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Paparoas; Potential Rockclimbing Epics.

In May, this year, Harpo, Johnny, and I had a fantastic 6 perfect days in a row traversing the Paparoa tops from Buckland peaks to Mt. Faraday. The two things that struck me most were firstly the beautiful sheltered campsites in the sub-alpine scrub on the benches off the side of the main range, and secondly, the tremendous rock-climbing potential within easy walking distance of these campsites.

The rock is either granite or gniess . Both are very hard metamorphic rocks, the difference between them being that gniess still has some banding ; quartz veins and knobs which give more positive holds. The granite is medium to coarse veined, so it provides heaps of friction and wears out your boots (.. and your knuckles..). Generally it seemed that the gniessic terrain was more broken up and so would provide shorter climbs, whereas the granite was continous and would provide multiple pitch climbs (like in the Darrens).

Two spots stand out as the best places to go because of access, sheltered campsites , aspect of the slopes (sunlight) and continuity of the crags.

The best is_Mt Euclid.

Access via the logging road up the Awakiri River.

A locked gate would require a key but that should'nt prove to be a hassle when you're getting permission. Walking up the Awakiri River would take about four hours . It looked fairly open from where we looked down and this should get you easily up to the base of the granite face in the headwaters. The best campsites are higher up at the bushline beside the large tarn on the bench just south of the peak (another hour up).

From here you have access to the South Face of Mt. Euclid, and a 60 - 80 metre vertical crag just to the west as well as numerous boulders around the tarn. The real "plum" though is the huge (200 metres+) vertical south face of the granite dome at 937145.

The sunlit face of the west side that we saw looked like a mini Half-Dome. This would provide a big wall climbing experience for real. The trip would be an expedition alright, but if you got some good weather in Feb- March then it would be magic!

Mt Lavoiser

Access via Tailings creek seems to be the best way, it should provide a fairly open walk (3 hours), with a scrub bash up from the lake outlet not as bad as it looks from below. (Another half hour to the campsite.).

A good campsite exists to the north west of the peak, where the two tarns are marked on the map, although its not as sheltered as at Mt Euclid.

There is a 60 - 80 metre vertical, smooth south face which is a really awesome slab, and the north side of the peak is less steep with deeper, wider cracks in it. Numerous other routes a scattered along the south eastern aspect. All the rock here is exceptionally clean granite, and the summit of Lavoisier itself is a huge block which looks hard to scale.

Other Areas

Climbing crags exist all along the range but these are generally not as high or continuous. You can climb from Buckland Peaks hut, but you have to go well to the south side of the peak to get the best crags. All the head cirques of the creeks to the east have neat slabby sides but access from the Ohikanui would be rugged at least.

Just being in the Paparoas is pretty awesome, and even if you can't climb, you can admire the beautiful West Coast sun sets accross the endless Tasman Sea.

Mike Robertson