climb hard, smell bad.

duncan's furniture

2010-06-11T22:54:00.000+10:00

my friend duncan makes some amazing furniture:

check out this website i made for him
http://www.duncanmeerding.com.au

duncan, zach and lachy also made some cool adjustable cracks for the uni gym. there are a few prototypes up at the moment, including a hand crack through the roof. nice one boys!

training

2010-04-25T19:47:00.001+10:00

so i'm into training at the moment. since i'm still recovering from finger and wrist injuries, i'm trying to be careful about it. that means plenty of rest days, usually 1 day on, 1 day off.

"the bisso belt" the closest i will ever get to being wrapped around by something going by that name

i am enjoying training my weaknesses. specifially: body tension, edges, and power. i have working been hard at it. progress is sometimes slow - but it is rewarding.

rocket wall; problems for weak people, ed.1 (still in draft status)

hannah, such a lovely girl, always on time

and it works too. went to sphincter with callum a couple of weeks ago and after warming up, i put the draws on Rambo and re-familiarised myself with the moves. i hadn't been on it in over a year, but felt surprisingly good on it. i always struggled to keep tension on ~~some~~ most of the moves, but it was not so much of a problem this time (no prizes for guessing why). was pretty stoked to do it first redpoint shot that day. had never climbed from the lip of the roof to the anchors before though, and almost fell off there as a result of my own stupidity!

after some more hard work on the wall, i managed to give myself another minor set back in the last couple weeks when i cut both of my thumbs (right on the pads) helping dave build his house. one of them was kinda bad. but not super bad, just a bit bad. it is maybe a good thing, since i have made up some no-thumbs projects on the rocket wall. i usually use my thumbs a lot, so it will be good to give them a break and work on getting stronger in a different way.

went to sister's beach last weekend with jed, rosie, kaely and daz. nice spot, a bit short and spoogy. some of the routes are pretty cool though. Lazy Lob (19) and Rhythm Rude Girl (22) were both pretty sweet! and Superfly (17) was as fun as i remembered it from a few years ago. tried Butcher's Dog (25) but couldn't even hold the positions with the crux holds, let alone pull on them. jedi crushed it pretty easily though, not without a bit of a close call though! read the gory details here.

rosie about heel hook over her head to pull the crux on Superfly, on the previous attempt she took the name of the route a bit too literally, photo: jed parkes.

have been doing a bit of running, physio and core work too. and went for a nice stroll into cape pillar with a heavy pack as well, that was fun.

pretty fucking psyched!

WHIPPER MAGAZINE!!!

2010-03-29T11:45:00.000+11:00

well, after talking about it a lot, playing around with some ideas, and staring at a computer screen for many hours on end; jakey b and i have finally managed to get Whipper online and unleash it on the world!

it's been up for about a month now. check it out!

http://whipper.com.au

make sure you get involved, and comment or contribute!

back in the game!

2010-02-22T15:27:00.016+11:00

it was good to get out and about. after the peninsula missions, i seconded some harder stuff on the pipes with Dave. we had some good times exploring nooks and crannies of the pipes that neither of us had been. what a cool crag!

have been pretty busy around the traps as well... starting to find my feet again.

paradiso.

did a couple of laps on Shock Wave (20), then surprised myself by top-roping Superchager (23) clean. i was hufffing and pufffing - so-o-o-o unfit! and it was pretty slimey and conditions weren't the best. fun though. jumped on Offender of the Faith (24) next. always wanted to do that one. fell off down low, then eventually greased and slimed my way to the top. by the time i got back on it conditions had improved quite a bit. or maybe i just stopped whinging to myself and just got on with it! anyway, after nearly fucking up after the last bolt, i managed to clip the chains and was one happy chappy!

grug onsighting offender of the faith (24), quite a while back now.

i was feeling good and wanted to climb more. but decided to be a good boy and just warmed down and called it a day. it's actually the hardest thing ive done since i was in nowra, so i think resting was a wise decision.

rocket wall.

i am in love with a bit of wood with plastic holds screwed on it. the rocket wall had been a big source of improvement and inspiriation to me lately. there is a good variety of holds, meaning that weaklings such as myself can get a lot out of a session on the wall of justice.

we have two training partners at the rocket wall: hannah and bisso.
(there would be photos here if i had remembered to take them)

hannah is a lovely girl! she is a good training partner on the hangboard.

