Castle Hill Bouldering

A couple of FAs

2007-08-13T11:39:00.000+12:00

James, Derek and Gomez went to Dry Valley on Sunday. The weather was perfect and Dry Valley always offers a different type of experience to the other fields. The day started well with Gomez encountering one of his spirit-creatures which inspired him for the rest of the day. A new dyno to do was then located and Gomez channeled his spirit-creature to produce Hawkwind. A wild ride and not too

Sending Blizzard

2007-08-04T18:05:00.000+12:00

Braving the rain and snow, Derek 'The Dispatcher' Thatcher and James 'Space Cowboy' Morris had a good but brief day at Flock today. Derek did Superman second go(commenting that V11 seemed like a dubious grade). They both did a 'proper' sit start to New Dawn Fades. James did the sit to Captain Contact V9 in awesome dynamic style. To finish Derek sent a big line he brushed last weekend on the

New V11 at Flock Hill

2007-08-04T12:46:00.000+12:00

Pete the Radness has sent the famed project Sharma's Prow,which now belongs to Pete and is called Interstellar Overdrive and is fat at V11. Good job Pete! In case you were all wondering, yes, he did campus it.In other news James Morris managed a stylish repeat of a recent Pete problem Lost for Words V9. James didn't like the mono so much so he moved off the sloper... well you would wouldn't you?

Signing Out

2007-07-03T07:11:00.000+12:00

Some of you may have noticed that updates on this blog have come to a screaming halt. This is not because I have become even more slack than usual, but becuase I no longer reside in New Zealand. I have chosen to undertake a wee climbing trip around the world and will be stopping off in places such as Thailand, UK, Switzerland, France, and Spain.If anyone is keen to take over the administraion

Flock Hill Guide

2007-03-17T17:35:00.000+13:00

The locations of these boulders are VERY ROUGH and ment only as a starting point for you to look for the problems. At some stage I hope to provide a map with slightly better descriptions, but for the moment please bear with me... ClimbGradeRatingLocationSupermanV11up and left of the trifecta boulder ClimbGradeRatingLocation Apollo 10V10upper bell-boulder

Preliminary NBS Results

2007-03-06T15:08:00.001+13:00

While Jamie chills for a couple of days to recover from the madhouse of events that was the National Bouldering Series 2007, I thought I'd post a few of the results from the final round. Disclaimer: These results are by no means complete and may not even be totally accurate. They are composed from a vague memory that was partially distorted from drinking beer and not really paying attention at

Spittle Hill NBS Comp, Now with 20% more boulders!

2007-02-20T11:09:00.000+13:00

...or it would be if Jamie could cram in all the problems he wanted to. Orignally Jamie came up with a list of 170, but wittled this down to a total of 150 quality problems for your climbing pleasure.The competition starts at 10am, finishes at 3pm, and has categories for all ranges of abilities. As there isn't too much shade at the hill don't forget your sunscreen and plenty of water!There are

Foreign Foto's

2006-11-22T17:43:00.000+13:00

I've just been tipped off by one Simon 'Cragrat' Middlemass about a photo gallery that Cooper Roberts has compiled on www.climbing.com after his trip here last year. There are 32 photo's mostly featuring Bati, Randy (I think) and a few other dudes. Not too many of the photo's are particularly stellar, but it's worth a look none the less. You can check it out here. A Climber on Achilles Last

Flock Hill is a No Go

2006-11-01T17:01:00.000+13:00

Flock Hill is now closed until the December 25th for lambing as stated by the land owner Mark Fraundorfer. So don't go up there or else!For more info please refer to my previous post.

