A Diary of Just Another Climber
Accompanying Photos
Just past TA our original decision to hole up at the school went out the window as the Bay was soo close and we were psyhced for some sending. Onwards to the bay ... we hit the driveway down and Shane shifts into 4wd, he's been wanting to get some dirt onto his jeep since he got it, nows his chance !.... going down the road we're thinking - sh^t this is a bit rough. Managed to get our gear lugged in a few runs and pitched what turned out to be the Mojo Mansion. Luke and I were quite unaware as to how big this tent was....
"Holy f^ck that ain't a tent" .. we overheard someone as they walked in later on that night. Quietly the team observed a few peoples roll in under the cover of darkness, mysterious headlamps pitching tents rather awkwardly in the dark... the morning rolled around after a slightly wet night, the sound of rain set a mood of despair over the team. Luke kept his eternal optimism as went about to re-adjust the tent. Overnight the camping ground suddenly turned into a little climbing village... people everywhere!. But where was the sunshine, nothing for it but to cook some breakfast, brew a coffee, and listen to the Back in the Day stories from Grand Master Hawken.
The rain petered out, the Team were getting antsy, and Luke dlead the charge, righto boys we're off to a climb. He lead a spirited charge straight to the Main Cliff, scrunching through the pumice stones on the beach the majesty of the bay hit home. Heres the main walk, yehar.. the path once trodden a year ago suddenly seemed familiar again as we shuffled along the cliffs, looking up at an old favourite Surrogate (18) which I scared myself silly on last year I was like, yeharr.. this is going to be a good weekend!
After a quick warmup on Sunshine buttress the adrenalin eeked back into the bloodstream. Luke broke out the draws, I jumped on belay and Separation and Anxiety (21) got a little look in, a sweet little warm up climb for the Hawken and first decent send of the day. Luke then looked at me, 'um..' "nah get up there" says Luke, still in my plastic head mode I looked at the first clip... so Luke clips that for me. Feeling the nervous butterflies I jump on the rock and go up the flake, wow.. this really does sound incredibly dodge, the hollow sound echoing for it as I skipped over it, rocking up past the 2nd draw, I took, not quite able to commit to the right hand pocket, another crack and what do you know, it was dispatched!.. woohoo, well we might have to try that again.... de pumping Shane cranks it out, but takes a huge whipper off close to the top, which was rather nasty as the rope got on the back of his leg and caused a nasty burn/bruise on the back of his leg. Down he goes and I was like, well stuff it I'm going to do it clean, none of this preclipping crap, I'm outdoors now !... quietly ascending I get to the cruxy section, look at the pocket, suck it in and bam hit it !... words of encouragement echo from below as I get up to the top ... yeah baby.. sendage !.. clipping into the anchors I lower off. Yehaar!! Well stoked, ask Luke what grade it was - 21. Awesome, grin from ear to ear... on paper the hardest send outdoors for me. Shane had another crack but this wasn't to be his climb today...
Look left and say hello to Jungle Judgy (19) a technical hard slabby climb that you had to trust your feet on.. well looks like I'm stuffed then. Luke rocks up it first, makes it look like a piece of the proverbial, hmm... okay so can't be hard then if he made it look that easy. Couldn't be further from the truth - I just had a complete mozza trying to get past the 2nd bolt, but once I hit the jug I was away and lauging, around the ledge, run it out up to the anchors and saweeet.... (pity about my ugly effort at the start). Shane chucks on his shoes and rocks up it in fine style looking a huge amount better than me ! Da Slab Masta.
Luke cleans the draws off and we rock back to camp, separating at the main cliff will Luke and Greg hook up to have a crack at Grotesque (27) ... Back to camp for a well earned cup o tea and slice of cake, to find some of the Auckland crew finally rocking up and talk of a car stuck in the mud. Oh o.. .not again anyway I turn round the corner with camera in hand to be greeted by the site of one smiling (but only just) Api, one Jeep that definitely should've heeded the sign, up to the gunnels in muddy water and some dudes figureing out how to get it out. Luckily for Jeep #1 there was Jeep #2 and a previously used on bridge swing dynamic rope...