"the bisso belt" makes us appreciate has nice it is to have the girth of normal people. seriously though, it makes a noticeable difference: you FEEL heavier, and cut loose moves especially are way harder to hold with bisso on. nevertheless, Warmup Classic (Rocket grade 6) has been done with the belt on, and i think callum might have done an R7 or R8 with it as well.

there is a blue book of problems on the rocket wall that the other guys use. i've started my own little hand book entitled "Rocket Wall : problems for weak people" and have got a set of good R1 and R2 problems that i'm progressively feeling stronger on. have got an R4 project too. the day i do Warmup Classic R6, i'll be very happy. sam will probably die of shock though.

more pipes.

in between sessions on the rocket wall i managed to sneak up the pipes with tetley and do Heat Pump (22). another great climb on the pipes, with cool holds and a techy crux. after sussing it out on the first attempt i managed to do it next go, but i was quite sloppy at the crux. i was a bit upset with myself actually and threatened to jump off after doing the crux so i'd have to do it again, much to claire's amusement.

totem pole.

spent a couple of days with jed on the good old tote! he ticked both pitches which is a fine effort. many people are content to have just made it to the top of the thing, so it was awesome to see jed put in the work to get the redpoint. top job jed! check out his blog for more details. i had forgotten how good the climbing is as well! i was a bit sick of the tote for a long time (too much time in each other's company i guess), but now we are friends again. :)

jed on the tote

sphinx.

sphinx rock is a pretty good crag for what it is. went there yesterday with the jedi who is training himself in the ways of the force (climbing on steep rock). two weeks at taipan awaits jed! oh yeah! i felt pretty average because i have contracted NZ aids (not to be confused with danish aids), but still managed to clip the anchors of a couple things. (just repeats) definitely feel improvements in core and power from the rocket training! looking at my dairy afterwards, realised it was only my 3rd time on the sharp end this month, but i felt surprisingly ok which was nice. gotta find a balance between climbing, training, working, living, and eating.

bolting.

and it's all systems go on the bolting front. have been making some things around the place a bit nicer, and also have been seeking out virgin walls to impregnate with shiny bits of 316. i'm pretty slow at it, and it's often a shit fight, but it's pretty fun in a weird sort of way. and then you get to climb something cool afterwards. as it so happens, ima just about to head back down to the peninsula for another multi-day mission. hopefully i wont get wiped out by a big loose block!

'later!

setbacks, sea stacks & battery packs

2010-02-01T18:19:00.018+11:00

chapter i

well the year got off to a bad start, where i hurt another finger on the 1st of jan. this time i was with Jed on Nefarious (22). bit of a shame, as we had an awesome time the day before, doing The Shield (20) and Tartarus (20) before taking photos of the lightning storm from the summit of Mount Wellington. it was only a minor injury, but prompted a week off before slowly starting up again.

cool!

pretty.

after some rest, i climbed a bit with Duncan. climbing with Duncan is an awesomely amazingly humbling experience. why? because he has about 10% of his vision -- he is legally blind. Dunc had climbed lots at Waterworks, in the gym, and places like that. but not on the Pipes. so we went up the pipes.

even walking in takes its time when you can't see much (actually walking out, ie. downhill, is much trickier and more dangerous). but soon on one nice day, Duncan, Rosie and I found ourselves standing at the base of grand old Pegasus (12/14). this was actually my first lead on the Pipes ever, so it was fun to go up it again.

we had heaps of fun, and Duncan got up the whole route cleanly. the general process is: reach for holds, skate feet around looking for footholds, eventually a foot sticks, stand up and lock down on holds, repeat.

stock image of northern buttress (from the other side though)
another trip up the Pipes with Duncan saw him and i in Pulpit Chimney (12), which was a blast! i'd never done the chimney bit before so that was good. after that we did Sideshow (18) which is quite cute. there is a tricky bit at the start that is solved by putting your feet in the right spot in the crack and rolling up to the next handjam. this was a bit too subtle for dunc, so with a few sits he had to resort to desperate laybacking! amazingly he did the rest of the pitch clean (including taking out the gear!). crazy i tell you!

