Matthew and Cassie's Big Climbing Trip.: Castle Hill Update

We've been climbing at Castle Hill for 3 weeks now and might finally be starting to get the hang of this smeary limestone thing. We've also been meeting up with friends we made earlier on the trip and making some new ones which has been a lot of fun! Castle Hill is a popular destination, so we've been meeting a lot of other climbers which has been great, but it's also big enough that it always feels quite quiet and peaceful.

Shaun sticking it on Thrust v6

Ben reaching with everything on Outcast v8

Luke holding the swing on The Air Below v6

Shaun and Lauren who we met in Australia came out for a couple weeks. We had a great time hanging out with them and their kids and getting to know some other friends of theirs, Luke, Brett, and Joseph, who they met out here last year. As an added bonus, they were staying in a house in Castle Hill Village (between the campsite and the boulders) and they've all let us take advantage of some of their house conveniences. Thanks for all the showers!! Everyone we were with has had very successful trips with many projects going down so it has been incredibly fun to spend the day watching others climb and send.

Annie and Jake

Matt and Shaun climb really well together so they both were able to get some great climbs done. They both have different styles and come up with beta for each other. Matt has climbed a few of his projects. He was most excited about a v8 at Flock Hill called Mobius. He stumbled upon this problem the first day we went up and tried it each time. Flock Hill is privately owned and closes for lambing season on the 1st of November. We went up on the last day of the season with Matt getting over a cold he'd had for a few days, so he didn't have very high expectations. We had a great day showing a bunch of other traveling climbers we'd met around the area and some of the climbs we liked. At the end of the day, Matt and Ben (a really strong Kiwi climber we met here) who was also really sick at the time, tried Mobius with some important new beta. After a few tries, both of them climbed it in great style. It was Ben's last day of a month long trip at Castle Hill (ending a full year trip of buldering) and Matt's last chance at that climb, so was a great way to end the season! Matt has also gotten a bunch of other problems finished such as Thrust v6, Tuppi Master v6, One move Boulder v6, and The Remedy v6. Cassie has gotten Supernatural v5 and Snatch v5. She's been sick for almost a week and is finally feeling better so more is sure to go down soon.

Mobius - The Sequence

Bumping to the left hand sloping mono

hitting the sloping mono

matching on the slopers using a heel-toe cam

bumping the left hand back under the roof to allow the heeltoe cam to come out and control the swing

controlling the swing

trying to match

campusing to the sloper

campusing to the jug

hitting the jug, now just throw a heel up and mantle

We have a couple more weeks of climbing, then plan to travel around the south island for a bit. The weather quickly changed from snow storms every few days to really hot, so we're trying to find things in the shade and have taken to lazing about in the afternoons waiting for things to cool off. Both of us have a number of projects we'd like to get done before we leave, so hopefully we'll have a bit of luck and good conditions.