So after a couple of loops round towing hooks the big effort began, doing it static didn't work terribly well, with only four wheel spinning action, so some dynamic action (in true power style) with a few little run-ups going on, so then the big run up action went down with more stretch than you ever want to see in a rope going on, but it worked... the energy built up in the rope and sure enough out came Jeep #1, with a very sheepish Api, some jubilent laughter and one knot thats never ever coming out of a rope. Anyway big lesson - read the signs, don't go through the mud !
Camp suddenly exploded with this plethora of tents, with some of the womens crew doing a couple of house relocations after realisation of how close they were to the producer of bad smells. , and some meetings of the welly crew, got to met Tim, Brett, April, Terezka, Merewyn, Josh.. and some other people, Mark, Jaqui, Rachel and the rest of the womens crew, Sam and Leanne and co turned up, putting faces to names was a good thing, trying to keep the names placed on the faces was something else, I'm terrible at it .. (sorry!) Quite entertaining to see some indoor climbers that you litterally never talk to then hit the outdoors and you're like 'what are you doing here ?!' this is a Very Good Thing(tm) . To be encouraged!
A few fine beverages were sunk after the days antics, checking in of the climbs, talk of whippers, and some good ole NPC talk sparked up. The welly crew were very confident at the end of the first half, with the radio still cranked loud and good ole fashioned rivalry going on, I moseyed on over to 'the' tent to check out what was going on. After a while talk of the rugby came about and then we realised, what was this, the Wellington crew had gone to bed ? no radio on ? did we win ? (but of course we did) I had to do a scouting mish and found out the good news. Of course Auckland had won. Returning to 'the' tent good times ensued... when the Tequila came out I had presence of mind to make a number 1 break that I never came back from!!! Tequila always is a one way passage ...
The next day dawned brilliant and sunny. However too brilliant and too sunny for some. There were some very rough looking characters, and some very quiet characters, and undoubtedly a lot of scorn going on towards one particular area of camp... (Luke could be heard recounting a story 'back in the day' about enough beer to almost sink a row boat). Quite thankful really about that #1 break I had to make to distance myself from them, musta been very close to a hangover but I managed to survive. My climbing buddy however was not so lucky and was trying to lame blame on me "You're my climbing partner man, you're supposed to look after me" Ha ! Do I look like Mrs Shane... incorrect..
The kettle on and the day planned out we hit the crag, Whanganui Bay fully booked up with climbers, this was to be a day of finding something to climb on, let alone something you want to climb on... up to Lobotomy buttress first up. Luke had grandiose visions of us doing the multipitch effort, my visions were a little more realistic, and someone else was just trying hard to compose his visions, Dazed and Confused (20) to the left saw of lobotomy took Luke a bit to get up, with calls from above 'Yeah fellas, it's a bit pumpy first up aye?'.. Shane just had a complete epic on it, and one 2nd clip that gave me visions of being nothing but instant pancake'. My 2nd clip wasn't much better but then got my head sorted and had a better attempt. Safetying in at the top I was lucky to have saftey'd as I just about nearly fell off when I turned round to see the view, nothing short of spectacular and wishing I'd had my camera, Simon a few routes over also commented on the view...
Lowered off, cleaned up and we went over to the new 18 or 19 thats super long on up de do da buttress, very rampy start with interesting moves. Luke launched up it with vigor and it seemed to go on forever, doh!.. why did I pick belay duty... okay 2nd up after Luke rapped off. "It's stellar, thats fantastic, thats like the best route ever, 5 and a half stars"... well thats an endorsement if ever I heard one, so I rock up.. past the 2nd bolt and I haven't been had this much anxiety in ages. I don't trust my feet (my theory being a tall bastard is that they're further away from your head, therefore it takes longer for the feeling to signals to get your head, therefore you just don't trust them) a very sketchy shuffle along the ledge with Grand Master Hawken calling out precious and much needed beta I was wishing like f*k I was wearing a helment, kapisschh.. slap that edge and hold on! I got up to the 4th or 5th bolt and called it quits, nah I'm over it, let me down.. holding onto those holds just a little too hard me thinks.
