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...