unfortunately, i hurt my wrist somehow that day. i don't know how, i don't know why. all i know is i don't like it one little bit. it still hurt about a month later. so i have really slowed things down a lot since then. it has improved lots, and with some rehabilitaion it seems to be getting better and stronger slowly. it is really frustrating. i am so psyched to climb and train, but i just know i will hurt myself even more if i push it.

chapter ii

after some complete time off, i started climbing again and having fun on the pipes with dave, doing some obsure classics. i love the pipes.

then rosie, dave and i had a super fun day out on The Candlestick. dave has done it about 60,000 times, but neither rosie and i had been there. both dave and rosie did the swim, while i took the soft option of a tyroleon. dave jumped in in the nud and took the rope over, and rose just dived in and swam over without a rope or anything.. crazy i tell you!

dave rapping in. photo: rosie

rosie swimming across. photo: dave

anyway, the route was cool. i was very impressed with the quality of the actual climbing! the rock wasn't exactly taipan wall, but it was fine! what do you expect??

here are some more photos:

dave seconding the first pitch. photo: me	the epitomy of gracefullness. photo: dave
the amazing invisible top rope. photo: dave/rose	rose leading the final pitch. great fun! photo: me

shortly there after, we head back down to the peninsula for one of the coolest things in the known universe - Cape Raoul.

Bisso, everybody's favourite pie-eating collingwood supporter, was down for Gazza's wedding (by the way, congrats Garry and Anna!), and he wanted to go do Pole Dancer. this is one of the more amazing routes i've done, so i was happy to have an excuse to go down again. rosie was super keen as well. as for dave, he is in love with Cape Raoul, so he was there with bells on.

well it was another epic day trip from Hobart to the Poles and back, but it was another fun one! except for the wind. it was really, really windy. like, really fucking windy. we were only really going down that particular day because it was the only one we could all fit in.

here are some photos:

it was really windy. photo: dave

we tried a direct approach to the base of pole dancer. the normal way goes down those ledges to the left and up a chimney. i highly recommend the normal way. photo: dave

bisso on pole dancer (22). if you have not done this route then put it on the top of your to-do list. photo: dave

the climbing was as good as always. it started spitting on the way back out the to the packs, but it held off dumping down, which was nice.

abseiling off the wedding cake was an absolute nightmare. since there were 4 of us, we devised a plan that would hopefully minimise the suffering. dave went first, fixed a 60m rope to the top bolts, and rapped to the base. rose and bisso zipped down after, trying not to get blown right around the corner with no way back. i went last and had the enviable task of pulling up half the rope to do a 30m rap to the halfway bolts, and then another 30m rap to the ground.

now i wasn't sure if this was possible, but thought it would probably work. since dave made it down in one rap, things were looking good. it depended how far up the 'halfway' bolts were.

well the ropes reached, but the wind tried it's best to kill me and steal my rope. it was so windy, the end kept blowing around the corner and getting stuck. i felt like i had no control over anything. nearly lost the rope while pulling it, when it wrapped around itself so many times i couldnt pull it. after trying for 15 minutes in vain, i actually gave up on it. "it only cost me 30 bucks," i said to myself. i had just tied it off and was about to rap on a single line hopefully to the ground, when the rope just slightly started unwinding itself! i jumped on it and pulled as hard as i could. after a couple of jumps, keeping the tension on the rope, it started moving slowly, then the momentum keep it unwinding and it came free. yay! it wasnt all over though, because it just went everywhere - both ends were blowing everywhere, up, sideways, in my face. and kept getting caught on horns around the corner. luckily it kept pulling when it got stuck. after another rap, which wasn't quite as painful, i was down and after another epic pulling session so was the rope. i was so happy to be on the ground with the rope in one piece -- i almost hugged bisso - that's how happy i was!

