nic and toms excellent adventure: Ravages of Time

Hello all, just thought we would continue to make you all jealous with more stories and stunning pics of what we have been upto!

Lets start with Ravages of Time a beautiful climb that is well over 200m high. Unfortunatly Tom decided not to join on me on this adventure as he hates early starts and trad climbing (trad meaning - placing your own protection as you climb) so i had to climb it with a german guy called 'Simon'.

It was a 6am wake up and a good 1hr and a half walk in to the base of the climb the climb was split up in 8 pitches so me and Simon took in turns to lead each pitch and well what can i say but a truly stunning line that took us all over this huge cliff face. In some places it felt real airy and exposed and yes in some places i was a bit scared but it was amazing to be up there and to share it with a good friend was all part of the experience. It was graded at a 20 (6a - 6a+). In total it took us 10 1/2 hrs to get to the top and absail back down to the floor, the situation got real interesting as i decided to leave my head torch at the base of the climb and as we were coming down in picth black darkness it made life a little interesting to say the least.

Once we reached the ground we still had to walk out, all we had to do was follow the orange tags tied to the trees but to make it harder we decided to lose the orange tags and get tottally lost in the forest in the dark. Feeling disorientated we honestly did not know which way to turn so instead of walking in circles all night we decided to bivy out in the forest under a boulder. We lit a fire to keep warm, we had one slice of bread each and one carrot each for dinner and a few nuts and not much water it was one of the longest nights of my life we got no sleep!!!! An emeregency survival blanket was in my rucksack so that helped us keep warm and lots of cigarettes to keep the boredom at bay. When first light came we tried to find the track again and to our amazement it was only 20m to the left of where we camped for the night, typical!! We walked out as quick as we could and cooked up a huge breakfast when we got back to the van. In total we were up for 42 hours i dont think i will forget that one in a hurry!

Me and Tom have done penty of climbing here in Wanaka and feel that we have only scratched the surface. The other day we met some of the old school local boys who had been climbing here for over 20 years and got taken to this real cool location which was right beside a waterfall called 'Wishbone Falls' Again another stunning location i honestly believe that if you are not a climber you are really missing out on natures true beauty. This place held a certain magic to it and it will remain very close to my heart , climbing right next to a waterfall is almost sacred!!

I think our time is at an end in Wanaka we are heading down south (its gonna get real cold) but we are kidnapping some friends to join us 'Monz' a swedish viking and a german chick who we met up north but i dont know how to spell her name so we are well looking forward to it. More laughs and adventures await us so as usual we will fill you as we go. Take care all nic and tom....

Views of Wanaka on a crystal clear day.