I had a great couple of days hiking and climbing in the Darrans with my friend Tim. The Darrans, in Fiordland, are sort of NZ’s version of Yosemite, with big walls and great rock. It is very much a wild, alpine environment however, with long approaches, snow fields and glaciers, dense vegetation, and unpredictable weather.

On the first day we went for an adventurous hike on a classic loop from Homer Hut, heading up Talbot’s Ladder, across to Traverse Pass, and down to Gertrude Saddle, then back out to the hut. The second day saw us baking in the sun on a multi-pitch sport climb at Shotwell Slabs. It’s supposedly fully bolted, although you should expect the odd 10 metre run-out between bolts! The same goes for the Chasm, a sport climbing crag near Milford Sound which we visited the next day; we decided to bail on a ‘sport’ climb due to an unreasonably long runout about half way up. Next time I’ll take a few cams with me…