Cloudy Pk is the highest point on the Cloudy Peak Range and is host to some excellent alpine rock climbing.
As Cloudy Stream and Cloudy Peak are accessed via private land owned by Erewhon Station, permission for access must be obtained from Colin and Erin Drummond (phone 03 303 9739) and details left in the intentions book at Erewhon homestead.
It’s 6–7 hrs walk from Erewhon Station to the bivvy in Cloudy Stream. However, 4WD access is possible right up to the base of Cloudy Stream. From there it's 2–3 hrs to the base of the Hourglass Wall.
The best access to the valley is to head straight up the spur on the immediate true left of Cloudy Stream. Once the valley opens up, look for a track marked with white tape (2016). It goes through open scrub initially, staying fairly low in the valley rather than going high, before picking its way through the thick stuff to finish on scree.
There are a couple of bivvy sites in the Cloudy Stream valley at about the 1140m contour and also directly below the Hourglass Wall. Running stream water can be found between rocks a few minutes down valley even in the driest of summer months.
It's advisable to check the flow gauge for Rangitata River at Klondyke Corner on the Environment Canterbury webpage before heading off. Flows below 100 cumecs are generally okay.
Places
Type | Name |
---|---|
Sector | Upper Walls |
Face | Hourglass & Centre Walls |
Crag | Lower valley crags |
Sector | Consolation Crag |
Routes
Reference | Title | Grade | Length | Pro | Quality | Operations |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NR | North Ridge | 1+ | ||||
GR | Golly Rodger | 20 | 395m | |||
TG | The Groke | 17,4- | ||||
SWR | South West Ridge | 15,3 | 150m | |||
East Flank | 1+ | |||||
South East Ridge | 1+ | |||||
SL | Silver Lining | 23 | 105m | |||
The Whole Nine Yards, upper section | 18 | 345m | 8 |
Water buckets are now in place, one at the lower rock biv and one at the site near the bottom of hourglass wall - thanks to whoever put them in!
Thanks to Steve Fortune and Jack Grinstead, there is an access track that was marked with pink tape and cut on 26/2/2017 starting at the base of the slopes on the true left of Cloudy Stream. It ascends the obvious spur closest to the true left side of Cloudy Stream and leads to the scree fields at the end of the scrub. Travel up the spur is easy and open all the way to the scree fields. Access to the base of the hourglass wall from Erehwon Station is quite straightforward and makes Cloudy Peak an awesome weekend climbing destination!
Check the Rangitata River flow gauge for an indication of what the Clyde River level is (http://ecan.govt.nz/services/online-services/monitoring/river-flows/Pag…).
This comment from a climbing party, Feb 2012: We climbed Cloudy Peak's Great Prow over Waitangi Weekend,which proved a popular route as we were one of 3 parties. We have now cut a new track through the heavy scrub down low in the access valley. The track is well defined with white tape, climbers should keep a lookout for this after they reach to top of the initial hill / ridge which grants access to the valley.Track goes through open scrub initially, staying low(ish) in the valley rather than going high. Then it picks through the thick stuff to finish on scree.