Spur Road, worth the trip?

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4 April 2010 - 4:05pm

Mongoose

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Hi all,

I've liked the look of Spur Road for ages in the guide book and the range of moderate grade climbs is very attractive. I'm a bit worried by some comments I've read here regarding it being a choss-pile so my question is, is it worth the trip from CHCH tomorrow or not? It doesn't have to be classic rock but I don't want to be placing gear worrying the rock isn't sound.

Thoughts and any other comments on the crag welcome.

Cheers.

Greg.

4 April 2010 - 9:30pm

sbaclimber

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Mongoose wrote:

Hi all,

I've liked the look of Spur Road for ages in the guide book and the range of moderate grade climbs is very attractive. I'm a bit worried by some comments I've read here regarding it being a choss-pile so my question is, is it worth the trip from CHCH tomorrow or not? It doesn't have to be classic rock but I don't want to be placing gear worrying the rock isn't sound.

Thoughts and any other comments on the crag welcome.

Cheers.

Greg.

Yes, it is worth it

Compared to many of the crags on the Port Hills, Spur Rd can hardly be called a "choss pile". It might be short and dirty, but the quality/stability of the rock is for the most part quite good.

Just think of it as Mt Horrible's scruffy little brother......

4 April 2010 - 10:20pm

sbaclimber

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PS, Shag's Sandbag is one of my all time farvourite routes down Timaru way, I highly recommend it! (it's not actually sandbagged at all)

Depending on the amount of pigeon shit (shouldn't be too bad this time of year), Two Drops is good fun too.

Here are a couple pics for scale...

Paul on Number of the Beast

and Lindsay following The 2 Of Us

5 April 2010 - 11:42am

coli_me

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hey man i prefer mt horrible but spur rd is all good just needs some traffic and then the less climbed routes would not be so dirty

Beautiful climbing is rarely on beautiful holds
PH:0272253761

5 April 2010 - 12:30pm

Mongoose

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Thanks guys! Thanks for the photos Gabe, looks even better than the guide book, now if only the weather would pick up a bit. Robert, I was thinking about Mt Horrible too but keen to go take a look at all the less travelled crags round there having only climbed at Hanging Rock before. Cheers, will let you know how it goes...

8 April 2010 - 12:52pm

coli_me

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who are you? and how do you know my name? dun dun dun!!!!

have fun it good

Beautiful climbing is rarely on beautiful holds
PH:0272253761

8 April 2010 - 6:10pm

sbaclimber

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coli_me wrote:

who are you? and how do you know my name?

http://mojozone.co.nz/user/colime-0

9 April 2010 - 10:44am

coli_me

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damn i sound retarted now i had not thought of that!!!!! freakin idiot

Beautiful climbing is rarely on beautiful holds
PH:0272253761

17 January 2011 - 3:29pm

Mongoose

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Well it's been a while since I posted this, we've been a few times now and thoroughly enjoyed it. Wish it wasn't an hour and a half drive but us Christchurch climbers are just spoiled and impatient if it's more than 15 minutes to the crag. We were down this last weekend to escape the heat and had a great time, some of the routes are a bit dirty, some quite mossy but generally it was cleaner than I expected with evidence of fairly recent traffic. The top-outs are still sketchy and scary at times :) The track up there looked like it had seen a reasonable amount of use. The descent gully at the right hand end now has a slight umm, tree issue where one of the big pines on the top is no longer on the top. If someone local feels the desire to take a chainsaw in there that'd be awesome as it's awkward getting down there now with packs and gear. Otherwise I've got a big ripsaw I'll take with me next time we go.

Still love the crag and leave with a longer list of climbs to do than when we arrive with each time so we'll be back. It looks a small crag until you wander along it and scope stuff out.

17 January 2011 - 9:56pm

sbaclimber

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Have you been out to Holmes Bay yet? Another good collection of short cracks out there too. It'll take you almost as long to drive to, but it is only half the distance.

Coffin Rock is worth a visit as well, it is also fairly short, but has some very good climbs on it (couple very nice cracks) and it is fairly close (Little River). Only drawback is the odd gorse bush that refused to die after we cleaned the routes...

18 January 2011 - 12:03pm

#10

Mongoose

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Hey Gabe, yeah we have tried Holmes Bay in our mission to visit as many forgotten esoteric crags as possible. Had a great day trying to get to grips with our first foray into jamming in cracks and keen to go back, another nice cool south facing crag. The lichen really caused issues with getting secure feet on smears, another forgotten crag that could be great with some traffic and a bit of a clean up. We met the landowner's son out there who was very friendly and happy for climbers to be there, if a little surprised as he hadn't seen anyone out there for a while.

Coffin Rock I've not been to but had been talking to Astrid about maybe heading out onto the peninsula to Coffin and maybe Peraki. I don't think anything has happened out there since you left sadly so maybe someone else needs to pick up the development. It's another matter as to whether anyone would bother to make the trek out there to climb the stuff though.

Hope you're still stuffing bits of knotted ropes into cracks up north and enjoying the beer.

Cheers.

18 January 2011 - 9:03pm

#11

sbaclimber

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Oh, good.

Another "esoteric" crag(s) worth visiting are Fantasy Factory and Crystal Clearlight.

Lindsay, Joe & co. were very busy at Coffin after I left, and have pretty much tapped it out. Sounds like they put up some more good (albeit mostly short) climbs. You're right about Peraki though. I am not sure if anyone was even out there to climb at all last summer. I have been pestering Rowan to get back out there and check The Unholy Grail though. There is a good chance that the start of the 3rd pitch might well be "missing" since the earthquake.

I am having to take a few months off from climbing this winter , but up until 2 weeks ago, we had too much snow to climb ouside anyway. Between work, study and new baby, I don't really have enough time to sleep, nevermind climb. The semester will be over in 4 weeks though, and I will be able to get back into the gym (and outside, if the weather plays along) to hopefully get back in shape for spring.

21 January 2011 - 1:12pm

#12

Mongoose

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sbaclimber wrote:

Between work, study and new baby,

Congratulations! From Astrid also.

21 January 2011 - 9:30pm

#13

sbaclimber

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thanks

19 January 2011 - 2:30pm

#14

Mongoose

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we did hack our way into Crystal Clearlight last year or possibly year before, really heavily overgrown and clear that nobody had been there for some time. Did a few routes and enjoyed them but the crag really needs some heavy gardening both on the ground and on the routes. Always a vicious circle though, nobody uses it so is it worth cleaning up/if it isn't cleaned up nobody will use it

Will take a look at Coffin, still gaining confidence with the trad though so easier grades are necessary still but we'll get there.

Shame you're having to take a break but it can sometimes be a good thing, renew the enthusiasm etc. Cheers.

Spur Road, worth the trip?

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