Gloomy Gorge!!! A canyon so impressive I vote the official name should have "!!!" in it! For years I have heard it whispered as one of New Zealand's great unexplored canyons and I always considered it with the same level of respect. A distant goal that maybe I would tackle after some brave souls made a daring first descent...I guess that view changed recently and I decided I would be at least interested in having a look at the bottom to satisfy my curiosity. With incredibly low river levels and a keen partner, we decided to scout the bottom of the gorge to try to get a feel for the level of involvement and danger involved in a descent. If we went up the bottom, we would always be able to return the way we came. If we could go a long way we could subtract that length and time from the total for the rest of the canyon, such that the risks would be less on a first descent. We also aimed to get a sense of the obstacles and how dangerous the hydraulics were with these low river levels.
Unfortunately the approach is a long 3 hours up the wide West Matukituki Valley, passing through farmland for the first half. It does not help knowing that the first 2 hours is on a 4WD track...Amazingly it was possible to keep dry feet all the way up the valley. At last Gloomy Gorge came into sight. The great chasm cuts a deep and narrow tear in the hanging valley of the Maud Francis Glacier on the flank of Mt Aspiring to reach the West Matukituki at Pearl Flat below.
After enjoying some lunch in the sun we started up the gorge, noting the significant amount of water, even at so low a flow. Before long a tributary entered and Gloomy Gorge lost about a third of its volume above. After some rock scrambling we approached a double waterfall over 20m high. The water ripped and spiraled and roostertailed down both sides, but between them it was possible to climb up the bedrock, precariously slide across a slippery slope beneath a giant boulder, and pop out through a narrow hole to find ourselves at the top of the waterfall. We continued on passing several more climbing obstacles and avoiding the hydraulics. The canyon narrowed dramatically, a few places overhead being only a foot wide. We reached a long pool and a 4m waterfall and paused to consider how to surmount this obstacle. The current would be hard to swim against. I figured out that the current pressing into the right wall could actually work to our advantage- instead of spitting us out of the pool it forced us into the rock. This meant we could push off the rock with our hands and use them to traverse sideways. Alain managed to climb a rather slippery 6m boulder, and I followed using the rope he rigged. We did our best to keep moving and stay warm in the glacial melt stream. A couple more corners and obstacles and we reached the canyon's final abseil a 17m waterfall we would not be able to climb. The canyon looked similarly narrow as far as we could see. Many large boulders chocked the canyon overhead, testament to the canyon's narrowness.
We made it up the canyon a little over 150m and 50m vertically which leaves about 650m of inescapable and committing canyon with a 300m vertical drop. To accomplish this there could be a couple large waterfalls and probably many in the 10-20m range. The canyon would be hundreds of meters deep for much of its length with any prospects for escape basically nil. We saw some unpleasant and potentially dangerous hydraulics, but we were always able to avoid them. It is hard to say whether we would have similar luck in the rest on the canyon. Needless to say our scouting trip was successful and if the rivers stay low this season, this might be the year to mount an expedition and push the canyon from its top. It is going to be one hell of a canyon.
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