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).