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  6. Pukekaikiore Lower Tier Left

Pukekaikiore Lower Tier Left

(8 routes)

Clean slabs and appealing cracklines beckon amidst the vegetation.
To descend, scramble down vegetated banks at the east (upvalley) end of the cliff.

Altitude: 
1300m
Type: 
Wall
Aspect: 
North
Walk time: 
30 min
Reference Title Grade Length Quality Bolts Gone Natural pro Link to edit content
1 Baby Elephant 17 40m
0
 wire representing trad
An awkward-looking, left-sloping crack and corner at the left end of the lower tier. It’s just left of the large slabby buttress with a horizontal break at half height.
Rick McGregor, 16 December 1978
2 White Elephant 20 40m
0
 wire representing trad
Start at a large groove that divides the slabby buttress, and climb up left to a ledge below a peapod crack. Climb the peapod (crux) and continue up the crack.
Stu Allan (top-rope); first free ascent: Rick McGregor, Penny Brothers, Peter Newton, Roger Garrett, Len Gillman, 9 December 1978
3 Glubetroil 16 40m
0
 wire representing trad
As for White Elephant to the ledge. Next, move right and up on to a spike to gain a ledge above and right (crux). Carry on up and just right of the rib to easy ground.
Noel Sissons, OPC students, 1973
4 Hanging Garden Chimney 12 ,12 50m
0
 wire representing trad
The vegetated chimney system a short distance right of the Elephant climbs.
#EwbankAlpine (Technical)Alpine (Commitment)Alpine (Mt Cook)AidWater IceMixedBoulder (Hueco)LengthBoltsTrad
11225mYes
 

Climb steep vegetation to gain the chimney, which is climbed to a chockstone and a mud ledge belay.
21225mYes
 

Climb on to a ledge from the chockstone, and proceed up steep vegetation to easy ground.
Graeme Roxburgh, October 1977
5 Vegetated Crack 16 35m
0
 wire representing trad
Committing moves on steep vegetation. Follow the crack up the wall to the right of Hanging Garden Chimney. Move left to a ledge below the bulging headwall and walk off.
Rick McGregor 16 May 1974, or Merv English and Ian Brookes, some time in 1974
6 The Alliance 22 35m
0
 1bolts wire representing trad
Not in honour of dehy dinners, but the army that invaded Iraq, and quickly left again, in 1991. Takes the slanting seam across the prominent red wall. Start up Under A Blood red Sky until a traverse left can be made to ledges under the slanting seam. Climb the seam, with small wires and one bolt for protection, to reach the ledge. Belay at the ledge’s left end.
Grant Davidson, Peter Kettering, 22 January 1991
7 Under A Blood Red Sky 19 ,21 37m
1.02
 wire representing trad
A varied and exciting climb up the crack system on the right of the red wall.
#EwbankAlpine (Technical)Alpine (Commitment)Alpine (Mt Cook)AidWater IceMixedBoulder (Hueco)LengthBoltsTrad
11925mYes
 

Hand and fist cracks are climbed to a belay ledge beneath the final crack through the bulging headwall. A retreat was made from here just on nightfall on the first attempt (by Grant Davidson, Graham Charles, 12 January 1988).
22112mYes
 

Climb on to the block, then take a hand and finger crack towards the gaping fissure. Fear not: climb this off-width crack using flakes on the inside of the crack and on the face.
Jamie Holding, Peter Kettering, Grant Davidson, 13 January 1991
8 Wham Bam Thanks Saddam 20 40m
0
 3bolts wire representing trad
Commemorating the first Gulf War . . . Tackles the black wall just right of Under A Blood Red Sky. Begin at the base of a blocky white buttress: climb the bottom arête delicately past a bolt (crux) to a large ledge. From here, climb the black wall past two more bolts, and traverse up and right to reach thin cracks. At the top of these, move up and right to a ‘root and bolt belay’ as the original guide has it. Walk off.
Grant Davidson, Peter Kettering, 19 January 1991

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UUID: 
4c05964a-35dc-4eac-9c94-d490ce002034