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!

The Way of the Monkey

Last week began with the first niggling’s of injury, turns out I have a mild case of medial epicondylosis more commonly known as golfers elbow (more on this very soon). This really sucks! Though it has coincided well with three days of top rope guiding and a weekend away in Geelong to see my brother off travelling.

The week-end away in G-Town was great, parties, bonfires delicious food and good friends. Oh man the cook up on Friday night; Reece D’s own line caught Tuna fresh outta Portland pan seared with lemon and saffron. Nicko’s premium lamb cutlets cooked in rosemary and garlic and I smashed out roast potatoes and pumpkin, hummus, yogurt, kalamata olives, pita’s roast almonds and dates. Put away of course with plenty of good xxxx and vino. Sat night was a boys night with three different types of meat (some dumpster swag of-course) and Texas Hold ‘em.

Six days of rest and rehab exercises with no pain meant I felt good to climb again. I needed easy climbing with not too much serious pulling so soloing on the watchtower faces was the name of the game.

Lately I have been all about the science, quantifying my climbing setting measurable bench marks and pushing a little bit more each time. It has been great, but injury takes you a step back from that and today was such a natural days climbing, putting a smile on my face for its simplicity, significance (not all things are measurable) and freeness (new word TM by me).

Solo rock climbing, that is climbing without a rope is complete commitment. A feeling so often taken away from us by laws and rules that govern our society. Literally taking your life into your hands. At times it may be a little scary but more often it is a complete liberation. Engaging yourself with the rock, feeling its texture, warmth and toughness on your hands and allowing yourself to find the positions allowing you to move upwards. There is no pausing for gear, no hassle of ropes, no partners just you and stone.

BULLETS FROM UNDERNEATH WATCHTOWER
FACES, ONCE A SHOOTING RANGE.

When you can remove yourself from the thoughts and chat that usually accompany normal existence and just focus on movement and climbing, everything feels natural and is meant to be. When you can remove conscious decision from you, movement and climbing, and allow yourself to be subconsciously climbing it is a state of meditation. The flow and liquid kinetics of your mind, body and rock are no longer separate but one unit, perhaps just nature itself. Nothing else I have ever done has given me a this feeling, like moving beyond our normal understanding of time and place.

Whilst walking back down after one of these rare moments today I started thinking on it. Our conscious minds are really our only barrier to taking seemingly impossible dreams and making them real. The lizards I saw on the face today, didn’t think about climbing they just did, the rock doesn’t think about forming it just does, and as I released my conscious mind I just climbed. Can and cannot are not realities of the earth but restrictions put in place by our own conscious thought. So often the first and biggest barrier towards reaching our goals is only ourselves. Today Kerryn (she didn’t transcend time and space, she’s not into that) who currently has pneumonia could easily have used this as an excuse to do nothing and feel sorry for herself, despite of her sickness she chose to come climbing. You must willingly allow yourself the opportunity to experience, without engaging into something you are just making excuses.

Like a wondering Buddhist monk seeking enlightenment, perhaps gaining strength and power through knowledge and understanding rather than campusing and dead hangs is the key to climbing like a monkey. After all I doubt a monkey thinks so much about the next move, he just makes it.

Ain't no Sunshine

Nati days and deskbound nights.

Who would have thought living in Nati would produce the busiest days of my life? I guess the business of been the usual full-time climbing bum by day and turning into a caped study nerd by night with a guiding career to boot takes up a few hours!

Things have been pretty hectic since Kez and I put our around Aus trip on hold; I have taken on a full time study load via correspondence, doing a Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Science through CQUniversity. After two years of reading texts on training for climbing, training methodology and principles, and sports psychology I decided the only real way of collating all this information, and to get real training smart would be to get a degree in it. I have also put all this theory I have learnt from prior reading into practise and finally written myself and started a proper training program for my climbing, and of course it’s been guiding season these last few months!

