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Panama Rock

Type
Altitude
560m
Part of

Introduction<br

Panama Rock, also known as Kellers Peak, is a large accessible crag in the north-east part of Banks Peninsula. The total area of rock is substantial, but the owners prefer that climbing is restricted to the bolted area on the south-east facing Main Wall.

The crag is on land owned by the Josef Langer Charitable Trust. See https://www.jlct.org.nz/ for the trust website. Josef Langer was a philanthropist who gifted money to the trust for conservation and educational purposes. The Trust is happy for climbers to climb freely at the crag, but their priority is conservation rather than recreation. Therefore great care must be taken to protect native biodiversity, particularly Banks Peninsula endemic plants which grow on the cliffs, and especially the rare gentian. This small herbaceous plant with pretty white flowers can be found clinging to the cliff adjacent to some of the climbs.

More detail on the native vegetation of the reserve can be found in the attached brochure.

The crag is a one of a number of large trachyte extrusion domes found on the eastern half of Banks Peninsula, which erupted as part of the Akaroa Volcanic Sequence, about 8-9 million years ago, resulting in a coarse-grained, solid, and compact rock that is a joy to climb on. A striking feature is the radial feeder dyke from the Akaroa Volcano, which supplied the magma to the extrusion dome before itself solidifying and forming a solid rock wall stretching from Panama Road up the slope to the crag.

Climbing
The crag has the typical compact featureless nature of a trachyte dome, with very few cracks or natural protection placements. The original routes were developed before the widespread use of bolts for protection, and involved bold run-outs between widely-separated small diameter bolts or sparsely placed natural protection. Some routes have been retrobolted to provide a “nursery” area for beginner lead climbers, especially educational groups, to learn lead climbing on bolts. These are short climbs with closely-spaced bolts and double bolt anchors.

The Josef Langer Charitable Trust is concerned that developing additional routes will result in native vegetation being cleared from the crag, and has therefore banned the development of new routes.

History
Climbing on the crag started in 1980, with a couple of poorly protected trad routes. In 1990 Joe Arts and Lindsay Main brought drills to the crag, enabling routes such as The Redemptionists and Centurion to be climbed. However the real development occurred when Doog Menzies established the well-bolted routes with the intention of setting up a training area.

Orientation
Via Fedel is the left-most of the obvious routes on the Main Wall, with The Redemptionists further left again. The Milk Snatcher is the long route starting in a vegetated groove, and Caesar’s Slab is on the prow to the right.

Image
Walktime
10 mins
Aspect
South East
Access

The crag is on a private conservation reserve owned by the Josef Langer Trust. The Trust is sympathetic to climbing and hopes to see the reserve used for educational as well as recreational uses. The trust requires climbers to confirm access with the NZAC representative in advance of a visit.

Currently the NZAC representative is Francis Streisel, who can be emailed at: fstreisel (at) posteo.de, or texted at 022 035 3669. Bear in mind that the NZAC representatives are outdoor people who spend part of their time out of communication range, and cannot always be contacted. The onus is on climbers to contact the NZAC rep before visiting the crag.

From the Akaroa Summit Road, turn off a kilometre east of the Okains Bay turnoff along Camerons Track. After about 3 km, turn right on to Lavericks Ridge Road, and after 2 km drive past Panama Road junction. Do not turn on to Panama Road - it is very steep and only suitable for 4WD vehicles. Continue along Lavericks Ridge Road for another 800 metres. Park by a gate with the NZAC notice at the saddle overlooking Le Bons Bay. There is a walking track to the crag (on the east side of the summit), marked by two fencing stakes with orange markers. The white stakes go to the summit.

Add Place Add Route

Routes

Reference Title Grade Length Pro Quality Operations
TR The Redemptionists 21 45m 8
0
VF Via Fidel 16 15m 6
1.02
UH Uncle Helen 13 10m 4
0
MS The Milk Snatcher 18 22m 8
0
To Play The King 17 10m 3
0
Caesar's Slab 14 12m 5
2.01
C Centurion 18 40m 11
2.01
Decurion 15 12m 4
0
Journey to Ixtlan 17 40m 4
0
Original Route 15 28m
0
Mind the Totara 17 20m
0
A Addendum 16 20m 3
0
Comments
Lindsay Main

Note change of NZAC representative, and native vegetation brochure attached.

Wed, 16/03/2022 - 22:04 Permalink
Files
Name
Information on Panama Rock native vegetation
UUID
 
3313acbe-effb-40de-98ce-325748823b45