Sharplin Falls Canyon, Mt Sommers, Canterbury

Our last adventure for Easter was a descent of Bowyers Stream and over Sharplin Falls. I’d done this Canyon several years ago as my second Canyon trip and remembered that it was quite exciting. Several years and dozens of canyons later, It would be interesting to see what I thought of it the second time.

It took us an hour on the track to reach the put in. I was feeling a little average that morning, so opted to leave about 15 mins before the others so I could set a slow pace. By the time we reached the river, I was feeling much better and raring to suit up and get into the Canyon.

There was a fair bit of non-descript boulder hopping before the canyon started to steepen and offer us little challenges. On my first trip here, we simply wore polypro so avoided the water as much as possible. This time, decked out in neoprene, were able to engage the water more and have a bit more fun. There were several tiny slides that were done for a little amusement rather than nesecity.

Until now, the stream was relatively steep sided, but nothing like the clean canyon we’d experienced a few days earlier. A steeper and more exposed downclimb over a shallow pool delivered us into what I’d been hanging out for; a true slot canyon.

The true slot only lasted for about 70m or so, but it was very beautiful. Emerging from the slot, there were signs of a huge old landslide on the true right. The resultant boulderfield of giant blocks was our next obstacle. A few delicate and exposed downclimbs above nasty landings had us at the first rappel.

I wasn’t surprised to see an old threaded sling anchor, but I couldn’t remember if it was our original (unlikely) or a more recent party (also supposedly unlikely). I made a new thread anchor and backed it up with the old second anchor. The rappel was an ugly one, down a low angle slab, but it did let us get the rope out..

Not far down stream, it began to slot up again. A house sized boulder blocked off most of the stream, channelling all the water through a chute on the true right. I think we must have rappelled between the house boulder and the true left wall on the first trip, but the chute on the right looked really cool and too interesting to bypass.

We rigged a contingency anchor round a large and well seated log in a jam about 10m up and back from the lip of the falls. Since it wouldn’t be too hard to upclimb back to the belay from the lip and I wanted to manage the anchor, I sent Geoff down first to investigate the drop. When he reached the lip, he peered over and seemed to ponder the fall. He turned and shouted back that he wasn’t sure about it, so I got him to return back to the anchor. I went on rappel and moved over to the lip. Sure enough the fall was chute wide and powerful enough to demand respect. I couldn’t see the surface beneath the falls, which could have easily held entrapments. Peering over a boulder wedged on the extreme true right, I saw how we could descend the pitch.

With delicate maneuvering over the boulder, you could trap the rope behind the boulder like a deviation and descend safely on the edge of the main fall. I gave the boulder a really good shove in several directions to assure its stability and then shouted instructions back to the group. “Watch exactly where I go! Scramble over this boulder, and let the rope catch in the groove. If I stuff it up, get ready to lower me!”

I took a deep breath and one last look at the munchy waterfall then began to wiggle my way over the boulder. It wasn’t as hard as I was expecting and worked perfectly to keep me out of the main flow. Satisfied with my solution, I swam off rope and signalled for Steph to come down. I held my breath as she executed the same delicate manuever. Steph pulled it off well and emerged with a huge grin from the deep pool below.

Now it was Sarah’s turn. She seemed to hesitate at the lip for quite a while and indicated that she wasn’t confident to do the move. Using a mixture of inneffective shouting and charades, I managed to get Geoff to throw us the rope bag and Sarah to clip in with her cows tail. I then positioned Steph as a meat anchor and tensioned the guide line for a guided rappel. In retrospect, I should have made sure Sarah had used a rap guide before using it for real in a canyon. She sat down near the lip and began to move over the edge, however the geometry of the rap guide was pulling her toward the true left side of the fall.

In an instant, she slipped over the edge and was pulled into line with the guide strand by the tension. Somehow, she managed to wedge her foot in a rock and was trapped horizontally with her face under the falls. My blood ran cold, but I could see that at least her face was clear of the water and she wasn’t drowning. I yelled at Steph to release the tension on the guideline and dove into the water.

I knew that I was the only person who could assist her, but didn’t know exactly what I was gong to try to do. I had ascenders, but had never performed a ground up rescue in a waterfall before. Thankfully I didn’t have to. Sarah suddently fell a few meters, only to stop short of the bottom. Again my heart rate increased. She stayed there for a second or two then fell again before appearing free in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.

I swam and tried to help her back to shore. She wasn’t panicking and the first words out of her mouth were “Make sure Geoff knows I’m Ok”

Geoff later related that he had a horrible few seconds after he saw her slip and dissapear over the lip, made worse by the sight of me diving back into the pool. As Sarah recovered in a sunny spot, we all had a sit down and a bit to eat. “First thing I knew is that I was upside down in the waterfall, with my foot trapped. I tried to pull my foot out of the boot, but the laces stuck tight. Then it my foot freed and a fell a few meters, only to get caught again. Kicking out against the rock, I fell the last few meters into the pool and swam away”

It was a hell of a fright for all of us, except perhaps Steph who remained in the meat anchor position through the whole 20 second sequence. Amazingly Sarah had not panicked and despite reporting that she was cold and exhausted, seemed mostly OK.