I’m pretty pumped after 6 days in Rockhampton, Queensland for Uni practicals to get back to the rock. It was a needed break though after my first, albeit short training cycle. Mind you it was on the back of October-November in the Blue Mountains and December-March in Tasmania, which brings us to Natimuk some time near the start of March. Putting all the training theory together on paper was pretty easy really, and then I set myself some goals. We always have dreams and aspire to do things but this time I wrote them down; began to quantify things. Doing this for climbing has always scared me because I killed my passion for sailing like this when I was in my late teens, I stopped having fun racing and it became a chore. So far so good though, I am more driven than ever before to send!

I began a short periodised training cycle with a rest period to coincide with my residential school, with so much climbing behind me I skipped the base endurance phase and started a 5 week hypertrophy phase (hypertrophy is increases muscle bulk ie growing guns) getting on lots of mid 20s routes been very static with my climbing and fingerboarding quite regularly and of course recording it all, especially the fingerboardsing program so I could consistently increase intensity.

Climbing on plastic has always given me the shits, but I knew when I started studying I would have to sacrifice some rock time and train on a woody as it’s quicker and I don’t get distracted and loose a whole day climbing instead of a short training session! So I started to integrate some woody sessions into my climbing and have climbing study days. It’s pretty easy to isolate and make repetitive movements on plastic which is the way to get strong. As my hypertrophy phase came to a close it coincided very well with 5 days guiding, what better way to taper down a phase than getting paid to climb Arapiles classics all week?!

Then it happened… SERPENTINE! I really have this rad German dude Marcin and this rad Pommy fella Matt to thank for this, they were just so amped to get on it I couldn’t hold off anymore and tried it. I had four goes over two days preceding my taper down, then came back and Bam the send was on. Of course the next day Marcin was psyched for Trojan 25, I have been holding onto this one for ages too, always thinking I’ll get stronger, better, faster so I can onsight it, but I had really run out of excuses. For me to onsight Trojan was a real big dream, 25 Arapiles trad ground up first go that’s where it’s at. The dream came true I was so pleased with this one.

Next came a power phase for 2 weeks, I did a bunch of 1-3 move maximal boulders and some campusing and chipping away at a project Cobwebs. Nothing much came from this until I rested, started a 2 week power endurance phase and then I sent Cobwebs on my last climbing day before going to Queensland. It was a very successful few months for me, feeling stronger and smoother on harder routes than ever before. I managed to smash out:

Trojan 25 Onsight

World Party crux pitch 27 Redpoint

Power, Corruption and Lies 27 Redpoint

Mind Arthritis 27 Redpoint

Cobwebs 28 Redpoint

Serpentine crux pitch 29 Redpoint

Wolfgang Guillich’s words ‘The brain is the most important muscle in climbing’ essentially put together where I’m at right now. Been so busy but learning so much about climbing and from university and of course the latest pines crew and all their collective knowledge have inspired me to keep pushing physically and mentally. So again the trip to Queensland was a welcome rest, physically and mentally from climbing but exciting and demanding for education and the future of guiding and coaching climbing opportunities. I’m mega psyched to get back into training and start a bigger-meaner-harder-longer program for winter!

But really that’s all well and good, climbing is climbing, what has really been keeping me smiling and adding so many more hours onto the day is friends; The Tassie crew, Blue Mountains massif, all the Nati locals, the Pines party and Kezza, all the fun and good times and memories that come along with this rock climbing are the true inspiration.

What about climbing on a boat?

Taking a few weeks off climbing to do this sailing trip without access to training equipment meant I took this as an opportunity to work on other areas. It was hard to remain motivated but flexibility and antagonist exercise were target areas whilst away at sea, also motivation. I the final days before leaving Tassie for the trip I was trying this line Stan, it's a 28 crack I climbed it three times placing gear on lead to the very very last move and fell off. I was getting really wound up and losing drive to climb and just generally frustrated and over it. But with two weeks off rock (apart from one wicked day) I am super pysched and am heading off for the Totem Pole tomorrow!!

