Scary descents, hairy attempts and still nuthin sent.

I came to the Blue Mountains with one goal in mind Tsunami a mountains test piece that I had tried on four rainy days last December before heading south. Things started out pleasant and slow; Ash, Ollie and I enjoying scrambled eggs and Bondi coffee to go, before leaving Sydney.

 We hit up shops in Katoomba so Ash could buy her first pair of rock shoes and I took the time to say hi to colleagues from the Australia School of Mountaineering. An hour later we were at Hugh and Nikki’s house in Blackheath, slurping down more coffees and packing rucsacs.

It didn’t take much convincing of Hugh that Wave Wall was the spot to be (Wave Wall is home to Tsunami of course.) we went there and Ollie and Ash shot off to Piddo and Ash did her first lead on Hocus Pocus. Hugh and I warmed up on Jaws and tried Rubber Lover we also met locals Matt and Christine surprisingly the only others at a popular crag for rainy days on a weekend. Bolt to bolting up to the crux of Tsunami happened pretty smoothly, giving me confidence the crux however wasn’t any easier to when I left it last! I tried the move A LOT but didn’t quite stick it, though I left it feeling with the practise and some rest I would do it. In the end pulling through but climbing to the top again without too much concern. It was good, I came down and after a short rest tried again… it wasn’t good! I was pretty smashed so a quick warm-down and Hugh and I shot it. A fun day cragging followed by a great dinner with a crew of locals to meet made day one winner.

Scrambled eggs again for breakfast! A solid night’s sleep on a healthy serve of red wine and sun shining skies meant day two was on track for some good climbing. Hugh was keen to go check out a new line he had bolted on the huge Carne Wall, it was a steep short piece below the hanging belay from a 40m pitch he had already established called Kingdom Animalia. It had been tried by Hugh and some friends and hadn’t gone yet, moves were probable somewhere around 26-27. Hugh wanted one try and if he didn’t send then he would let me loose on it. PYSCHED!

Abseiling over the lip of Carne wall was frightening, asserting intimidation like ones first abseil. A seemingly endless void below security from 9.8mm of woven nylon threads, some 40m later I clipped into the comfort of a double bolt belay. This semi hanging stance rest on the lip of steep rock horizontally splitting large sections of cliff, nestled below is a comfortable ledge then around 150m of sandstone wall to the Grose valley below. Hugh rappelled with drill kit on hand and placed two more bolts to finish the lower pitch, jugging, swinging, hanging, workin hard is what it took but not too much time, practise showing in Hugh’s approach despite been away from rock for 4 months. A fixed line was in place from our current anchor to the next we rebelayed our abseil line into the current anchor, clipped in short to the fixed line and rapped off, the fixed line acting as a zip line and pulling us into the belay.

It started raining

Hugh got amped up for a burn, the top bolts were still drying but he could try to that point and then lower back. The terrain is steep enough that you remain dry shielded from the slabby water runnels above, wind and exposure remain full value. Hugh climbed out three bolts, then decided he wasn’t having fun and came back. My go.

It started lightening

Departing the dry, comfy ledge seemed a little silly but I did anyway. Moving left around a blunt arête onto a steep headwall instantly changing your bottom peripheral from nice sandy ledge to empty space and minute bush. I held on tight, focused on breathing, moving my feet the safety of my two ropes and ignoring the increasing thunder storm. It felt out there, I was in every sense of the word terrified. The line drew me to a dyno, hesitation to commit to the situation meant I got tired finally I threw and finger tips slid off target hold and I fell, a sense of comfort and normality as the rope took up slowly stopping me and my harness pulling tight coming to rest in space. Rain dripping out behind me, massive cliffs and ringbolts! This is all happening 300m from the car! As gear did its thing, so did head space and climbing without fear began, the intensity of the elements and the situation been natural inspiration.

The dyno move held me off and I pulled off a quickdraw to gain the next hold, traversing good holds further left to the next bolt. Taking on the rope I rested hanging on the bolt, finally pulling on ready for the next section of climbing I reefed hard on the jug rail and then was falling, strange, because it felt I was still holding on. After letting go while falling I realised I had pulled a big chunk of rock out, dangled on my rope and stared as the rock drifted towards the valley floor half expecting a cartoon dust cloud to shoot up on impact. ‘Nice work Toby, yeah just get rid of the shit stuff, needs a clean up’ hah yeah thanks Hugh! I continued my climbing, resting to the lip of the slab and the traverse back right to the belay. Now things up here were wet, and I started getting wet. This sucked but I got to the belay and lowered back down to the ledge and its protected position, time for banter, resting and food. Without resting long enough but getting cold, I started gearing up for a red point shot, then the sun came out perfect I delayed my departure for 15mins and soaked up the rays.

Way more comfortable with the situation I climbed to the crux dyno move, hucked in and went for it slapping the hold, tearing off, taking a nice fall and cutting my finger. I lowered back to the belay and taped up, it was a big vertical slice up my middle left finger. Taped and even more determined up I went same situation only this time the tape got cut up and my flesh got even more chewed. Back to the belay. More tape! I tried the move a few more times then had one really good shot latching the hold with my full hand but when my weight came down the roughness and pain with sticking the hold came I just let go. It was time to concede, the move required lots of skin and lots of trying so I pulled through again and wanted to climb clean to the top. My foot popped higher on another hard sequence which was abit of a bummer. Hugh followed up and we (well Hugh) hauled the bag and all the gear left from previous trips to the semi-hanging belay.

