Edited by Riley Smith (Wildlab, 2025)
Although it’s subtitled ‘An introduction to rock climbing in Ōtepoti Dunedin’, Southern Faces is more than a climbing guidebook.
As you would expect, it is packed with helpful technical information covering the cliffs, boulders and pinnacles of greater Ōtepoti – grading, number of bolts, approximate route and rappel lengths, the name of the first ascensionist, as well as safety notes. This kind of work is overdue. As editor Riley Smith points out, it’s been more than two decades since the region has been the focus of a new climbing guide.
But Southern Faces also delves into geology, ecology and history. Riley looks into the extinct Dunedin shield volcano, and of the three eruptive phases that formed the area’s coastal crags. There are sections on the vegetation that grows in the region, and how best to protect it. Then there’s the region’s marine life. “Ever see whales, dolphins, sea lions or penguins while climbing?” he asks. You will in Ōtepoti. Take that Yosemite! (This is all handily complemented by short glossaries. Did you know that a “mega annum” is a period of one million years? I didn’t.)
The books also teases out some fascinating histories. A popular spot for learners, Hoover Heights, also known as the ‘Port Chalmers Quarry’, was once “the site of a bragging competition between traveling seamen” who used ropes to clamber as high as they could on the walls and write their names.
Riley created the book over two years while studying Communication Design at Te Kura Matatini ki Otago. His passion for both climbing – his dad bought him his first harness for his ninth birthday – and the Dunedin region, is palpable, and it’s worth a browse even if cracks and crags aren’t your thing. Plus, any climbing guide is a good time thanks to the lively art of route naming, which I’m convinced is a legitimate poetic practice. Ōtepoti does not disappoint, with routes referencing historical events (The Manhattan Project is adjacent to The Trinity Test), difficulty (Instrument of Torture) and straight up puerility (Gump’s Buttock, the site of Y Fronts and G-String).Southern Faces is stocked by the New Zealand Alpine Clubs, local climbing gym, Bivouac, and available through the Wildlab Shopify. – LW
We need your help
READ MORE