A note on the reminiscence effect (more info can be found in Performance Rock Climbing) but essentially means with an extended period away from a sport one can actually improve performance, as the brain sheds away useless attributes in brain engrams. Specifically in skill based sports so take pool for example. My old man beat Marcel and I in pool at the Furneaux Tavern who knows the last time the old boy played pool certainly a long time ago! And he was slamming them down!! Must be the reminiscence effect.

Last Days of the trip.

15/2/11
Sou-west winds 20-25 knots, was an on the nose trip across to Kilencrankie on Flinder's Island. Not too far and travelling pretty quickly it was a sweet trip.
16/2/11
20-30 knot winds from behind meant we smashed out our plans for today and it was pretty uneventful
17/2/11
No wind meant an all day motor, we set off super early so we could time out entry into the Franklin Sound. The Franklin Sound was pretty exciting entry with involved navigation for a few hours into channels between some pretty nasty reefs and islands. We got into Lady Barren with time to test out the hot water system on the boat for a shower before heading to the Furneaux Tavern for a beer, pool and a great meal.
18,19,20/2/11
Gale and strong wind warnings kept us in port, so we did what any good sailor does in these conditions and drank rum and fought. Well we didnt fight but we did drink a fair amount of Captain Morgans!
21/2/11
Another really early start saw us making way for Beauty Point, our plans to head down the east coast aborted as we all had various commitments and lost time with the foul weather. We had a great sail in moderate winds and arrived in Beauty Point 22 hours later bringing an end to a sweet sweet trip.

Must have rocks in my head!

The Kent group of Islands is in a remote setting about a quarter of the way to Tasmania from mainland Australia in Bass Strait. It has seen very few climbing trips, there isn't any guide book to speak of and I havent spoken to people who have been on previous trips. The routes we did may or may not be first ascents hopefully once back from the trip I can clarify this, but regardless this was an amazing trip and Erith island and the climbing on it is surly one of the most fantastic places on earth.

14/2/11
A cruisy start to the day Marcel and I brought the boat over to Erith Island and dropped anchor by the cliffs Kerryn and I planned to climb. Marcel outdid himself with a full fried breakfast and without too much fuss we ferried across to the rocks in the inflatable launch.
We made our way over to some clean looking cracks in small buttress. Kerryn got psyched for the lead when we arrived and enjoyed a wideish left curving crack, really cool climbing at about 16. We rapped off and I started up a harder looking line got a few metres up the face couldn’t find any good gear and traversed right into a big corner and followed it to the top making another nice climb at about 16. I had left this rubbish cam half dangeling out a seam on the first route I tried so a rapped off to get it and realized that with a bit of jiggery pokery there was good gear. I climbed back up and the route went, the idea was that Kez would then rap I would take our slings and find a way off, but I thought heck and we both rapped and I led the route making a cool line climbing a face to a shallow left facing corner with a crux entering the corner and gaining a small ledge and great climbing into a large left facing corner probably about grade 23 with tricky and small gear protecting the hard climbing down low.
After a quick lunch we started up this big line we had spied on what we called The Tower of Erith I led all the pitches
Pitch 1 20m Broken rock leads to big right facing corners, climb till you reach two bottomless cracks left of slab. Flared jamming and funky body moves get you up these till you can step right into corner via horizontal break. Follow cracks to ledge on left.
Pitch 2 40m Take left corner and crack system from ledge till it is possible to move right across face below roof, get funky and groove your way to jug on right and pull roof. Up this groove for a few moves before moving back left into the ‘train tracks’ and fun runnel climbing leads to comfy ledge. A mega pitch!
Pitch 3 10m Step right along ledge up broken rock. From next ledge rock onto slab on right of boulder step left to gear and climb left arête
Pitch 4 15m From this block down climb back left via body size crack, when possible make extreme balance moves left onto slab. Find two crack one not visible till you in front of and take these to the summit.
Two 40m raps got us to the ground, the weather had picked up a bit and waves smashed our drop off point so we had to make our way along the coast about 500m to a small cove which offered some protection. Marcel drove the inflatable superbly and timing his runs with the swell could get along side some rocks where we could get down into the boat. This was by far the most exciting part of the day!
We chugged back to Deal Island and this time anchored at West Cove, went ashore for a bbq with some other boaters and relaxed tired muscles!