chapter iii

another thing i did after hurting my wrist was catch up with rog. he showed me his bending jig and we spent an evening making some u-bolts. then he gratiously loaned the parkynator drilling machine extreme. i made some more bolts up at home and am now doing my part to sink more steel in the rock in this lovely state. it goes alright too- with the new batteries! and i also found some drill bits for $5 (i bought all they had!) and they dont do too bad at all. well, it's no petrol drill, but it does alright.

a while ago, jakey b and i drove to the tyndalls to the sounds of the (disappointing) hottest 100. on his last trip there they got totally rained out - drowned rats. the plan was to actually do some climbing this trip! ha!
i tried (one of) my project on toprope, the one i started cleaning a month ago. wow it was quite intense, move after move. the last 10/15m is steep and bulgy, which is not all that common at the tyndalls. i will need to be fitter to do it, especially since it is mostly trad. placing the gear will be strenuous.

then we climbed a nice little crack near the main face. we'd both seen it in the past from the top of Cloudstreet, where it looks like it might be a tricky layback at about 18. but the angle was much slabbier than we thought, and it's probably only about grade 11. but it was still fun times!

unfortunately for us, that was the only time we tied in that trip, because the next morning... DUN DUAAA... the Mist Monster arrived. it was coming into the bivvy cave, which suuuucks. that place has been a bit of a bitch with regards to weather lately. oh well, next time!

other than that, i've been doing little bits of work, making bolts, sorting through photos, and playing tennis and bowling on the wii.

cya!

scary in the wind! photo: rosie

klondike

2009-12-30T18:04:00.003+11:00

sometimes, when you are trying to get to sleep, bored in the car, sick of the rain, or are just feeling lonely in general, it's good to have a friend called klondike.

but sometimes you can play klondike too much...

yay $100,000 now i never have to play it again

yep.
happy new year!

tyndalls vacation

2009-12-17T16:08:00.011+11:00

after retreating to hobart, we found the weather wasn't so bad down south. this made lots of climbers happy, and te organ pipes was quite busy for a couple of days. i spent a nice afternoon up there with kaely. we did Nefertiti, a great 15 and a classic pipes experience: loose blocks, trees, 3d climbing, and spitting rain. i had no jacket (only a t-shirt) which made it all the more enjoyable.

that night i checked the weather forecast and saw that a big high was going to pass over the state for a few days, which meant it would be warm (and dry) everywhere, so it was just a matter of deciding where to go...

i've been to the tyndalls once before (in feb of this year). it's pretty amazing. it wasn't a hard decision.

with 3 fine days predicted in a row, we elected to walk in the day before the good weather came, to make the most of the time. i reckon this is the way to go; the only problem is that you might end up walking up in shitty weather.

i coulnd't quite remember the way to the bivvy cave, so it was good to have a gps (thanks jacq!). although it is still a bit worrying walking around in the mist staring at your hand. after whacking the untrustworthy little gps a few times whenever it died, we made it safely to the cave, wet and weary.

from then on, the weather was perfect. sunny, warm and clear.

breakfast in the bivvy cave

on the first day we did the short routes at bunny crag and expored the area a bit. i found one of my likely projects for the summer (oh la la!) and we also did a little new route to co-incide with the birth of tom & caroline's newborn baby boy.

rosie seconding one of the bunny routes

we awoke the next morning to another gorgeous day. the peaks along the overland track are visible from the camping cave, and this morning, they were rising above a blanket of bleached white clouds.

pretty

the rest of the day was spent pulling on little pebbles. after breakfast we wandered over and did Raindancer (22, 20); of which the 1st pitch i did not free - again (admittedly, last time it was raining, and this time i was very protective of my finger). that didn't stop rosie flying up it though. redemption arrived with a clean ascent of the 2nd pitch shortly after.

then we headed over to do Cloudstreet (23), a single pitch rap-in-climb-out affair near the main wall. although for us it was just a casual top-rope-climb-out jaunt. it a neat little pitch. rose almost did it first go, falling up right up the top (after the crux) where it's a tad shouldery and powerful. i gave it two attempts but didnt get it clean, though i think i eventually figured out a way to do the crux section, no thanks to rosie's beta: "i just grabbed onto a few little minging crimpers and used those". hmph.

