The Story Of Nero (33)
Mischa van Barneveld has made the first ascent of a long-standing project on Wye Creek's Hidden Wall. Originally bolted in 2006/2007 by Aaron Ford, Aaron left the route to somebody else after a key hold broke at the crux. As we've seen in recent years, this type of thing doesn't seem to hold back the best climbers of today!
Mischa named the route Nero, with a tentative grade of 33. He was generous enough to send us in the report below about his process on the route.
***
I first tried Nero at the start of 2025. It was a warm day, and though the first third felt doable, the middle left me totally stumped. It probably didn’t help I was trying it in the sun, but regardless I lost interest for the time being. I had however also tried King’s Collection, a 31 by Daniel Krippner, so that was a project to return to Wye Creek for. With this route in mind, Oskar Wolff and I went on a day trip from Dunedin to Wye Creek in December 2025. Oskar had mentioned that he wanted to get back on the project at Hidden Wall after having figured out most of the beta earlier in the year. He said I should try it, but I was skeptical—thinking it would be too hard, and my mind was on King’s anyway.
When we got there it turned out I didn’t quite have the power endurance necessary to finish that one off, so I thought why not try and see how much too hard the Hidden Wall project would be. Surprisingly enough, Oskar's beta wasn’t shit, I shouldn’t have doubted it, and we did all but the crux move on the bottom two thirds of the route. I was psyched!
On our way home to Dunedin, we stopped in Gore for some fuel and a kebab. While walking back to the car we got into a little competition to see who could jump the highest, by jumping and tapping a sign hanging above a radio station. All of the sudden we hear from across the street: 'OI, WHAT DO YOUS THINK YOU'RE DOING TO MY SIGN?!' A man walks towards us holding back this giant, 75kg dog, that’s pulling at his chain to try and get to us. We quickly start apologizing, both not too keen on the idea of getting in a street brawl in Gore. After letting us sweat and grovel for a few seconds, the man said with a smile, 'I’m just kidding, I own the radio station. This is my dog Nero, he’s friendly!' And he was, trying to drool all over us. Back in the car we decided that it would be a good name for when the project would go.
Two weeks later, I went back to Wye Creek with Alex this time, once again mainly to try King’s Collection, but now with the secondary objective of working out the top third of the project and to stick the crux move. King’s still didn’t go, but I fell two moves from the end twice. On the project, however, I made good progress. I worked out the top, and finally stuck the crux left hand bump. Now I was really psyched! I needed to come back soon to try again.
The next week I went back with Rohan and Sean and after a warm up I finally ended up sending King’s on my first try of the day, a good start. Next up was the project. The route breaks down as follows, in my opinion: climb four draws of 24 into a good rest. Then do a V11 boulder that revolves around a tiny right hand crimp, off which you bump to a good hold. Place a weird kneebar to clip. Then three more hardish moves, around V6, get you to the break. An awkward mantle follows, that gets you to a no hands rest. From there you stretch to two crimps and dyno at the finish jug. The mantle and top are around V5.
I started giving it goes from the ground, just to see how it would feel, and my first go went about as good as I thought it would, I fell at the crux feeling hopeless. The conditions felt terrible and the holds felt soapy. I told Sean that unless a breeze came on I would probably leave it for the day. But that’s exactly what happened, a breeze came on, and I tried again.
The holds felt better, I power screamed a little louder, and suddenly I was through the crux. Nervously, I rested before the dyno at the end, then I eyed it up and jumped. And the project was done!
On the grade: I haven’t climbed a 33 before, let alone first ascented one, so I’m not 100 percent sure on the grade. However I do think it is harder than Homage 32, which is on the next wall over, so 33 seems like the logical grade to give.
Nero, formerly the Hidden Wall project, was bolted by Aaron Ford in the summer of ‘06/’07. He told me it used to have a nice angled right hand sidepull/undercling in the crux, but he unfortunately broke that off. He then decided to leave it for someone stronger to climb at some point. I’m very thankful to him that he did, and put in the effort of bolting the line. I enjoyed it immensely!
All photos by Sean Firman