Next turn Shane, he rocks up in fine style much to his previous gestations of not wanting to move off his perch out of the sun, making mince meat of it, up the arete... and then stop.. quite literally stop.. he moved up only to be halted at the draw on the corner of the arete. Whats going on here. Some shout from above... he's half perched on the area and it looks like ? no way, his safety clipped in to the draw as he was going past. He instantly woke up, I locked down being on belay and was looking at one very huge whipper about to happen, as he couldn't (easily) down climb from where he was, couldn't see the draw as a tree was in the road so did this sterling one handed unclip the safety whilst not unclipping the rope from the draw and making it look almost easy (meanwhile I was locked down very hard waiting for the whipper)
Lunch time feed and everyone reporting back to camp, hey whats this.. half the auckland crew at camp looking very much not like having climbed. Hmmmm.... something to do with the previous night perhaps ? We rock on out of the bay for an ice cream and some ingredients for Pancakes.
Rocking back to camp we hit Wet Dreams wall with grandiose visions of doing a send from Blind Paratroopers heading left, but alas it was rather busy, saw Kevin working on the crack on pro, Anjali cruised round and we paid our dues for camp,
So nothing for it but to set the top rope up and jump straight on Silent Freeway (24). Cold fingers I have the first crack, only to be denied at the piton. Luke rocks up and sends. I see 'the move' for the top pocket to do it static, sweet. Shane jumps on and has a crack, but is denied the send. I have another shot, almost but not quite there. Next time she'll go tho. We then exchange top ropes with Josh and have a crack at the crack, Luke again rocks up without flinching. My attempt was nasty, Shanes was a bit better. Then we go back to Silent Freeway Shane just goes nuts, won't give up till he has the top move sorted. Orange gummi bears were found to be the perfect sending fuel with the move being sussed after an Orange Gummi Consumption. Nice
Back to camp and the Auckland crew are packing it in, softies. Just to prove myself that I'm not just another soft aucklander I hit the lake for a bit of a dip. I think I managed 5 mins (LOL... hardly).
Jay looks decidely half n half about leaving camp so a bit of cajoling and rubber arm twisting, and he finally breaks and decides to stay. So he rocks over to the house of mojo for a food, coffees, and talk about good times. Over ambitious talks of sending and hard routes ensue with a ticklist formed for the day ahead.
A good nights sleep later and Monday dawns, fine and sunny. Time for sending. First up was a multipitch effort up Sporting Gestures then Knobs and Knockers. Jay looks now hugely happy about his decision to stay at the Bay, him and Luke head up Knobs and Knockers whilst Shane and I are feeling not that keen and rap off. We head round the corner to find some other climbs - de-nied. Everything had ques. After a while we finally get on a climb Lord Kim Strikes Me Down (22) which Luke Leads in fine style, Shane pulls out some hard core effort on Top Rope and works the moves. Damnit have to get my shoes, I put in a bit of an effort but my fingers, wrists and body is generally going down hill at this stage.
Martyn is about and decides to work the moves on Trinity (30), the rest of us just feel somewhat barely inadequate at this stage whatching this middle aged dude crank out Really Hard Sh^t. Thats it... I'm over this. Shane works on Miracle of Fluid Dynamics (23) but has a mare. My arms were so sore just from pulling the rope through I wasn't going to do anything more.
The house of mojo is dismantled shortly there after whilst Luke was working on Repulsion (27). Finally the gear is all packed up, Shanes wagon fill to overflowing, our camp site thoroughly checked and cleaned of any rubbish and we head on out.
I was just numb afterwards on the ride to Bryces, tired, sunburt, throughly happy after the weekend. Get to the Wharepapa Toll Booth and it now has a Liquor License. Make mine a Heinekin please Wendy ! ... frikin outstanding. Other climbers rock up for the end of the weekend wrap up, a recount of some poor bastard at Wanaka splitting his head on rock suddenly gets me interested in Helmets.
A couple of hours later I get dropped home, stagger to bed and sleep like a baby till the harsh reality of the morning wakes me. Bugger.
Till the next adventures.....
[Note errors and ommissions excluded, if I can remember it all in the right sequence I'm doing well...]
