14 Year Project Finally Climbed In The Fyfe
11/12/2025
Enzo Murray has made the first ascent of Venus In Furs (33), at the Factory sector in the Fyfe River Gorge. Despite its relative accessibility compared to the rest of the Gorge (the Factory is just 30 mins from the car and so steep it is basically rainproof), the Factory is one of the lesser-visited sectors at the Fyfe. Venus In Furs was an unclimbed project for 14 years and is now likely the hardest route in Aotearoa north of Christchurch, depending on what you think about Immortal Technique.
Maybe this futuristic crag, one of the steepest in the country, has finally met a generation of climbers who can unlock its potential. It's worth noting that even Venus In Furs only goes part way up the wall, let alone into the roof above.
Michael Cartwright has updated his Mt Owen route information here: https://www.kiwitracks.com/mount-owen/
Main photo: Enzo Murray on Venus In Furs (33). Photo: Jake Townshend.
Enzo supplied this report about the climb:
After exams finished for the year and the gorge became dry enough for safe access and climbable rock, myself and Jake Townshend headed back into the Fyfe to begin the summer’s endeavours. This time however, we were not returning to the long, snaking tufas of Intergalactic Wall, or the enormous cave of the Thunderdome on the Darkside, but the lesser-travelled, tucked-away grotto of the Factory. Lying a mere thirty minutes from the carpark, it was a refreshing experience to camp outside the gorge and walk in each day to climb, a first for both of us. The Factory is host to only five lines, three of which were equipped by Derek Thatcher and Tom Hoyle and freed by Derek back in 2011; Welcome to the Machine (26), I Shot Andy Warhol (27) and The Exploding Plastic Inevitable (25). The other two lines, equipped ground-up on the same rainy weekend by James Morris and Zac Orme, had remained dormant projects for fourteen years; the ‘easier’ line dubbed 'Lexington Avenue’ and the harder version ‘Up the Guts’. I myself had never climbed at the Factory, whereas Jake had had a play on Lexington about five years ago on his first trip with Josh Cornah. A few weekends back we headed in to get back on it and started on cleaning up Lexington and figuring out the moves. The route begins on a dusty slab on some poor rock which ends at the ledge by second bolt. From here, the angle changes drastically and you climb straight up through a small boulder problem to rest on some good holds and a kneebar. After this the climbing follows a beautiful diagonal trending line across the impressive overhang on a series of small boulder problems—separated by rests. The climbing style is very gymnastic and fun with lots of big moves, drop knees and even a small dyno to the rest jug before the final boulder. I was fortunate enough to make the first ascent on that weekend and personally suggest the grade of 30/8a+. Jake 'The Technician' demolished the route on our next trip and confirmed the grade. In our opinion the route is a fantastic bit of consistent pumping on awesome holds and we highly recommend it to any sport climbing junkie (if there are any left amongst all the boulderers these days).
The attention now turned to the harder of the two projects, ‘Up the Guts’, the direct line that starts half a dozen metres to the left of Lexington and joins it for the last boulder. This line was a little bit shorter (twenty metres compared to the twenty five metres of Lexington) but more than made up for that with its difficulty. After meandering up the initial slab the climb begins with about four bolts of very consistent grade 27 climbing on underclings, pinches, slopers and crimps until a poor rest is reached before the crux. The crux begins with an awesome drop knee sequence leading into a series of increasingly poor pinches and crimps. The crux is about 13 moves and just gets harder and harder, culminating in a desperate move to a crimp just below the rest jug. A contributing factor to the boulder's difficulty was having to clip twice in the middle of it, as running it out wasn’t especially safe due to the possibility of hitting the slab quite hard if a fall was to occur. In the same fashion as Lexington, after the rest jug there is a final heartbreaker crux right before finishing in the clipping jugs at the ‘Warhol’.
After a few days of working the moves on our first trip, I managed to climb the route last Saturday (6/12/25) on the second day of the trip. I was not expecting to send it on this trip, as I initially suspected the route to be significantly harder than it turned out to be with some beta refinement from myself and a crucial kneebar in the middle of the crux courtesy of Jake 'The Technician' Townshend. In the afternoon, we walked to Intergalactic to do some work on the track and see some friends climbing up the gorge. It was especially rad to see Tom Waldin working on the ‘last big line’ on IGW, Honza's Project … Hopefully more to come from him on this front.
I decided to give the line the grade of 33/8c, this felt appropriate in comparison to other routes of that grade at Little Babylon and The Cave, but time will tell whether or not this is accurate. To keep in theme with the name of routes at the Factory I named the rig Venus in Furs after the Velvet Underground song. Jake managed to do the route in only one fall the day after, so I'm expecting a second ascent very shortly of this mega rig. A big shoutout to James and Zac for bolting these two routes and many others in the gorge such as Paradigm Shift, You Can’t Handle the Tooth and Lord Humungous. It has been quite an incredible experience in the last few years picking up the torch with Jake and others and continuing on the vision started by James, Zac, Derek and Tom over a decade ago. Also a massive shout out to Jochen Lenfert, Al Mark and Michael Cartwright for their continued developing efforts in the gorge and the wider Mount Owen Area.