Kura Täwhiti Planting Day

2006-10-30T09:48:00.000+13:00

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

41174 Represent!

2006-10-17T22:00:00.000+13:00

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

Gallery

2006-10-10T13:14:00.000+13:00

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

Lost Child

2006-10-10T11:47:00.000+13:00

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,

Dry Valley Guide

2006-09-18T20:05:00.000+12:00

Work in progress... ClimbGradeRatingLocationRad Overhanging Prow V9top of field ClimbGradeRatingLocationCosmic EnergyV8top of fieldSingular Objective V8top of field ClimbGradeRatingLocationDub V7top of field ClimbGradeRatingLocationunnamed V6adjacent to Singular ObjectiveVisionV6lower-right of field ClimbGradeRatingLocationLepton Monkey V5mid-right of field

Weekend Wickedness

2006-09-18T18:12:00.000+12:00

Hard bouldering was all on this weekend and Flock Hill was where it was at. We were privileged to be joined by Wellington strong man John Palmer for a weekend of wickedness.After warming up on a Split Apple circuit kindly provided by Sebastian, JP convinced us all to cruise down to Dry Valley to visit some old friends. After about an hour of grunting, swearing, and bad falls, we were about to

Wuthering Heights Development

2006-09-13T16:05:00.000+12:00

After most people had already thrashed themselves on Saturday there was an agreeance on Sunday that it was high time we headed back up to Wuthering Heights. If you're sick of getting spanked on the same old problems, or are looking for some first ascents, then this is the place to be.Pete showing us all his defying gravity on a new sit start called Levitation (V6)After warming up we chucking our

Wuthering Heights Guide

2006-09-11T19:07:00.000+12:00

Work in progress...ClimbGradeRatingDescriptionBrutusV9Powerful undercling to slopersClimbGradeRatingDescriptionJohnny MoV8Powerful prowClimbGradeRatingDescriptionBloodlustV7CrimpsOrigamiV7Smeary slabPete's KneebarV71 + 1 = ?The White LineV7Slap-foo your way up the areteClimbGradeRatingDescriptionSmall FryV6Pull on to slopers

Ancient Arts Arete

2006-09-06T13:23:00.000+12:00

Derek on Ancient Arts Arete (V11) at Wuthering Heights.Not too much news to report from the weekend. Most people were still licking thier wounds from the bouldering/dyno comp at the Roxx the night before. For more info take a look at Stu's report on the nights action.After a late start Sebastian, Jase and I headed up to the Split Apple field at Flock Hill. After warming up on a few classics we

Rain, hail, and shine

2006-08-28T15:00:00.000+12:00

It was raining most of the way out to the hill on Saturday. A lot of the time it can pour down for the entire journey from Christchurch yet clear up a few minutes before arrival. However, this was not to be the case.We sat in the car for an hour waiting for the rain to clear. I was almost ready to bail, but Sebastian was determined to wait it out as it was the only day he could climb. We

Flock Hill Access

2006-08-17T18:28:00.000+12:00

Flock Hill is the biggest and arguably the best field in the basin. Because of this we must take extra special care to ensure this resource is not taken away from us. Flock hill is NOT public land and climbing there is a privilege, not a right. The land is owned by Mark Fraundorfer and Lloyd Ferguson who have kindly allowed climbers to use Flock Hill as long as we follow a few simple rules.

Castle Hill ticklist

2006-08-16T21:36:00.000+12:00

Thanks to Derek, I've got an inital ticklist to hand out. I'm hoping to get descriptions on the location of these problems and maybe even pictures to put together an even more informative and complete ticklist for all the fields. So stay tuned...In the mean time you can quench your thirst by checking out the initial ticklist.Jason Whitaker on Psychic Tealady(V8)

Bachelor of Castle Hill

2006-08-16T21:32:00.000+12:00

STEP RIGHT UP, STEP RIGHT UP, and start on the path to getting the most prestigious qualification in the country - the Bachelor of Castle Hill.The BCH is comprised of four parts, each containing harder climbs than the prevous:Prerequisites (compulsary)MajorsHonoursMasters (thesis required)You can download the course from here.David Kopp topping out the warm up arete at Flock Hill.

Welcome

2006-08-04T10:12:00.000+12:00

Welcome to Castle Hill Bouldering!This site is intended to spread the good news of The Hill. This includes (but is not limited to) Quantum Field, Spittle Hill, Flock Hill, and Dry Valley. Ideally, I would like to get input from keen local's who have been putting up new problems, finding hidden gems that may have been forgotten, or have simply had a sick sending spree.If you are keen to