Monday, December 10, 2007

More South Wye/ MERRY CHRISTMAS

We got a couple more routes done further Left (centrefold 20,22 and Lambs to the slaughter 18,16,23,18) and this time one of them goes all the way to the top!
Guillame came along too so we had a very international team ( Tony is a Pom, and G man is French)
That looks like our last trip up there for a while though as we are off to Sunny Nelson and Golden Bay for a holiday over Christmas...Yay!

I wish all our loved friends and family a safe and happy Christmas

Monday, November 26, 2007

South Wye





We have been busy developing a new climbing area in Queenstown with our friend Tony. it is about 2 hrs walk up hill to the rock wall which is 200m high. so far we have walked along the half way ledge and abseiled down place bolts to climb back up. we have done 2 new routes.
One is called Big day out and is 4 pitches long the difficulty grades are 20,21,16,18. the hard bits are short. The other one is called 2 steps ahead of the pack and is 2 pitches long. grade 20,24 this is consistently hard.
The cliff is huge so there are a lot more climbs to do as well as the top half above what we have done so it should keep us buy for many weekends to come. we have made a rock bivvy there so have somewhere nice and sheltered to sleep. We will probably camp up there for the first time next weekend.
On a personal note my brother John is going to have his first baby( well actually Steph is) and I am super excited about becoming an aunty. Love you too Holly and Patrick.

Photos
1) our bivvy cave
2) Sally climbing at South Wye
3) Tony Burnell
4) Aaron

Sunday, November 4, 2007

We had a lovely weekend up in Canterbury




Aaron flew up after work on Friday night and we went to Curators for a nice meal.
The following morning we Wandered around the shops and had brunch in Christchurch city.
That after noon we meet Simon out at Castle Hill for some bouldering( thanks for the photo's Simon)
We got tired out on the first 3 boulders we got to!
A night in Methven then of to Hanging rock near Pleasant point ( great icecream shop). Hanging rockkhas beautiful views and is a really nice place to visit. The climbing was quite hard though! maybe because the holds are very open compared to our local rock.
All in all a fantastic weekend

Photo's
1) Aaron at castle hill
2) Sally at Castle hill
3) Aaron at Hanging rock on Mad gesture 19?

Thursday, September 27, 2007

A few Random Photo's of the two of us




Photo's
1)On our wedding Day in Front of Lake Hayes, Queenstown The ceremony was at the lake edge beneath the trees.
2) sally and Aaron at Adelaide Saddle, Darren Mountains, Milford at sunset on Honeymoon
3) I think this is at the Summit of Moirs mate , Darrens, Milford at christmas
here you go Wendy
thanks for your comments

Tuesday, September 11, 2007






This weekend we awoke at 5.30 am for a days Ice climbing. Sally had come down with an awful cold so stayed in bed for thr day while Aaron had all the fun. He went back to the Wye valley and climbed the mixed climb he bolted last week and his friends Dave an Rupert (in the photo) had a go too. They are calling the grade M7.

Luckily Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and I recovered enough to take Chief for his first time up the mountain. He tried snowboarding and has great balance. He dosn't turn much and I was kept busy trying to keep up with him. By the end of the day he could ride the chairlift with out any help.
While we were up there Aaron went up the south branch of Wye creek and did some track cutting, and checked out some cliffs

Monday I was still sick and Aaron had a work Heli ski day..how cool is that?
7 runs he was windswept and exhausted but very happy when he returned

Monday, September 3, 2007

Oops it's been a month!




well Simon has been nagging me to update this so here goes..
we got 60cm of new snow three weeks ago and finally all the off piste terrain opened up

Oops it's been a month!

well Simon has been nagging me to update this so here goes..
we got 60cm of new snow three weeks ago and finally all the off piste terrain opened up. It was awesome!! we hiked the toilet bowl and shutes untill we could barely stand.
I went hiking with Isaac my buddy up tobins track and he came night Skiing with Aaron and I on the friday. we worked on jumps and drop offs and all had an excellent time.
Then I went up north working for a couple of weeks.
While I was up there I made good use of the time and got to catch up with my family and Aarons. Emily and Regan met me in the Waikato for some climbing at Wharepapa. The company was great.I was hoping to try and Climb Dionysis 24 but I got spanked on a 20( and almost an 18! so gave that idea up.
back home now and have had visitors every day..Hello dan, paul and Greg.
We got a helicopter ride into the wye valley ice and bolted a new mixed route..I think we might call it Nut cracker since Aaron had an unfortunate incident where he tipped upside down when he fell off and the rope got him you know where. we managed to get the heavy gear back inthe chopper and walked out down the Valley (4 hours!) the ice has got warm and has big cracks so that will be the last of the ice climbing for the season. it snowed overnight though so hopefully we will get a little more snowboarding before summer is fully here.

Friday, August 3, 2007

Aaron goes really really fast

Last night (Friday) we went up Coronet for our first night ski of the season. Aaron had fun going really fast, and Sally did some cool jumps. After we went to town and had ferg burger down by the lake.....Ahh, so romantic.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Indoor climbing 28/07/07


The weather was a bit iffy so we went to the Basecamp gym in Wanaka for a climb yesterday. After our friends we were climbing with came over to watch some movies.

Friday, July 27, 2007

20/07/07 ice climbing




Last weekend Aaron and Sally went ice climbing with our friend Rupert at Wye creek, Remarkables. It is about 2 hours walk in so we left nice and early.The 1st photo is looking back down over the ski field at sunrise from the ridge.
We climbed a climb called Fear of flying first. Rupert lead and at the beginning the icewas very bumpy and hard to get Ice screws into so I think He probably did experience some fear of flying! ( photo2) I am Belaying him in my brand new down jacket that Aaron bought me a week before. that climb was 2 rope lengths/pitches long and we had a lot of fun.
Next aaron tried a mixed climb( mixed rock and Ice) called Hot water(picture 3). He did it first try (onsight). It was really hard though and ever since he has been trying to get back rubs, since he strained so hard.