First descended in 2013, news of the exploration rippled around the world, gaining attention from the likes of RedBull, and quite literally put New Zealand on the world-class canyons map. It was by far the hardest canyon in New Zealand at the time, and still retains a fearsome reputation – only three known descents so far, all by expert teams fortunate enough to find uncommonly low water seasons for their journey.
Header image by Neil Silverwood.
Early explorations
Wanaka local and french ex-pat Alain Rohr was the first to put time into seriously scouting Gloomy, with explorations from below and above in 2012. A highly-experienced canyoning guide, he’d been in the region for a while, and was responsible for many first descents, including the classics of Haast and Fiordland, as well as many more obscure and challenging canyons.
The French Aotearoa Expedition 2013 spent weeks in the Aspiring region, exploring a number of very small-catchment creeks. But when Alain had a chat to them about Gloomy, they immediately switched gears and began a siege-style assault on the Gorge.
Between 26 Feb and 2 March, they rappelled in from the rim, sometimes up to 200m up, to place the anchors and scout the obstacles in the canyon. Bit by bit, they explored each section, but by then, time had run out. They’d been everywhere in the gorge but hadn’t done a pure canyon-style through trip. Their blog post is a great record of the first look a human has ever had in this place.
1st Canyoning descent
With the lowest water levels for decades, freshly placed anchors and first-hand beta, Alain Rohr assembled a team including Annette Phillips, Nic Barth and Neil Silverwood, for the first canyoning descent.
Read Nic’s blog about his experience – the date of this first through trip was 9-10 March 2013, which started early in the day, but continued until the following morning…
This NZ Geographic article in the Sep-Oct 2013 issue interviews the team
2nd Canyoning descent
The next known descent was 11-15 March 2018, by a Japanese/Taiwanese team: Ryōji Ōnishi, Sou Aikawa, Jasmine Li and Akira Tanaka.
Ryōji and Jasmine came to scout Gloomy in 2015, before assembling their team for the descent. Experts in multi-day Shaawanobori (‘River tracing’) and canyoning in the huge gorges of Taiwan, this team planned two nights in the gorge, but ended up spending three.
Their blog article is as close to a picture topo as exists today.
3rd Canyoning Descent
The third and most recent descent was another multi-year project. Andrew Humphreys came to NZ on two separate visits, only to be shut out by too-high water levels.
Only two days after completing the first full descent of the now world-famous Whirling Water v6a6IV***, the team saw a weather window and hustled back to the Matukituki valley in late March 2024.
The team of Andrew Humphreys, Leo Ganache, Leo Tregret, Reto Bubendorf encountered the lowest levels yet observed in Gloomy – and didn’t hesitate to get in.
Planning a multi-day trip, they did the approach and set up camp below the first waterfall, ready to start early the next day. Passing their proposed 2nd bivvy before midday, they continued on, and completed the full descent in only 9.5 hours of canyoning.
Check out some of the video on Andy’s Insta..
And if you’re a member of KiwiCanyons.org Facebook, check out their post.
