Rock-climbing meets orienteering at Castle Hill today in the first event of “an entirely new sport” in New Zealand – and the world.

The inaugural “bouldergaine” event was organised by the New Zealand Alpine Club (NZAC) and is described as “a hybrid of rogaining and bouldering”.

The “extreme new pursuit” combines rock climbing on boulders to a safe height without the need for ropes and harnesses with an endurance form of orienteering, involving locating electronic checkpoints in cross-country terrain.

NZAC programme manager Sefton Priestley said participants would work in teams of two to locate checkpoints spread over 4 square kilometres. The competitors, about 180 people, would score points with an electronic tag at each one they reach, which was “the rogaining aspect”.

They had three hours to score as many points as possible.

“At each checkpoint there are also bonus point clickers that can be reached by climbing to the top of a boulder – that is the bouldering aspect.”

Priestley said the new sport combined rock climbing and orienteering “in a way that no one has tried before. It will be interesting to see what tactics people use”.

“If all goes well we will look at a series of at least three events in 2015. There is already interest from overseas so maybe this will be the start of a worldwide phenomenon,” he said.

Source
www.stuff.co.nz
15 March 2014