The sheets of water that had covered the upper wall earlier in the day had dried, and with red hued evening skies I had the chance to flash I guess (we had rapped down and I had seen the line) Kingdom Animalia 20 which I think deserves two stars. Hugh followed and we hauled the bag the final forty in the dark, juggled out another 10m and scrambled some 30m to return to the normal world. All that was left was 180m of bush bash back to the car, I swear bush has one direction travel and everything was sticking against me this last stint! All in all we had 4 single ropes, 1 half rope, 30 quickdraws, two full trad racks a drill, bolting gear and lunch. I was left feeling exhausted and satisfied with a great day out, filled with adventure all just 200m from the carpark.

Monday started really slow, Hugh and I finally got going and visited Zap crag. Onsighting Jug Buzz and trying Zapt and the route to its left but not getting anywhere, fatigue obvious but pysch high and a great little days cragging. Tuesday I had planned to try Tsunami one last time but after trying 4 different people to climb before my departure without success I without hesitation called an end to my climbing trip. Looking back over the two weeks I didn’t come away with some of the routes I was hoping to do, others I did much easier. I think the last few days in the Blue Mountains I got a message form my body. Whilst I was still climbing pretty well, and having so much fun, resting wasn’t making me stronger. I definitely plateaued; I had planned 4-5 days off between Nowra and the Blue which didn’t eventuate and with the end of a 6 week training cycle without proper rest overtraining starts to set in. Looking back over the past 7 weeks the longest break I have had from climbing is 3 days when up in Rocky, that’s cool it’s time for some rest now. So here I am visiting the folks in Barwon Heads, walking mums dog to the cafes and awaiting my body’s response to all this stress with SUPER COMPENSATION!

Torched Quickdraws, failed redpoints and good times.

 Explosive quickdraws? Onya Nowra

Nowra home to some of Australia’s most physical and hard sport climbing has never been a place of inspiration to me… still isn’t. Yet what it lacks in exposure, beauty and awe it makes up for in intensity, aggressiveness and power. Short hard climbing typifies Nowra and it has always shut me down. Till this trip my experiences at Nowra were really only limited to two days at a time, on three different occasions. A trip to Rockhampton for Uni pracs and some mates from Tassie (Jed, Claire and Bec); heading up this way where the catalyst for the winter escape.

CJ and Anna were also up here and it was a good but brief catch up with a friend Merry before he shot off to North America. Rain had us kept at South Central (dirty, steep and chalked to the shitter) the first two days, which I was pretty physched on because a mate Wayneo had been talking up Ain’t no Sunshine 28 which lies here. The first day went just as expected, getting shut-down! I couldn’t get up my second warm-up route of the day kept whipping and then bailed on it when someone told me it was called Bag of Sand (sandbagging is to intentionally mislead someone as to the difficulty of a climb ie. putting a sand bag weight on someone). The next few routes came a little easier and then Ain’t no Sunshine it felt super hard and I got to the top once in three tries on the route I also tried Brown Badge but couldn’t even get off the ground on that, literally! So all in all day one went according to plan, pitches, pain, pump. Jed cooked bean burritos for dinner which was super yum.

Day two was a little slower warming up on some of the routes of the previous day and then a few runs on Ain’t No Sunshine my third try of the day felt pretty good linking the start to about half the route before coming off, the fourth try was a burn out and fatigue meant coming off and calling it a day. CJ had some pretty rad shots on it too and Bec can destroy the start so when we are rested and the sun is shining there may be some sendage. Day three meant rest and study so I visited the Nowra library, to do some course work for Nutrition. Jed, Bec and Claire groan every time I open my mouth because inevitably I quote some fact from my studies to try solidify it in my head. Unless of course it something that might help there climbing, but mostly it’s us driving between crags and me talking about blood components or cardiac cycles.

I spent my third day in the Nowra library studying and resting, I cooked two currys for dinner a Saag Aloo and a Black Bean curry with popadoms and chutney, not bad. We hit up the classic Thompson’s Point the next day everyone was psyched and crushing. I managed Cowboy Junkies second go and very nearly got Top one Thommo second try after bolt to bolting it on my first. Came back and did it next day. Then more rest and another day in the library, and Jack Jane cooked up a winner meal the entrée was blanched broccoli with boccacini lightly salted n peppered delicious! We started the day at The Grotto and pulled down on Worm on a Razor then Sheriff of Nothing then headed back to South Central so I could try redpoint Ain’t no Sunshine unfortunately the four days since I had been on it last meant I had lost the smoothness of movement required for me to efficiently climb it. A trip to Albion Park to visit Kerryn’s mum and her partner was a sweet interlude, great to sleep in a real bed and get fed like a king. Treated to a full roast dinner, thai for lunch and tuna mournee pies I felt rested and psyched for the next day.

Three coffees some serious psyche tunes I was up for crushing! Everyone else was resting so I trained it back to Nowra and got a belay of Jack Jane bolt to bolted to find the 5th draw a little worse for wear! Going for the redpoint I calmly cruised to the last few moves, then I guess I forgot to switch on hard mode and laimed the last few big moves. I threw myself at it for the rest of the day having some good tries especially after a big rest and walk out to a café for a coffee! With the last day looming I convinced the others to come back to climb near South Central. It was a tragedy, I was spent couldn’t even get up the warm-up clean and had to redpoint it! Slowly things got better I nearly onsighted Mega Mac and then did it second go feeling a little better but a lot more psyched I decided to have one last try at ANS it was close real close but no cigar and I was shoving gear in my pack and getting to the train station to catch my ride to Sydney. A good night with some cold beers talking trash with my mate Ollie in Sydney and an early start to catch my plane to Rockhampton for uni brought my Nowra trip to an end. Looking back it was a great trip, lots of pitches and great company. Now im sitting in a rotunda at Central Queensland Uni surrounded by palm trees, the sun is shining and I’m waiting for the lab to open up so we can cut things up!