Obviously, the trip needed to end at the first opportunity. Downstream we bypassed with fun downclimbs several sweet falls and found ourselves a position to scramble out of the canyon one fall above the main Sharplin Falls. Remembering from our bail out on the first trip, I knew there was a sort-of track on the true left that people obviously used to get above the main falls from the tramping track.

Geoff climbed up the bank, using us as a human ladder, then set up a top belay for the rest of us. I gave a knee to climb on for Steph and Sarah before chimneying out myself.

We scrambled down to the tramping track to admire the main falls, before wandering our way back to the car and onward to Chch. Not surprisignly, Sarah decided canyoning wasn’t for her.. I’m just glad that we all escaped safely, another lucky near miss..

Given my time over, the obvious solution would have been to conduct the dry rappel on the other side of the water chute. My plans to get avoid the main flow with a deviation and a rap guide were sound for experienced canyoners, but for newbies it was pushing the boundaries of safety. I again learned the lesson not to take beginners canyoning. In future, I’ll only take one or two new people and ensure there is at least one other experienced canyoner in the group to manage the other end of the pitch...

Mt Sommers Summit Circuit, Canterbury

After a day off following our great day at Woolshed Creek , we rose early to begin another two days enjoying the Mt Sommers area. Today’s adventure was a tramp to the Summit of Mt Sommers itself and if time allowed, an alternative return via Pinnacles Hut for a neat round trip.

It was quite a warm morning and we sweated profusely up the spur toward the south face route. Climbing initially through delightful beech forest, we emerged into the subalpine scrub to enjoy clear views all over the Canterbury plains. There was barely a cloud in the sky nor a breath of wind; it was great to be alive.

As the day began to heat up a little, a thin layer of cloud formed at about the level where the track turned abruptly north and drove straight up the south face of Mt Sommers. Geoff and Steph again wanted to rush off ahead, but Sarah and I managed to keep them at bay till the summit was in sight. The track moved east to pick up a faint spur that overlooked a deep gully..

From our position on the We pondered potential canyons and investigated the ubiquitous fractured Ryholite boulders. Now following well behind the two racing snakes, I puffed my way onto the summit ridge and took in the ever widening panorama.

Us two slow pokes made it to the summit after 2:40h, (not bad for a 3-4hr track time) As we sat down to enjoy our lunch we noticed Aoraki dominating the southern skyline with its considerable bulk. Though there was little wind and full sunshine, there was a significant chill to the air that reminded us that winter was not far away.

On the Summit was a trig and a stonehenge like apparatus that helped us to identify surrounding features. As we enjoyed lunch, an elderly gentleman and his wife arrived from the north western ridge. Looking old enough to be Yoda’s mentor, I could only hope to be as fit as him at his age.

Starting off to the north west, the ground sloped away gently towards the Arrowsmiths and Mt Cook Ranges. Our route handrailed the steep north face until we found a suitably gentle slope to descend.

Here we stopped for an impromtu map and compass lesson. Both the girls had a crack at orienting the map by in spection, with a compass and had a crack at resection. Once we were all correctly geo-located, our band of 4 descended a steep and loose gully till we intercepted the Mt Sommers sub alpine walkway.

Any type of track feels like a highway after off track travel and our pace quickened as a result. Desceding towards pinnacles hut, my canyon senses tingled and had us scrambling around the incredible Ryholite formations to find a mini canyon. I climbed up above a couple of falls, but was stymied by a steeper section. It did look fun, but it also would have been nightmarish to access.

Now descending close to the rock climbing areas, we enjoyed watching a pair of climbers make their second pitch on one of the major pinnacles. A loud whoop signalled the success of the pair a short while later. Pausing briefly at Pinnacles hut, to re-fil water bottles and scarf down a muesli bar or two, I could feel the fatigue of a long day start to manifest. Only 2-3 hours to go…

The track continued its descent to Bowyers stream where it leveled to follow the watercourse. Our final obstacle was the longer-than-hoped-for up and over of the final hill between us and the carpark. After a little over 8 hours on the go, it felt good to be back.

In the carpark we had a car boot gear explosion that took up half the available space. Spreading our stuff all over, we managed to conjure a delicious meal of nachos to end our long, successful day.

Woolshed Creek Canyon

I’d heard several comments about Woolshed Creek Canyon from various friends on kiwi_canyons so was keen to check it out. A late post on the site revealed a couple of online trip reports, which only piqued my interest further.

Trip reports from
Johnathan Carr
David Hume

At 8am, Steph Bayley arrived at Geoff Walker and Sarah Pettigrew’s house, where we packed the car and dissapeared off to Mt Somers. Once we got reasonably close, the road end was well marked with bit ‘Woolshed Creek’ signs. At the substantial carpark, we weren’t that surprised to see we weren’t the only ones in the area for easter.

