Climbing: Waipapa

I picked up a New Zealand climbing magazine for the bus ride down and I was immediately captivated by a picture of a guy climbing a finger crack running up the middle of a beautiful looking dihedral set in some sort of rainforest. The caption said it was called Millenium Madness, it was rated 18 - which I had no idea how it related to the US grading system - and it was at a place called Waipapa. I had no idea where this place was but entertained the idea of Waipapa being close to Wherepapa simply because they sounded similar. Not that it mattered, it's a traditional climb and I didn't bring my gear for that style of climbing. Still, I daydreamed.

The first morning after arriving at camp Bryce and Sean come and tell me to grab my harness, we're going climbing. I was too excited to ask where, not that it mattered. It was only after sitting in the car for a bit that I realized we can't be headed to one of the crags in walking distance. No, Bryce doesn't care for those places so much, he informs me, we're going to a place with a bit more interesting climbing: Waipapa.

I was happy enough just to be able to use Bryce's gear to lead the climb, so I try not to be dissappointed that I couldn't get a shot of me climbing it from this perspective:



The usual butt-shot angle of climbing photos. Me on Millenium Madness (5.10a traditional):



A couple shots of Sean following a fantastic route called The Arch (5.10a-ish sport). Starts in a dihedral with nothing put a finger-tips crack and glass smooth rock for your feet, but they have similar ethics to places like Joshua Tree - the first 15 feet don't count for the rating.



Doug deep in the forest following Time Passages (5.10b traditional)



We came back a week and a half later and I ticked off Finger of Fate (old school 5.8 Off-width and Chimney) for my 100th route in New Zealand. Me getting Started on the OW section:



And my final climb in New Zealand - at least in the North Island - a wandering fingercrack with an overhanging finish; Don't Get Even, Get Mad (5.10c traditional):


This blogging program really isn't the most user friendly, they make putting a lot of pictures in quite difficult actually. I'll put all the pictures up in my Picasa account:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rkelly0137