Adventure Magazine

"Climbing for me started on
benign top-ropes on basalt
columns at Auckland's Mt
Eden Quarry (currently
closed), then graduated to
easy trad routes that were
not much more than severe
hiking. When I eventually
started sport-climbing on
bolt-protected rock faces,
it was about trying to free
climb something within my
known ability. Staying well
within my limits."
The lightning bolt corner on a climb called The Power Of
Lard, in the Bugaboos, is one of the most striking features I’d
ever seen, a beautiful scar on a steep, clean face. Ever since
I ventured into the alpine, I’d been in awe of such features,
regardless of the difficulty of the climbing. But to get to this
corner, you first had to overcome climbing up to grade 25.
I’d never even considered trying a climb that hard in the
mountains. Climbing for me started on benign top-ropes
on basalt columns at Auckland's Mt Eden Quarry (currently
closed), then graduated to easy trad routes that were not
much more than severe hiking. When I eventually started
sport-climbing on bolt-protected rock faces, it was about trying
to free climb something within my known ability. Staying well
within my limits.
But all that changed when I met Anna Smith, a Canuck who
I had briefly crossed paths with in Paynes Ford, Golden Bay,
in 2007, and who met me in the States on a whim for a two
and a half month-long road trip in 2015. Every crag we hit
up, Anna immediately suggested the boldest, baddest, most
blockbuster line.
“Let’s hit Astroman,” the classic and hard multipitch climb in
Yosemite, she said within minutes of us entering the iconic
Californian valley. I hadn’t climbed for two months and
Astroman would’ve beaten, disemboweled, and defeated me.
It was bold enough for me to be on the regular north-west
route of Half Dome on my third day, despite my complete
absence of experience with aiding, hauling, or overnighting on
a wall.
“You wanna do Cloud Tower? Rainbow Wall?” These were
classic hard routes in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada. And within
days of arriving in Zion, we were on Moonlight Buttress, the
surreally aesthetic crack line we had no business being on,
with six consecutive pitches of hard crack climbing.
And it’s not that she was the fastest, strongest, fittest climber
to grace the planet. She wasn’t after the send. She was after
the most bad-ass experience she could have, without unduly
endangering her life.
8//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#240
Above: Hayden Muller and Julian Goad on the upper pitches of
Uprising (24), a 19-pitch climb on Charismatic Wall in Fiordland
We weren’t strong enough to free Moonlight Buttress, but
it’s an easy aid climb, so we knew we could get to the top by
pulling on gear if we had to. When we topped out after an
exhausting 14 hours on the wall – having fallen countless
times – we were beaming. What an experience, on one of
the most unforgettable lines ever to grace a wall of rock.
Anna had another strong influence when she asked
me what my most memorable climbs were. After much
deliberation, they all turned out to be long multi-pitch climbs.
Being high up and moving fast, with so many elements
against you, was a more enriching experience for me. I was
far more envious of strong, alpine adventurers, pushing up
an intimidating wall in a sublime location, than mega-strong
boulderers or sport climbers.
After my US road trip with Anna, I found myself chancing
my luck on harder multi-pitch routes in northern Fiordland. I
didn't climb them without falling on the thin, chalk-less faces,
but that didn't mean they weren't valuable and rewarding
experiences – high above the line of tourist cars bound for
Milford Sound, the evening sun on our faces, pushing limits
in a gorgeously vertiginous landscape.
—
Perfect week-long sunshine and blue skies accompanied
my first time in the Bugaboos, and we spent everyday on a
classic line, bagging a peak. The place was breath-taking.
Every night at the campsite, I could see the east face of
Snowpatch and the lightning corner of Power Of Lard.
On my next trip to the Bugaboos I wanted to try harder lines,
and met Yuki – a diminutive girl barely breaching five feet
tall – in the campsite. She lived in Squamish, and had an
impressive list of hard crack climbs under her belt. Our first
climb together was Sunshine Crack: a classic 10-pitch route
of moderate difficulty that includes off-width, delicate hand
traverses, a roof-crack, and a sensationally exposed final
fist-crack. (It has since fallen down due to rockfall.)
On the walk back to the campsite, I pointed out the lightning
corner on Power of Lard. There were two pitches graded
24/25 before the corner, and we could each try one. The
final pitch was harder than that, but we could work that out if
The East Face of Bugaboo Spire. The lightning bolt corner of The Power of Lard
(25/26) can be seen towards the bottom right, near a red portaledge.