Just past TA our original decision to hole up at the school went out the window as the Bay was soo close and we were psyhced for some sending. Onwards to the bay ... we hit the driveway down and Shane shifts into 4wd, he's been wanting to get some dirt onto his jeep since he got it, nows his chance !.... going down the road we're thinking - sh^t this is a bit rough. Managed to get our gear lugged in a few runs and pitched what turned out to be the Mojo Mansion. Luke and I were quite unaware as to how big this tent was....
"Holy f^ck that ain't a tent" .. we overheard someone as they walked in later on that night. Quietly the team observed a few peoples roll in under the cover of darkness, mysterious headlamps pitching tents rather awkwardly in the dark... the morning rolled around after a slightly wet night, the sound of rain set a mood of despair over the team. Luke kept his eternal optimism as went about to re-adjust the tent. Overnight the camping ground suddenly turned into a little climbing village... people everywhere!. But where was the sunshine, nothing for it but to cook some breakfast, brew a coffee, and listen to the Back in the Day stories from Grand Master Hawken.
The rain petered out, the Team were getting antsy, and Luke dlead the charge, righto boys we're off to a climb. He lead a spirited charge straight to the Main Cliff, scrunching through the pumice stones on the beach the majesty of the bay hit home. Heres the main walk, yehar.. the path once trodden a year ago suddenly seemed familiar again as we shuffled along the cliffs, looking up at an old favourite Surrogate (18) which I scared myself silly on last year I was like, yeharr.. this is going to be a good weekend!
After a quick warmup on Sunshine buttress the adrenalin eeked back into the bloodstream. Luke broke out the draws, I jumped on belay and Separation and Anxiety (21) got a little look in, a sweet little warm up climb for the Hawken and first decent send of the day. Luke then looked at me, 'um..' "nah get up there" says Luke, still in my plastic head mode I looked at the first clip... so Luke clips that for me. Feeling the nervous butterflies I jump on the rock and go up the flake, wow.. this really does sound incredibly dodge, the hollow sound echoing for it as I skipped over it, rocking up past the 2nd draw, I took, not quite able to commit to the right hand pocket, another crack and what do you know, it was dispatched!.. woohoo, well we might have to try that again.... de pumping Shane cranks it out, but takes a huge whipper off close to the top, which was rather nasty as the rope got on the back of his leg and caused a nasty burn/bruise on the back of his leg. Down he goes and I was like, well stuff it I'm going to do it clean, none of this preclipping crap, I'm outdoors now !... quietly ascending I get to the cruxy section, look at the pocket, suck it in and bam hit it !... words of encouragement echo from below as I get up to the top ... yeah baby.. sendage !.. clipping into the anchors I lower off. Yehaar!! Well stoked, ask Luke what grade it was - 21. Awesome, grin from ear to ear... on paper the hardest send outdoors for me. Shane had another crack but this wasn't to be his climb today...
Look left and say hello to Jungle Judgy (19) a technical hard slabby climb that you had to trust your feet on.. well looks like I'm stuffed then. Luke rocks up it first, makes it look like a piece of the proverbial, hmm... okay so can't be hard then if he made it look that easy. Couldn't be further from the truth - I just had a complete mozza trying to get past the 2nd bolt, but once I hit the jug I was away and lauging, around the ledge, run it out up to the anchors and saweeet.... (pity about my ugly effort at the start). Shane chucks on his shoes and rocks up it in fine style looking a huge amount better than me ! Da Slab Masta.
Luke cleans the draws off and we rock back to camp, separating at the main cliff will Luke and Greg hook up to have a crack at Grotesque (27) ... Back to camp for a well earned cup o tea and slice of cake, to find some of the Auckland crew finally rocking up and talk of a car stuck in the mud. Oh o.. .not again anyway I turn round the corner with camera in hand to be greeted by the site of one smiling (but only just) Api, one Jeep that definitely should've heeded the sign, up to the gunnels in muddy water and some dudes figureing out how to get it out. Luckily for Jeep #1 there was Jeep #2 and a previously used on bridge swing dynamic rope...
