We were feeling lethargic — a little ill, perhaps, or maybe just beat from working an impossible climb the day before — so we all decided to have a rest day in and around Milford Sound. Here’s a picture of that impossible climb. It’s a ridiculous 5.12c that’s got a bolt every three feet until a 15′ runout to the chains — with the crux being the last move. Goofy. Since you can’t actually work the move without taking a 20- to 30-footer, we used a dead tree to stick clip the anchor to be on toprope. Oh yeah, did I mention that the route is the crag’s warm up?! There’s another 5.12 — a 5.12d — but you have to climb a 5.13c to get to it. At least the area’s picturesque. It’s called Babylon, and you climb on the side of a cliff covered with waterfalls.
Anyway, the sound was only accessible by boat or foot (via the Milford Track) until the 1950s or so, when the Homer Tunnel was blasted through a kilometer of granite. Perhaps the goofiest postcard I’ve ever seen was a picture of the inside of the tunnel lit by a car headlight — and it doesn’t look like much of a tunnel, either. More of a mine shaft. The roadway inside is half dirt and all potholes, and there’s a continual seepage of water through the top. Kinda sketchy, actually, but at least it heads into one of the most gorgeous sections of the country.
We cruised through the tunnel to this place called The Chasm, and some of us took a dip in the aqua water of the swimming hole there, and afterwards we headed into the sound to take some nice post-storm images of Mitre Peak. While we were out in the tidal zone, we spied a really cool hawk that was trying to pluck a dead bird out of the water for lunch, so we started snapping away. I think the bird got a little paranoid that we were going to steal its lunch, so it actually charged me. Check out this series from my friend Greg.
I was trying to focus on the bird and it just wasn’t working, so then I put my camera down and looked up and the bird was hovering in front of me an arm’s length away. I backed up a few steps and almost fell over, and then the bird charged Greg.
Here are some of my favorite shots from that day…
