Holy Schist!!!

Word up from Queenstown! As before, I will forewarn that this is A CLIMBING POST!

As Robin mentionned in the previous post, we have been in the Queenstown area for about a week and a half doing various things. Happily, this area is a route climbing meca! Queenstown has numerous crags all within 20 min drive and most involve a short 20-30 min hike. Wanaka is the lazy climber's paradise with the cliffs being right on the side of the road...literally. The rock is a compact schist which is super strong and creates some amazing features on the walls.

I have spent my time climbing at Wye Creek while in Queenstown and if anyone ever comes out this way for some climbing make sure you visit this crag for a couple of days as the exposure is unbelievable. Robin and I have been lucky enough hook up with a local couple, Sally and Aaron Ford, who have done quite a bit of the development in Wye Creek. We met Sally back in Wherapapa on the North Island and climbed together at Froggat. She invited us to call on her upon our arrival and said they would give us a tour of the best sport climbing in the area. Well, we contacted her and sure enough on our second day here, we were taken to Wye Creek and instantly knew that this was a special place. The hike is a moderate uphill trek which takes you to the north facing cliffs which were still seeping from the copious amounts of snow and rain. These cliffs have everything from insane roofs to super techie faces. Continuing past the north faces, there is a water pipe which climbers must practice their balance on for about 15 meters before reaching a narrow wood walkway and handrail built on top of the pipe. This track takes you to the waterfalls and onto the south side of the valley where the cliffs receive sun all day long and are bone dry. The lower tier walls are about 30 meters high but there are numerous walls above making this area awesome for single and multi-pitch climbing. This section of the south side is predominately sport climbing but there are many awesome cracks for gear-enthusiasts.
Our local guides sent me up one classic route after another and I was loving the rock! My hands were suffering though as some of the features can be very sharp on my palmolive hands...The real treat of the first day was a roof route called Dream Thing (21)! A 7 meter horizontal roof which then turns into a perfectly vertical face. The exposure of the roof and the views of the mountains around us is definitely a reason to chill for a bit at the anchors and really take it all in!
Happily I bagged that route on my second go and then was introduced to the mother of all aretes, Aratika (23). This is a proud, slightly overhanging arete which requires the climber to clamp, hook and weave along both sides of the wall and its unrelenting until the anchors which are a full 30 meters away. I gave it one go and fully got my ass handed to me. Wish I could stay here and project it and many others.

My second day in Queenstown would not be for another week (yesterday) and I was fully prepared this time. Sally and Aaron again took me to the south side where our warm-ups consisted of beautiful face climbs and some more experiences with the famous New Zealand run-outs! These run-outs are not for the faint of heart. The climbing is not very difficult but it is unnerving not being able to see your last bolt nor being able to see the next bolt....all on a fairly vertical face...After my warm-ups I was ready to do battle with the classic roof route called Drunken Monkey (24/25). This route has EVERYTHING. Long horizontal roof, into crimps at the transition and requiring a committing knee-bar, very balancy hand-jams to clear the transition and then very technical face climbing on schist crimps. I was super-psyched to get this route on my second go. Big thanks to Aaron for all the beta on it! Our last route of the day was a slopey face climb called The Vision (24). Aaron led it and I seconded it but the route definitely won that round as we were perfecting our hang-dog skills. I'm beginning to enjoy routes which require very balancy mantles because if you blow it...you're going for a ride....

Onto Wanaka. The crags near Wanaka are conviently located right next to the road. There are parking lots to service the crags and access trails to each of the cliffs. There is some great bouldering at the Hospital Flats parking lot but we were there for the routes. My first day consisted of some classics on the Tombstone boulder which is a 20 meter vertical piece of rock which has climbing on three sides of it. The main face has some easy warm-ups (17, 18), the "side" face has one arete climb and one classic gear crack. The back side of the boulder is overhung which three hard routes on it. I opted for the middle route on the back which is perfectly named "Lung Starter" (24) (or as Robin calls it "Huff and Puff"). Big cranks to moderate sloping scoops and side pulls for most of the route and then the crux is at the top which requires some serious crimping on sidepulls, very high feet and a desperate lunge for the sloping lip...and of course topping out the route is required to access the chains. I loved this route as it got the blood flowing and the confidence up as my shoulder held up quite well. We then hauled ass over to Headbangers Arete (17) which is apparently the uber-classic route to do. It is another arete but fairly easy as it only requires laybacks the entire way up. Unfortunately the top is somewhat of a disappointment with the chains being located in a very odd location. Apparently it used to be top-out route and walk-off but as it is a "beginner" crag, chains were added for safety purposes. We then moved onto the Roadside Attraction crag for shot at another classic arete; albeit much shorter. Aretenaphobia (21) is a 15 meter sloping arete with a committing top-out. Didn't get it on my first go and was going to lower off to rest when the rain moved in. I would like to add that cleaning a route in the rain BLOWS!

Our second day in Wanaka followed an awesome hike to the Rob Roy Glacier viewpoint. The spectacular views of a mountain glacier were only enhanced by seeing pieces of the glacier fall off and avalanche down the steep slopes. The sounds of cracking ice were like gunshots reverberating off the mountain walls....SOOOOO COOOOOOOOOL!! Anywho, back to climbing. We headed back to Roadside Attraction for a quick warm-up and then I quickly dispatched Aretenaphobia. I then moved onto another "classic" route called Up Your Scud (23). What I thought was going to be an enjoyable route turned into a shit-fest. So called crimps just did not exist and I was relegated to pulling on draws to haul my ass up. HATED IT! In retrospect, it was probably not the best idea to project this route after some intense trekking to the Rob Roy Glacier earlier in the day. I called it quits after this and we headed back to Wanaka.

That's all for climbing from Queenstown/Wanaka. A HUGE THANKS to Sally and Aaron Ford who were not only the best guides one could ask for but also for being such generous hosts to Robin and I.

We're now heading to Dunedin where there will be a bit of climbing but I'm now psyching myself up for my big showdown with Castle Hill later this week. I might be missing some skin by the time we fly off this rock.

L8r!

Adam