New Zealand - Wye Creek

January 19, 2007

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When we went to lunch with Noah and Tegan in TeAnau, we saw a couple who were obviously climbers (Prana pants, Mad Rock water bottle and amazing back/arm muscles). So we struck up a conversation with them and they gave us lots of beta on climbing in New Zealand. They suggested that we stop off at Wye Creek, just outside of Queenstown, to do a few climbs. So Sarah went over to their house and picked up some guidebooks and we headed to Wye Creek the next day.

We got there a bit late since we drove 2 hours in the wrong direction that morning, but we still managed to get in a couple climbs. It was late in the day and hot as blazes so we stopped at the first crag we got to. I looked in the book and saw that there was a 15, a 16 and a couple of 18s (all really easy climbs) so we pulled out the rope and I led up the 15. This being my first climb in New Zealand, I was very excited and quite interested to get to know the rock and the rating system. As I made my way up, I was really struggling and it took me several minutes to gather enough courage to pull the roof move. I kept telling myself that this was only a 15 (5.6) and that I was either going soft or their rating system rivaled JTree and Yosemite for sandbagging.

So, much to my relief, I made it to the top and when I got back down, I promptly looked at the guidebook to see why it was so difficult. Upon further inspection, I found that the climb was 15 meters long, not 15 difficulty level. Turns out it was a 20 (5.10c) difficulty level and that, my friends, is why it was so difficult. In my defense, I am an American and we don't know the metric system ;-)

There weren't any easy climbs at this crag and daylight was fast disappearing, so we strung up a TR on the 21 (5.10d) next to the first climb. This one had a crazy cool roof move down at the bottom. It was super pumpy but so, so fun. We ended our day on that note and promptly hauled ourselves to Queenstown for pasta and wine.

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