Anaconda at anchor in the morning

Entering 'bottomless cracks' on pitch one

Into Bass Strait

0230 13/2/11
Another super early start, a 60 nautical mile trip we wanted to get to the Kent island group with light and time to chill in the after noon. Winds favoured us this leg with 15-20knots off the beam we hoisted the spinnaker and cracked across. It was great sailing enjoying some good speed and surfing reasonable waves we punched across in seven hours. Coming around Erith Island I noticed some wicked cliffs so we dropped sails and chugged over for closer inspection. We settled on a plan to head to a near by anchorage Garden Cove, chill, snooze and then come back that arvo. After waking from siesta and having a coffee around three I decided a full day tomorrow was better then a half arsed day today so we spent the arvo and evening sorting climbing gear and climbing the mast.

Me pointing to cliffs behind Muz been a bonehead

Refuge Cove

12/2/11
Day of rest, yoga on the beach a little bouldering and generally soaking up the good vibes of a beautiful place.

Set sail for Tasmania

0600 10/2/11
Alarms ring and we all get up, coffee, a quick bite and we cast off. Passing The Heads in ‘Four fingers channel’ so named because of the transit taken to ensure you are in the channel is four objects on the Queenscliff shore line two lighthouses and two towers (a transit is a visual line taken between two points to give a straight line). Once through the rip we were in Bass Strait and headed for Refuge Cove in Wilsons Prom. Some 120 nautical miles later of varied conditions but mostly crappy wind and rain 24 hours after departing dawn was upon us, Kez and I were on watch and a pair of Dolphins came to play on the bow. Muz and Frant came up for the change of watch and as darkness slowly came to light hundreds of Dolphins joined us and swam around the boat. Some giving aerial acrobatics displays others playing on the bow wave, parents taking it easy alongside us with Dolphins new to the ocean. With the sun bringing colour to the night, the grand rocks and islands of Wilsons Prom came into spectacular view.
0800 11/2/11
A dolphin start to the day, followed by Muz and Dad taking their morning coffee with a nip of rum ration to celebrate Marcel’s birthday and we shortly arrived at Refuge Cove. Man what a sweet spot, we chilled here for the rest of the day, enjoying good food a few nice bevies to celebrate Marcels birthday and generally lounging after 32 hours or so of sailing (well A lot of motor sailing too!).

Deadlines and Laylines

After a cruisy eight months of touring and climbing we had a deadline… 1300 flight from Hobart to Melbourne connecting public transport to Kez’s dad Peter’s then drive out to the Grampians in time for a chilled evening with friends Earl and Sarah before a days work with Hangin Out in the Grampians. This was not to be! Our first flight was cancelled, no more flights till tomorrow with Tiger so we had to rebook an Jetstar flight for 1745 at three times the original price, bummer. Of course this flight was delayed… twice! Once on the ground and then once in the air we flew a nice ‘holding pattern’ above Wangaratta. Finally reaching Tullamarine we scooted ASAP to Southern Cross station by bus arriving at 2030 and the last connecting train we needed to catch leaving at 2034 we ran like mad to the platform just getting there in time. With 45mins to relax we arrived at Aircraft station and got into a cab for the ride to Peter’s house arriving some time before 10. Kezs little Barina has been in hibernation in the shed the past 8 months so we started it up and began the drive out to the Grampians arriving at one o’clock in the morning!

Waking up to a stunning Grampians day after some delicious coffee we headed off to summer day valley in the northern Gramps and had a big day with 67 or so students split up into two half day sessions. Kez and Sarah took care of the climbing whilst Earl and I punched the abseil and got all participants through the asbseil. Back to Earls for some more coffee and a cold homebrew and a great night with friends. But not too restful the next day we headed down to Geelong to my parents house arriving sometime around one in the afternoon we then packed for sea and went to Coles for a massive food shop by then it was early evening and with Dad we drove to Queenscliff Marina started loading the boat for a 0600 departure the next day!!

