El Topo Wall

About 15m before you reach the left end of the El Topo wall, this route connects of a set of increasingly less vegetated buttresses with some surprisingly tricky climbing.

After surmounting the obvious bouldery start, head left up the vague groove toward the obvious high arete. Climb the left side of the arete with some difficulty before pulling right onto the final slab and headwall.

Start as for Transmission. At half height, before the arete on Transmission, pull right into dihedral and enjoy thoughtful and challenging moves to anchor. Take some long draws.

Climb the obvious dihedral feature from the start on immaculate rock and virtually no holds. Join and finish up Radio Gutsaland.

Hot! Head up the red wall following the shiny ring bolts to the corner/groove thingy. Climb this with some difficulty then drift left to the anchor.

Climb the low angle arête to a ledge. Some all-too-brief thuggery on the wall above will get you to the anchor, which used to be higher up before the holds fell off.

The corner to groove feature, with a magnificent tree fern at the bottom. It used to have two bolts and a fixed RP, now it has four shiny bolts. Oddly it still feels a bit spicy.

You are now in the presence of greatness! This route was one of the first 28s around these parts and remains one of the very best routes in New Zealand. Head straight up the sheer face from the ramp, climbing the beautiful pocket sequence and ignoring the run-outs.

The face right of El Topo, starting up the vague seam. Less-recognised than its famous neighbour, and slightly easier, though with less bolts. Still a wonderful route. Although not used on the first ascent, there are some gear placements on final slab after the last bolt if you don’t fancy the death-fall potential.

Another tricky run-out route from Roland. Start up the slab to the right of Repulsion then onto the arête. Above the third bolt you can either push on to a mossy oblivion or sneak right to the Nothing’s Shocking anchor. Choose life!

Climb the slab and wall right of Sex and Violence on small pockets. Try to avoid climbing left onto Roland’s route.

Tackles the dihedral to the right. Tricky stemming leads to a finger crack which you can fill with cams if you want to.

Climb the wall to pillar feature right of A Savage Journey. Fingery moves down low ease as the anchors approach.

Start up the vague corner on beautiful pink rock then tackle the bulge on cranky two finger pockets. Originally climbed by Mike Rockell, finishing further left up the hanging nose feature at grade 23. Straightened out (with permission) by John Palmer, 2016.

Up the bulging face with a distinct crux. First climbed by Australian Kim Carrigan, who was a pretty big deal at the time. No doubt he wanted to see what the fuss was about with Roland’s routes nearby.

Climb the corner past two well-spaced bolts to gain the arete and short wall. Needs cleaning.