it was a pretty cruisy trip; climbing a bit, eating a bit and sitting around a bit. after we were done climbing for the day i would wander around exploring, taking photos and checking out the cliffs; and rose would sit perched on a rock, sketching the picturesque landscapes.

it takes me a while to get into the climbing style on this rock, but by the end i was really enjoying it. can't wait to go back... there's a line there that beckons.

back in tassie

2009-12-10T15:57:00.007+11:00

so. back in tasmania now! been catching up with the family and friends, and doing a little bit of work to get some cash. hoping to get fit again for the upcoming months, which will hopefully be filled with lots of epic missions.

first taste of tassie rock for the summer was an afternoon with jakey b up at New World (near the Lost World) on Mount Wellington. neither of us had been there before so we thought we'd check it out. we did a few routes there and they we pretty good.

first was Procul Harum (15); a textbook handcrack to a cool bridging finish. then we did Tales of Power (17), kind of. the start was good old-fashioned climbing. moss (oh, how i loathe thee!), thrutching (oh, how i love thee!) and hard work (ugh!). however, blocking the last few metres was a dead tree that looked to have fallen over and was hanging down the cliff. i gave it a tentative shake and wished i hadn't have. so after dropping the rope and pulling up some wires i danced left across a bolted route (fun moves) and finished up procul (again). at the top, jake wandered over and nudged the tree - it was big - and it carrered down the route and smashed at the base of the cliff. hmmm. then we did Dvorak Goes Metal (20) a weird and techy arete/slab - have to trust the feet! friction? havent climbed with that for a while. great climb though.

just got back from a quick trip up north to hillwood and ben lomond with rose. hillwad was the same as when i last saw it, with not too many holds having disappeared. there was a cool crew there which was fun as well. ben lomond was really cold and windy. it was hard work to even get out of the hut - and the climbing was hard work too. not having doubles in size 1 camalot and up didn't help either! after day one, struggling and shivering up a pair of 16s; and day two, wincing in pain with hot aches after a short 18, we decided it was probably too cold to get anything inspiring done. so back to hobo town.

well, so far it hasn't been the most summery of summers. but the forecast looks ok for a few days time, so hopefully a few rocks will get climbed sometime soon.

hot hot hot! and farewell araps

2009-11-27T10:49:00.006+11:00

well the last few weeks have been really hot. and by really hot, i mean really hot. as in consistently mid 30s, and often over 40. that might be really hot for some people, but for a mere tasmanian, it's a furnace.

since i had injured my finger, i was soloing lots of easy routes. it's heaps of fun at araps, because the rock is (usually) so good. for a while i was getting a bit sick of soloing though - it is quite draining, and you have to concentrate all the time. it is really good mental training though. but as with any type of training, you must be careful not to over-train...

also had a few good days on the rope with jed, oli, ado and claire. seconding harder stuff and leading easier stuff. most of my time at araps has been spent in the colder months, so it was good so climb at some of the shady summer cliffs for a change.

archie on the FAA (first archie ascent) of "Archibald? Ado Bald!" (grade unknown)

i've been exploring the boulders a lot too. the bouldering at araps is pretty good! and it have me a chance to do some harder moves, yet stay in control of everything.

anna and i tried to do all the routes on the 'chimney fiesta' ticklist in a day. that was fun. it was a bit hot walking from one to the next though. late in the day, we went to climb this cleft called The Protege (12). you have to rap into the route, and as i was rapping in a heard some scary cackling from some sort of animals.
>> anna: "deano, what animal is it that makes this sound?"
>> me: "i have no fucking idea"
we couldnt figure out what it was, or how to get to the base of the route with out pissing them off (or disturbing their nest), so we had to skip it. bit of a bummer. we were pretty psyched to climb it, as it looked great; but also quite scared, because there was a dead bird on the ground near where the sound was coming from.
>> anna: "if this animal kill birds and bring them here then maybe it can hurt us"
>> me: "yep" (in anna-speak)
>> monster: "ra! ra! ra!"
>> me: "okay let's get out of here."
>> anna: "yep"

(a couple weeks later i went back with jed and we did the route; the animals had gone; and it was pretty fun, not as good as it looks though.)