Anaconda at berth in Queenscliff

Cape Raoul

Awaking to another stella day but with one difference... no wind! We chowed down on some muesli and had a quick brew. Rope fixed in place and knowing the walk we were at the base of the wedding cake and the first approach route Rain of Terror pretty cruisy trad 18, we fired up that then climbed Jihad to gain the top of the wedding cake. Traversing the wedding cake looking back on the cape a sense of isolation and seriousness of the position came over me. Exciting! We quickly found the rap anchors and descended down the other side of the wedding cake, following the obvious errosion of a climbers track we quickly regained the rock. It took us some time to find the correct line but finally did and were scrambling along the ridge again on the Stegasaraus pitch a kind of double finned ridge of rock like a Stegasauras' back. Once on the other side of this a short traverse got us to a notch above the seal colony and looking up at the pillars. I led up the chimney pitch to a bolted belay on a massive chockstone and staired up at the impressive line of Pole Dancer 22. Kez followed and leaning up looking at the arete above told me she was getting the first go at it. Handing over the draws Kerryn grappled with the arete, it may be a bolted route but the position and the exposure, seals grunting below, wind tearing at your clothes and the ocean smashing into the buttress a hundred metres below doesn't mean Pole Dancer is a sport route. Kez put in energy and fight to the climb but came off about half ay up with a screaming pump. I lowered her to the belay and Kez said it was my go, so I pulled the rope and started on the line. Nearly blowing off at the start, I pulled it together and found my flow and really enjoyed the rest of the route. After doing the route and coming back down Kez got pysched for another go but fell of in the same place, pulled on again and climbed the rest of the route. After some peanut butter sarnies and listening to seal banter I started up Certified Wise 23 tricky from the ground Certified Wise is one of the best lines I've ever climbed, thoughtful and engaging climbing leading from one unique feature to another. This route has so much soul that motown records is jealous, big props to the guys who went out there and put in the time to bolt this line. A real piece of climbing its 10 bolts in 35 metres mean its protected but exciting
Kez and I topped out on the pinnacle ending one of the coolest days climbing we've had well not really ending the day we still had; a 25m rap, 15m rap some 100m or so of roped scrambeling about the same unroped, 30m grade 16 chimney pitch then 50m traverse to two 30m abseils half hour walk back to the decsent gulley and 30m of rope to ascend there, thankfully our tent lay some 50m from here!

Cape Raoul Seals

Seal Colony


You can smell these suckers before you see 'em.

Day one Cape Raoul

A frustrating first day, packing our bags at the Cape Raoul walking trail I realized I had left my chalk bag behind. Not much to be done about that Off we went. A beautiful walk into the cape, we got pretty excited about been out there. We started the mission along the Cape Raoul actual the sun was out things were happening. Getting to the first rappel I abseiled down... The rope we had borrowed wasn't long enough! Not wanting to prussic all the way back up I came up with a plan; Kez raps down to me we tie into opposing ends and I climb up till she reaches the ground (about 5m away) then I realign the ropes rap down to the ledge we were on and down climb the last few meters to the ground. Sorted! Ba-bow... The rope wouldn't budge it was stuck, we tried for ages nada, so up I went after all. Once at the top I could sort the rope so Kez could get down then I pulled it up and found a different descent. Alex and Simon had joined us by now. We began the first pitch up the wedding cake but soon decided it was way too windy to safely continue so we bailed. After pitching camp and a short snooze Kez and I went in search of new lines inspired by some of what we had seen earlier on the approach. Sadly we didn't have the required cams for the lines and pulled the pin, after scrambling out the gully I went to put my sunnies on and they weren't in my pocket! So the day was a complete fail. Well except I found a free standing pillar Cape Raoul is famous for that will go on natural gear! Days like today have to serve some purpose, been physically fit and mentally pysched but not getting a chance at your goals can be pretty frustrating. I guess for me I try to learn patience, and know that failures can only serve to sweeten the success when it finally comes. I mean it could be worse than hanging out with someone you love in a national park on the Tasman Penisula.