Dear Steemians,
I love the outdoors and climbing in particular. I want to share this passion with you and maybe I’m able to lure you in, who knows? Before we start with the first story of the Climbing Chronicles, let me tell you a little more about the concept.
First and foremost the Climbing Chronicles will be stories telling you about climbing experiences that I had. But they won’t stop there, because there is more to it, the climbing life style, the beautiful nature, and the people you meet.
Now I think you’re more than ready for my first story!
Castle Hill is one of the world’s most famous bouldering spots (what is bouldering?). I knew about this place before the trip to New Zealand and definitely wanted to go there under all circumstances!
So I convinced my girl friend to go there, which wasn’t actually too hard. Castle Hill is located in the middle of the South Island of New Zealand just behind Arthur’s Pass when coming from the west coast. If you drive further down the highway you would end up in Christchurch, the biggest town on the South Island.
As we had no crash pad (a mattress to land on in case of a fall), we drove down to a small village called Springfield (the people weren’t yellow there, strange!?) where you could rent them. This was the start of three perfect days!
Day One: First time bouldering in the outdoors
As I learned climbing indoors and never went bouldering outdoors before I felt like in paradise. Limestone block after block as far as the eye could see.
Overwhelmed at the mere sight we asked two Swiss and two Spanish guys where to start and as we talked we decided to venture together through the maze of boulders. We did some beautiful problems and by the afternoon we were completely wrecked!
Day Two: Side adventure into a cave
Still wrecked from the first day, we were happy to learn from somebody on the campsite that just around the corner there is a cave you can walk through.
So we got our flash lights ready and followed the directions that were given to us. It was amazing! At the entrance of the cave there was a crystal clear stream that was about knee deep. What a relief at 30°C!
Refreshed, we started to walk upstream trough the cave. The walls were polished in all kinds of crazy shapes and formed by the water running through for thousands of years. How tempting to climb on them! But one adventure at a time…
So we walked for 500 meters through the darkness with only our flash lights back in the dazzling sun light. Wow, what an experience to walk through a mountain cave formed by the force of water.
Day Three: Amazing Line
On the first day just at the entrance to the maze of boulders in Castle Hill there was one boulder with an amazing line. And before we went on with our trip I definitely had to try it.
So when I tried it for the first time, I wasn’t even able to lift from the ground, what a bummer! But together with the new Spanish friends we figured out the beta to make the first few moves up to the point you see me in the picture above.
Up there the holds were relatively good but you are far of the ground therefore it was a bit scary! So I pulled through to the last move. Unfortunately I was unable to stick the last move to finish the problem! But this is part of climbing: success is not guaranteed! Even though or exactly because of that I love climbing.
This is my first post and I hope you enjoyed it! If you want more stay tuned and especially follow the @Climbing-Trail! This is an account that I run to curate climbing content here on Steemit. To see the introductory post click here!
