Desperate to get outdoors after a winter spent climbing at Fergs, a group of Wellington NZAC members including ShiChang “Jeans” Hou, Reece Geurson, Euan Dykes, Gwen Rashbrooke, Manoel Matos, Kevin Patterson, Rob Duerr and Steve “SBD” Minchin have been making regular trips to explore the choss of Titahi Bay. The group are mostly quite new to the sport and so have left the more difficult routes to their own devices, but have made short work of anything that looked remotely friendly. This of course excludes any routes on rock the consistency of rice crackers - a problem which has proved to be all too common and has led to several rock falls which have allowed exciting opportunities to test belayer evacuation speeds and helmet specs. The group has also been increasing the grades of several routes by removing key holds, though this is perhaps balanced by the fact that a number of routes are now significantly shorter due to the quantity of new rock deposited at their base. Recent trips have focussed on the Lava Torre wall and environs, which has proven to be one of the more interesting parts of the area with opportunities for sport climbs covering a range of grades, some highly entertaining tope roping, and trad climbing with gear so dodgy that it has prompted more than one retreat from routes my granny could have climbed. If nothing else these experiences mean that climbing on anything other than greywacke will be a breeze… Kevin has posted some photos from these trips on his facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62915&l=d5ab5&id=783826158 Steve Minchin