Monday, October 30, 2006

Kura Täwhiti Planting Day

On November 11th there will be a planting day at Castle Hill Basin with a number of local user groups (i.e climbers and the like) attending. I would like to encourage anyone interested to attend. See the email below:

Hi there,

As you will know DOC has been undertaking some restoration planting atvarious sites within the Kura Täwhiti Conservation Area. This year we have more plants to put in place and I think it would be an ideal opportunity to get people with various interests in the reserve together.

The proposal is to co-ordinate a joint planting day on Saturday the 11th of November. The groups/organisations invited to assist are climbers, Rünanga and Ngai Tahu, Castle Hill Community and DOC.

The idea [at this stage] is to gather at the reserve entrance at 10am on the 11th. There we would present an introduction to the day, and then proceed into the reserve. We hope then to be able to provide an overview of the importance of the reserve from the Rünanga perspective and would like a representative from the climbers to do likewise.

We'll then get along to the planting area[s] and get a briefing on this programme. If we have a few people - we'll probably try and run some interp tours - so that while some are planting - others are getting a guided walk round the rocks - with a special focus on the maori values of the site.

This is all draft and if you have some suggestions for the running of the day / climber input etc - please feel free to let me know.
We'll put on a BBQ lunch - pretty simple stuff. Plan for around 4 - 5 hrs of planting and then a wind up and travel home.

I'd like your comments and an indication of interest / numbers

Look forward to catching up with you

Best wishes

Wayne Costello

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

41174 Represent!

Fed up with sending the same old V9's and V10's the 41174 crew (Dave Kopp & John Palmer) flew down for the weekend to flex their pipes on a few of flock hills classic hard lines.


Me on Condor (V7).

The weekend began by warming up at the bell bouder. We stumbled across a cool little sit start that was put up by some British guy called Pete. We spent some time on the problem before unlocking a workable sequence that allowed John and I to send the V8 (which was pretty soft actually). Next we jumped on the problem 3 meters left of Sunset Arete called Condor (V7). John, Seb and myself quickly sent it, while the Dave thought he'd just jump of the top a bunch and see how big of a crater he could put in the ground. ;-)

Then came the business end of the day - Sunset Arete (V8). This is a super classic line that involves an overhanging prow, some of the best moves you'll ever find, and lots of them. It's a problem that Dave, JP, and I had wanted to do for a along time, but due to the quantity of boulder mats needed, we'd never gotten round to it. Seb slowly dished out the beta as we all got increasingly higher. Half an hour later and...BOOM-SHACKA-LAKA! I got the tick! Quickly in toe, was Seb, Dave, and after a couple of cookie times, JP, giving us the team send on one of the best V8's in the basin.


Sebastian checking out Dave's booty on Sunset Arete (V8)

Not wasting any time JP then methodically moved on to the next climbs on his list and quickly dispatched Cartman (V8) and The Roots (V8). After pottering around on Mobeous (V8) for a while Dave and I headed up to the top of the field to meet up with the others. We then had a play on Porky (V8) which involves a campus to a throw to a runnel. JP unlocked a workable sequence on this which we used to thrash our self with for a while. Just after Seb gave us a demo I used my last layer of skin to top it out. I used to think this problem was rubbish, but now that I've finally done it...it's not so bad. ;-)

The plan on Sunday was to head out and deal to some unfinished business, but despite the warnings from some Japanese boulderers in Springfield we drove all the way to Lake Lyndon in the pouring rain before we did a prompt about turn (with the help of one handbrake) and returned to Christchurch. The only good thing about the ride out there and back is that we were privileged enough to to be entertained by JP's very impressive Mexican gansta impression of Cypress Hill for most of the trip back. Word.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Gallery

A bit of rock porn for your viewing please as kindly donated by Sebastian Lowensteijn





Lost Child

On Saturday a decent crew consisting of Pete "former teen star" Alison, Jamie "my car just blew up" Vinton-Boot, Rachael "country music rules" Williams, James "I think I'll send a V9 today" Morris, and myself headed to Quantum field for a short sharp session of sendage.

After warming up at the horseshoe boulder we promptly started on a classic circut of V6's and V7's including One Move Boulder, Brine, Gripper, Kung-fu Mojo, Growler, and Cold Turkey. Quite wrapped about the number of ticks quickly accumulated I convinced the crew to jump on The Outcast (V8). While we were playing on this we heard a non-human-like noise that could best be described as a wailing banshee. "What the f**k was that!?", I loudly exclaimed. Pete instantly starting to wet himself with laughter as he was looking right at the source of the noise which was coming from an old Chinese lady (who was just out of my sight)! She seemed to be calling out for a lost child (either that or trying to find a mate!). It was one of the weirdest noises I've ever heard come out of a human esophagus. After we re-composed ourselves a handful more attempts that were getting me increasingly closer finally lead to the send. Rad!

With even more confidence now we tried to defeat some more old foes such as Monkey and the Magic Peach (V8), Inositol (V8), and Misfit(V7) The team's confidence quickly got shattered as we all repeatedly got the backhand on all three problems.

Not to be discouraged some time was then spent on Everythings Gone Green(V10), and Pete showed us a new problem he put up to the left of it called Boson(V7) which is a jump-start/one arm pull-up to some bad slopers then topping out over the adjacent boulder.

We met up with James later who was gleaming with joy as he had just sent Snake Eyes (V9). Nice one bro!


Jamie on The Outcast(V8)