So after a couple of loops round towing hooks the big effort began, doing it static didn't work terribly well, with only four wheel spinning action, so some dynamic action (in true power style) with a few little run-ups going on, so then the big run up action went down with more stretch than you ever want to see in a rope going on, but it worked... the energy built up in the rope and sure enough out came Jeep #1, with a very sheepish Api, some jubilent laughter and one knot thats never ever coming out of a rope. Anyway big lesson - read the signs, don't go through the mud !
Camp suddenly exploded with this plethora of tents, with some of the womens crew doing a couple of house relocations after realisation of how close they were to the producer of bad smells. , and some meetings of the welly crew, got to met Tim, Brett, April, Terezka, Merewyn, Josh.. and some other people, Mark, Jaqui, Rachel and the rest of the womens crew, Sam and Leanne and co turned up, putting faces to names was a good thing, trying to keep the names placed on the faces was something else, I'm terrible at it .. (sorry!) Quite entertaining to see some indoor climbers that you litterally never talk to then hit the outdoors and you're like 'what are you doing here ?!' this is a Very Good Thing(tm) . To be encouraged!
A few fine beverages were sunk after the days antics, checking in of the climbs, talk of whippers, and some good ole NPC talk sparked up. The welly crew were very confident at the end of the first half, with the radio still cranked loud and good ole fashioned rivalry going on, I moseyed on over to 'the' tent to check out what was going on. After a while talk of the rugby came about and then we realised, what was this, the Wellington crew had gone to bed ? no radio on ? did we win ? (but of course we did) I had to do a scouting mish and found out the good news. Of course Auckland had won. Returning to 'the' tent good times ensued... when the Tequila came out I had presence of mind to make a number 1 break that I never came back from!!! Tequila always is a one way passage ...
The next day dawned brilliant and sunny. However too brilliant and too sunny for some. There were some very rough looking characters, and some very quiet characters, and undoubtedly a lot of scorn going on towards one particular area of camp... (Luke could be heard recounting a story 'back in the day' about enough beer to almost sink a row boat). Quite thankful really about that #1 break I had to make to distance myself from them, musta been very close to a hangover but I managed to survive. My climbing buddy however was not so lucky and was trying to lame blame on me "You're my climbing partner man, you're supposed to look after me" Ha ! Do I look like Mrs Shane... incorrect..
The kettle on and the day planned out we hit the crag, Whanganui Bay fully booked up with climbers, this was to be a day of finding something to climb on, let alone something you want to climb on... up to Lobotomy buttress first up. Luke had grandiose visions of us doing the multipitch effort, my visions were a little more realistic, and someone else was just trying hard to compose his visions, Dazed and Confused (20) to the left saw of lobotomy took Luke a bit to get up, with calls from above 'Yeah fellas, it's a bit pumpy first up aye?'.. Shane just had a complete epic on it, and one 2nd clip that gave me visions of being nothing but instant pancake'. My 2nd clip wasn't much better but then got my head sorted and had a better attempt. Safetying in at the top I was lucky to have saftey'd as I just about nearly fell off when I turned round to see the view, nothing short of spectacular and wishing I'd had my camera, Simon a few routes over also commented on the view...
Lowered off, cleaned up and we went over to the new 18 or 19 thats super long on up de do da buttress, very rampy start with interesting moves. Luke launched up it with vigor and it seemed to go on forever, doh!.. why did I pick belay duty... okay 2nd up after Luke rapped off. "It's stellar, thats fantastic, thats like the best route ever, 5 and a half stars"... well thats an endorsement if ever I heard one, so I rock up.. past the 2nd bolt and I haven't been had this much anxiety in ages. I don't trust my feet (my theory being a tall bastard is that they're further away from your head, therefore it takes longer for the feeling to signals to get your head, therefore you just don't trust them) a very sketchy shuffle along the ledge with Grand Master Hawken calling out precious and much needed beta I was wishing like f*k I was wearing a helment, kapisschh.. slap that edge and hold on! I got up to the 4th or 5th bolt and called it quits, nah I'm over it, let me down.. holding onto those holds just a little too hard me thinks.
