject and I’m afraid I didn’t have the space or time to cover nearly as much as I would have liked. But if you think I’m crazy for what I do and want to know what could possibly be the rationale behind why people do these things, I’ll happily send you the paper).

The Start of the Rockclimbing Adventures

September 23-25
 

The beginning of the week was a washout since I tried slept away the fever, but life kicked in gear again Friday night. I escaped town for a short adventure with some tramping club people- a climbing escapade at the Port Chalmers’ quarry, a mere 10-15 minute drive. We did three short pitches, the third one being the crux which had just a one-move-wonder. It was interesting because drilling that was done in the rock decades ago formed it. You had to climb up using this smooth, half a cylinder cut-out in the rock.

The next morning, at 6:00 Paul, Steve and I headed out of town on a climbing trip (that I convinced them to do Thursday night at Rm 14-the local climbing gym) that didn’t have concrete plans because the weather predictions didn’t look too promising. On the drive up though we decided to hit Mt. Horrible and then hike into Mt. Somners Saturday evening and hope that the weather held long enough for us to get some climbing in Sunday morning (and if not, do we’d some exploring).

Mt Horrible-not so horrible after all.

 

The Frog Leap Belay: for high friction belay

Mt. Horrible turned out to be fantastic! Ok, if you think of it as a mountain, yes it is horrible because it isn’t really a mountain, but the rock climbing was fantastic. You wouldn’t guess as you walk across the green pasture filled with sheep that there is this cliff at the edge of it- you’re suddenly standing there at the top looking down a 20ish meter high cliff with lots of good trad routes. I wonder if any sheep accidently ran off the top of it. 

 Anyways, we got to enjoy some trad climbing until 2ish, before we booked it out and drove another couple hours north to Mt. Somner’s track. We started out about 6:00 and as we walked in, the weather came in. But it was a light drizzle, so there was still hope that the weather may improve, that the sun might break through in the morning and dry the rock for us. If not, there were caves in the area that I was keen to explore. We made good time on the hike in, despite the wet conditions and hiking the last bit in the dark (and loosing the track temporarily-well not exactly, we knew we were still on it but it seemed to dead end at this river; the limits of our head torches made us take a little longer than usual to find the trail on the far side).

By 9:00 we were enjoying a burrito dinner and then some mulled wine in the but. We stayed up late playing cards, before we all crashed from exhaustion around midnight. 

When we woke up at 8:30 am (really 9:30 because time sprung forward in the night) the sun was bursting through the low clouds, which were slowly rising out of the valley. We came outside to have our first view of the beautiful basalt columns just behind the hut. Sadly, because we had 3 people and the weather couldn’t make up its mind about what it wanted to do, we only did some single pitch sport climbs that were a 3-minute walk from the cabin. However, I’ve already talked with Steve about needing to come back to get on some of those basalt columns. It’s on my to-do list for November or December.

While climbing, we had a visitor come-a Kea, who decided to hang out at the top of the route and watch us as we smeared our way up the rock. I tried to scare him away once, afraid his sharp beak would start exploring my rope, but he couldn’t have cared less about me. In the end, I just took photos of him and watched him suspiciously as I rappelled down.

We got a few good climbs in before the weather made up its mind and decided to hail in the middle of Paul leading the last climb. When he finished we made our walk back to the cabin, enjoyed a leisurely lunch, and then started to make our way out to the start of the track (or would it be referred to as the end of the track now?).  The hail turned to snow just before we set out, so we got to enjoy a quite, peaceful walk about (minus a few near slips on the muddy trail).

All For An Internship

 September 16-18

 

So there was the good, bad, and ugly parts to this weekend. I went up to Peel Forest Outdoor Pursuits Centre in the hopes that I could get some climbing in and have an internship confirmed on paper so I can graduate in December.

       Well, the stress of the weekend started with trying to get there. I won’t go into how bad NZ public transportation is other than to mention that the bus driver went past my stop (where the director of my target program was waiting for me) by 3 towns/stops (about 25 minutes past). I came to the decision that I will be hitchhiking or car-pooling with friends from now on. Because of the stressful and exhausting day, I ended up breaking my vegetarian rule that night and bought a burger for dinner (the meat was from a farm 15 km away-so I figured the footprint wasn’t that bad). Then, I awoke Saturday morning to discover that I had a cold. I thought at first it was merely a stuffy nose, but soon realized, as I slowly made my way up Mount Peel, that I also had probably had a fever. After my hike I didn’t do too much the rest of the weekend, except for talk with Andre (director of PFOPC), get a tour of the Centre, be entertained by watching his beautiful three year old daughter running around everywhere with her father in tow, and sleep in the sun by on a river.

Despite my poor show of my enthusiasm and energy for outdoor recreation and just bumming around the pursuit centre, I did get a contract signed with Andre, confirming my an internship position (well, once the visa is changed it will be definite). So now that he’s seen me at my worst, his impressions can only improve, right?

Though I didn’t climb, I did learn about a couple of climbing places near by which helped to plan my adventures for the following weekend.

Local Trad Crag

Saturday, September 10^th

Escaped from homework one day this weekend with James, Tom, Hannah (young woman from England who’s into rock and ice climbing), and Signe (young woman who is I think from the Netherlands). We went to this crag called Mihiwaka-all single pitch trad hidden in a cloud forest about 20 minutes from Dunedin and only a 15 minutes walk from the car.

The views of the farmland and ocean were fantastic at the top. Bring a puffy though, for it is a bit chilly belaying in the shade at the bottom. Tom helped to stave off the cold by brewing some tea for us. They failed to bring a strainer however, so he tried to make the loose leaves settle by spinning the pot of water around a couple of times. I don’t think he achieved his goal, but he did provide me with entertainment and an excellent anecdote for my analysis of Kiwi Tea Times.

Ta Da!

It wasn’t a physically strenuous day, but a good day to get my head back into trad.  And it was an excuse to escape homework and enjoy the lovely weather.