The track up to Woolshed Creek hut has a couple of short sharp climbs, that left me a little breathless. I was trying to keep up with Geoff and Steph, both ridiculously fit individuals. Steph kept making rude comments about my fitness, so I gave her my pack with the rope in it to try and slow her down a bit..

As we reached the high point of the track, we had great views to the west, out toward the Arrowsmith Mountains. A little further on, as the way descended towards the hut, we got our first glimpse at the Canyon. Looking very rugged and well incised, I was greatly looking forward to getting there, but first we detoured to the hut for a bite of lunch and gear sort.

Ready to go at Woolshed Ck

As we put on wetsuits, harnesses and helmets, the hut occupants regarded us with curious smiles, but didn’t really ask much about what we were up to. I gave a 5 minute ‘Canyon Rope work 101’ so everyone had a basic idea what we were up to. Geoff and Sarah had done plenty of rock climbing before and Steph been on a commercial canyon trip in Europe. Everyone grasped the basics quickly, so it was off down the stream for couple of minutes till it descended into the canyon.

I’d heard various reports as to the location of the first bolts, but scouting round the first bend in the canyon, I saw a pair high on the right hand wall.. With a hand drill and spare bolts in my anchor kit and having read a couple of the trip reports, I was more than happy to commit to the canyon.

R1 5m

As we descended the second pitch, the canyons full glory began, with immaculate water sculpted rock forming a narrow passage onward. The water levels were great. Just enough to make things fun but very safe.

R2 Photos

It was ‘on the job training’ for the others, as I talked them each through the rigging I was doing and gave them a chance where I could to do some of it themselves. There were a couple of spots where I was able to downclimb then spot my slightly less confident counterparts. Steph took to the canyon like a duck to water. Each and every chance to splash around, stand under waterfalls, jump or slide was eagerly taken. Definitely bitten by the Canyoning bug….

Fun times and down climbs

On one narrow section, we spied three bolts high on the true right wall. The drop was only a couple of meters, and we could have rapped, or downclimbed it without too much difficulty, but I thought it would be fun to practise installing a hand line to avoid the flow. I bridged high over the drop and installed the line for the others. I was able to improve the system as people came across and reaveled potential inadequacies. Great fun to practise this stuff in a nice benign canyon section.

Fun practise setting up releaseable traverse lines

I was also able to sequence the team down a few drops using a meat anchor rappel. One of the drops I was able to down climb with some assistance, but another I was able to jump.

Fantastic rock features

Arriving at the second waterfall coming in on the true left, Geoff mentioned he’d already had a little look up the stream. We all scrambled up without much difficulty to find a deep plunge pool with a fantastic looking slide above! I scouted the plunge pool carefully, but before we summed up the courage to slide, we all scrambled upstream a bit further to find a large 50m fall that was worth a sit down to appreciate.

A tiny slide into some very shallow water.. keep your feet up!

Are you sure this is a good idea?

Chucky on the sweet 5m Slide

Back at the slide, we each took turns to do the slide, which was great fun.. Sarah eventually suggested we move on because she was getting a little cold, otherwise the rest of us would have stayed to play a lot longer! Finding a sunny spot just around the corner, we paused for a well earned snack break.

Practise using an Alpine butterfly to isolate the strands,
then rigging a contingency with spare rope for the lower

There was a further rappel into a shallow pool and a little more narrows before the true slot came to an end. From here, we boulder hopped, jumped, swam and slid our way downstream. There were the occaisonal gorgey sections, but no further slot.

Geoff makes a nice 4m Jump

Steph enjoys a low angle slide

The further downstream we went, the more like a boulderfield the river became. A big DoC track maker seemed to signal an end to our boulder hopping, but deposited us back at the river after only a few hundred meters. We followed a couple of other false start tracks until we finally found a good looking one on the true right that eventually took us all the way back to the carpark.

It had been an 8 hour day and although we were tired, all were very pleased with the days adventure!

Meads Wall Climbing

I had been planning a bit of a Canyoning mission with Don Baken, but unfortunately he called in sick. Fortunately Cindy was after a belay buddy for a bit of climbing. I suggested Meads wall as a good spot and before long we’d organised the trip.

Romaric and Graham made the drive up to Whakapapa too, but since they were both climbing a fair bit harder than Cindy and I, we barely saw them through the day.

One neat thing about Meads wall is that the climbs are generally of two grades “I can” and “I can’t”. So it is a great spot to have a bit of an adventure and practise your route finding skills. Cindy and I lead several pitches each, including a short two pitch trip on the longer part of the wall. Each time we had a bit of fun scrambling our way off the top of the thin volcanic crag.

To conclude the days climbing, I lead a very blocky corner to set up a top rope climb over a harder looking bit of rock.

Back down the Bruce Rd, I paused for a bit of a Canyon Recce to a couple of waterfalls on a stream in full view of the traffic. Despite being relatively nice looking falls, they really didn’t gel nicely into a canyoning trip...