Next turn Shane, he rocks up in fine style much to his previous gestations of not wanting to move off his perch out of the sun, making mince meat of it, up the arete... and then stop.. quite literally stop.. he moved up only to be halted at the draw on the corner of the arete. Whats going on here. Some shout from above... he's half perched on the area and it looks like ? no way, his safety clipped in to the draw as he was going past. He instantly woke up, I locked down being on belay and was looking at one very huge whipper about to happen, as he couldn't (easily) down climb from where he was, couldn't see the draw as a tree was in the road so did this sterling one handed unclip the safety whilst not unclipping the rope from the draw and making it look almost easy (meanwhile I was locked down very hard waiting for the whipper)
Lunch time feed and everyone reporting back to camp, hey whats this.. half the auckland crew at camp looking very much not like having climbed. Hmmmm.... something to do with the previous night perhaps ? We rock on out of the bay for an ice cream and some ingredients for Pancakes.
Rocking back to camp we hit Wet Dreams wall with grandiose visions of doing a send from Blind Paratroopers heading left, but alas it was rather busy, saw Kevin working on the crack on pro, Anjali cruised round and we paid our dues for camp,
So nothing for it but to set the top rope up and jump straight on Silent Freeway (24). Cold fingers I have the first crack, only to be denied at the piton. Luke rocks up and sends. I see 'the move' for the top pocket to do it static, sweet. Shane jumps on and has a crack, but is denied the send. I have another shot, almost but not quite there. Next time she'll go tho. We then exchange top ropes with Josh and have a crack at the crack, Luke again rocks up without flinching. My attempt was nasty, Shanes was a bit better. Then we go back to Silent Freeway Shane just goes nuts, won't give up till he has the top move sorted. Orange gummi bears were found to be the perfect sending fuel with the move being sussed after an Orange Gummi Consumption. Nice
Back to camp and the Auckland crew are packing it in, softies. Just to prove myself that I'm not just another soft aucklander I hit the lake for a bit of a dip. I think I managed 5 mins (LOL... hardly).
Jay looks decidely half n half about leaving camp so a bit of cajoling and rubber arm twisting, and he finally breaks and decides to stay. So he rocks over to the house of mojo for a food, coffees, and talk about good times. Over ambitious talks of sending and hard routes ensue with a ticklist formed for the day ahead.
A good nights sleep later and Monday dawns, fine and sunny. Time for sending. First up was a multipitch effort up Sporting Gestures then Knobs and Knockers. Jay looks now hugely happy about his decision to stay at the Bay, him and Luke head up Knobs and Knockers whilst Shane and I are feeling not that keen and rap off. We head round the corner to find some other climbs - de-nied. Everything had ques. After a while we finally get on a climb Lord Kim Strikes Me Down (22) which Luke Leads in fine style, Shane pulls out some hard core effort on Top Rope and works the moves. Damnit have to get my shoes, I put in a bit of an effort but my fingers, wrists and body is generally going down hill at this stage.
Martyn is about and decides to work the moves on Trinity (30), the rest of us just feel somewhat barely inadequate at this stage whatching this middle aged dude crank out Really Hard Sh^t. Thats it... I'm over this. Shane works on Miracle of Fluid Dynamics (23) but has a mare. My arms were so sore just from pulling the rope through I wasn't going to do anything more.
The house of mojo is dismantled shortly there after whilst Luke was working on Repulsion (27). Finally the gear is all packed up, Shanes wagon fill to overflowing, our camp site thoroughly checked and cleaned of any rubbish and we head on out.
I was just numb afterwards on the ride to Bryces, tired, sunburt, throughly happy after the weekend. Get to the Wharepapa Toll Booth and it now has a Liquor License. Make mine a Heinekin please Wendy ! ... frikin outstanding. Other climbers rock up for the end of the weekend wrap up, a recount of some poor bastard at Wanaka splitting his head on rock suddenly gets me interested in Helmets.
A couple of hours later I get dropped home, stagger to bed and sleep like a baby till the harsh reality of the morning wakes me. Bugger.
Till the next adventures.....
[Note errors and ommissions excluded, if I can remember it all in the right sequence I'm doing well...]