Last year a few members from the WTMC smashed out a weekend trip to Cloudy peak. Their goal had been the Great Prow, a 9 pitch alpine climb with varying grades up to 14. They had one day and the weather wasn’t cooperative. After waiting for cloud and mist to clear, they started at 10am and settled on the Southwest ridge as an alternative less time consuming option. They still ran out of time and had to exit by way of abseils. They came back saying they couldn’t wait to return, that there were tons of routes there. So it was, that David and I ended up at Cloudy Peak for a week over Christmas.
For some spectacular photos of this area see Peter Laurenson’s website www.occasionalclimber.co.nz.
Our plan was to fly down and spend a day walking in. Then spend 5 days climbing everything in sight. And have a day to walk out and drive to meet friends for a second week of tramping.
Our adventure didn’t go quite as planned and you’ll have to wait to read that in the annual WTMC journal. For now, I’ve decided that summarising the basics instead of all the stories of things that turned out different than we expected, would be more useful.
This is the information I wish we had…
The approach to camp
There are generally 2 options for getting in – either drive to Erewhon station and walk 4 to 5 hours crossing the Clyde river. Or drive to Mesopotamia DOC carpark and walk 6 to 8 hours crossing the Havelock. The Clyde tends to be bigger, swifter and more difficult to cross.
We chose Mesopotamia and the Havelock. It was a good but painful choice. The Clyde was running incredibly high and we would not have been able to cross. But it took 8 hours to walk in to the first sign of camping in Cloudy stream and we were a bit dehydrated from the heat and effort.
On our way out, we had barely dropped on to the 4 wheel drive track in the Havelock river valley when some friendly hunters gave us a ride on the back of their 4WD. For future reference I would recommend this as the 3rd and best option. Surely one could pay for a ride – getting an easy option across the rivers and cutting out the grueling river bash. Worth noting that the rivers were running so high, our 4WD friends nearly lost one vehicle crossing the Clyde…
Camping
There are several options for camping in Cloudy stream. We stopped in the first grassy spot owing to the fact that we had started walking at 2pm (after having problems with the hire car and a flat tyre) and arriving at 10pm to camp. This spot served us well on the bad weather day as we were somewhat sheltered from the gale northerlies, but it was not an effective choice considering the 2 hour walk to the start of the nearest climbs.
We could have camped further up. There are grassy or flat gravelly spots another 30 minutes on, still near water. There are also 2 bivvy rocks. If you watch carefully for cairns you should be able to spot them. The first is small and would best fit 2 people. The second is oddly shaped and was incredibly full of goat/chamois/deer droppings – enough to look like a long drop. So you might skip that one.
As you moved further up valley closer to the climbing the water disappeared and we found that the water would disappear and reappear depending on both rain and sun-melting-snow factors. In short, expect to walk to get water if you camp close to the climbing.
The approach to the crag
Even if you camp in the valley floor directly beneath the crag. You should still expect anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours for your approach to the climbs. From the valley floor, you head up 200-400 metres of elevation gain on scree. Some of which is easy travel, some of which is 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Approaching the Upper Walls involves negotiating a significant scramble traverse covering more than half a kilometre. It was clear that people have bivvied at the bottom of the Hourglass wall. On at least one of the days there was running water which would have made this an ideal spot to bivvy, but the water dried up after the first day.
The Climbs
A lot of information is available in climbnz.org.nz. However we also found Lindsay Main and Tim Wethey’s 2004 South Island Rock incredibly useful as well as The Canterbury Westland Alps: a climbing and transalpine guide. While all 3 sources were fairly consistent, at times each would have slightly different descriptions of the routes which was particularly helpful with route finding. In some cases they offered different photos of the areas which helped in locating climbs and descent routes. Grades sometimes varied which helped set our expectations. In particular, Main and Wethey’s book also described individual pitches of some routes that were only described with a sentence in the other sources. Those individual pitch descriptions were very useful in route finding.
The climbing itself was excellent. The rock overall was solid. In Main and Wethey’s South Island Rock book, it says:
“Protection is sometimes sparse on these climbs, though it has generally been adequate on the harder pitches to date…The grades are likely to have some inconsistencies. Some people find the area very intimidating, and the exposure and the unfamiliar rock may take some getting used to.”
We found that to be more true than we what we would normally expect at an alpine crag. While the rock was solid, gear could be sparse and often the grades felt staunch. Many of the moves were particular, specific and thoughtful even on grade 15 – it was most certainly not a jug-fest. It meant the climbing was interesting, inspiring and mentally demanding. At times we wandered significantly to try to maintain a sense of staying within the grade.
The descents
The descents proved more effortful than we expected. Descents were often described briefly as ‘traverse and descend scree’, or ‘scramble off’. We did not find the descents as straightforward as the descriptions, and it appeared we were one of many parties who found themselves in similar situations. After finishing Slip-sliding away and only the roped pitches of the southwest ridge, we explored our options and eventually opted to abseil for descent. In total, across the descents for those 2 routes, we passed 6 separate sets of abseil tat. Goes without saying, bring plenty to spare in case you landed where we did. A side note that we also explored the Little Wall and were rapidly put off by the lichen on the rock, lack of pro and vegetated/chossy options for anchors. Stick to the main walls.
The next time…
This first trip turned in to more of a reccy trip on the approach, the camping and the best way to approach the climbs. If I went back, I would push camp as far up the valley as possible. I’d take a full rest day to scout the climbs and descents. I wouldn’t bother with an extensive rack as the gear was limited enough that you would never be able to place as much gear as we carried and I’d have climbed with two ropes, to help with the meandering not to mention organising a taxi ride on a 4WD to save that river bash.