Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Castle Hill Ice Cream- Moon Goes Bouldering
Recently Ryan Moon, a 26 year old bay area climber and 5 year Touchstone employee, traveled to Castle Hill on the central northern portion of the south island of New Zealand. Moon traveled with Eric Vergne, another Touchstone employee, for the entire month of May. The pair climbed on the slabby and glassy rock of Castle Hills.
In the first two weeks, the pair climbed four or five days. The weather was crushing and it rained frequently. Ryan spent all his time non-climbing time blimping out on the country’s amazing ice cream. “Come for the climbing, stay for the ice cream,” Moon wrote on his blog.
“The birthplace of our love for the infamous Tip Top ice cream is right here in Darfield. One should be prepared before ordering ice cream on a cone in New Zealand. A single scoop in the states is just that, a single scoop. A single scoop in New Zealand is a grapefruit sized ball of bliss that even my sweet tooth can barely handle. There was one experience where the woman serving the ice cream crushed my cone into oblivion attempting to place the gigantic frozen sugar sphere onto what would normally be a structurally sound cone. Alas, she had to rescoop.”
Eric crushing a boulder problem
When the weather cleared, Moon and Vergne managed to shake off the extra ice cream and meat pie weight and head to the crags. “The climbing was very 'anti-Ryan Moon'. It was slabby, buldgy, slopey, glossy, and everything else i can't climb,” Moon said. “Tons of mantles. Not an easy topout in the country.”
Moon's video of the trip
Moon said that some of the other highlights of the trip included sick nasty padslides, dance parties, shortbread cookies called 'melting moments', amazing climbing, runnel climbing, mingling with peeps from other countries, beautiful scenery, annoying kiwis with jokes about lord of the rings, locking friends in the bathrooms that have locks on the outside for some reason, sheep jokes.
Ryan climbing a V2 runnel
Moon is back behind the desk at Berkeley Ironworks, where he can’t stop talking about going back and how he’s “stuck” in Berkeley. If you see him, tell him he needs to call the Wahmubulance.
In the first two weeks, the pair climbed four or five days. The weather was crushing and it rained frequently. Ryan spent all his time non-climbing time blimping out on the country’s amazing ice cream. “Come for the climbing, stay for the ice cream,” Moon wrote on his blog.
“The birthplace of our love for the infamous Tip Top ice cream is right here in Darfield. One should be prepared before ordering ice cream on a cone in New Zealand. A single scoop in the states is just that, a single scoop. A single scoop in New Zealand is a grapefruit sized ball of bliss that even my sweet tooth can barely handle. There was one experience where the woman serving the ice cream crushed my cone into oblivion attempting to place the gigantic frozen sugar sphere onto what would normally be a structurally sound cone. Alas, she had to rescoop.”
Eric crushing a boulder problem
When the weather cleared, Moon and Vergne managed to shake off the extra ice cream and meat pie weight and head to the crags. “The climbing was very 'anti-Ryan Moon'. It was slabby, buldgy, slopey, glossy, and everything else i can't climb,” Moon said. “Tons of mantles. Not an easy topout in the country.”
New Zealand Mega Adventure 2011 from Old Man Moon on Vimeo.
Moon's video of the trip
Moon said that some of the other highlights of the trip included sick nasty padslides, dance parties, shortbread cookies called 'melting moments', amazing climbing, runnel climbing, mingling with peeps from other countries, beautiful scenery, annoying kiwis with jokes about lord of the rings, locking friends in the bathrooms that have locks on the outside for some reason, sheep jokes.
Ryan climbing a V2 runnel
Moon is back behind the desk at Berkeley Ironworks, where he can’t stop talking about going back and how he’s “stuck” in Berkeley. If you see him, tell him he needs to call the Wahmubulance.
Labels: Bouldering, Castle Hill, Ryan Moon
¶ Tuesday, June 14, 2011