one of my ongoing projects for this trip was to do all the routes grade 12 & under (in the new guide). there are a bit over 130 of them. some i had done on previous trips, but most of them i had never done, so it was a god way to explore more parts of the mount and seek out some hidden gems. there were plenty of 1 star - and even no star - routes that were really cool, and really worthwhile.

here are a few little thoughts...

at Mitre Rock; the top pitch of The Bishop (11, 2 star) was absolutely unreal, while the first 10m of Gulp (12, no star) are awesome. (the rest is shit)
on the Bluffs; Mouse (9*) and Debut (9*) are great; and the Keyhole is top fun. while Bluff Minor (11) (the route) is, well... at least i never have to do it again.
elsewhere; Salami (11*) and The Dribble (11**) were great, while Heckle (7) is a piece of shit. Neta (10) is sweet. Bung (12) has a wicked crux sequence, but the rest is crappy with big loose blocks. Silver Bullet (8) was really hard, and so was Sweet Bugger All (12). Josies Climb (12) and Transylvania (11) has really interesting moves on scoopy rock. especially p2 of Transylvania.
Syrinx (10***) was the last one to go down. that route is fucking amazing.

brag sheet

i could go on... as i look at the ticklist in the back of the guide, seeing the name of each route reminds me of a fun, scary, or shitful time. and it makes me smile. i really enjoyed doing them all.

well, our time at arapiles (and on the mainland) for 2009 is almost up. on the ferry tommorrow night. it's been great - the climbs, the cook-ups, the drinks, the shit-talking, the rain, the sun, the slacklining, the sitting-around-talking-about-climbing, the card games, the missions, and the people.

just your average evening sky really

i'm more psyched on arapiles and climbing than ever. my finger is slowly getting better. i have some pretty ambitious goals and dreams for climbing over the next while. but if i can't get them done because of injury, or weather, or just simply not being good enough then... fuck it! as long as i can climb rocks, i'll be happy.

bring on tassie summer!

the log!

2009-11-04T13:44:00.004+11:00

how much fun is the log!
it's so good i went back there again with jed and we had some more fun.

checks out his blog for photos some time soon...
http://jedparkes.wordpress.com

arapiles antics

2009-10-26T15:00:00.006+11:00

so we moved to arapiles.

the crew had moved from the top of the pines to the sweet spot in the gums. the 2 kiwis, tom & merry, masterminded a teepee made of tarps. it stays dry in the rain, and cool in the shade.

the teepee

i rested for a week and kept myself occupied by doin some silly things like running a lap of the mount along the dirt track. (14.9km, 1.5hrs) i could hardly walk the next day. have also been swimming at the pool, and riding poo bike everywhere.

ado, claire & archie arrived from the blueys and set up their massive tent and adjoining gazebo. ado gave archie a drill for his 2nd birthday, so archie has been running around putting bolts everywhere and retro-bolting the classics, in between making cakes in the dirt.

ado on squeakeasy (22); cheered on by claire, archie & louise

john & merry did a henry barber day (finally, after talking about it for years and years) - where they repeated every FA and FFA that Hot Henry did at the mount. despite frequent rain showers throughout the day, they still managed to work their way through the routes, none of which are doddles.

after sunset, the growing darkness saw merry hunched in the sentry box of a seeping dramp, fiddling in wires. we were all there watching at this point. simey called up that a big cam can be plugged into the lip, and then promptly launched one at merry's head. he placed it and finished the route quickly.

now they just had one more route to do: red baron (23) on castle crag. after an audaious night time onsight attempt (the route is fiddly to protect, and it's not the best pro either), they decided to go have a quick cat nap, and finish the route off early the next morning before the 24hr window was up. they did, and then went back to bed and then partied that night. good effort guys.

everyone else was climbing well too: anna red-pointed squeakeasy (22), onsighted take five (20), and made a yummy apple pie for rosie's birthday. rose red-pointed morfydd (19), onsighted quo vadis (19), and ate lots of apple pie (as did we all) on her birthday. then she went back to tassie for the guiding season. but jed, oli, claire(?) and kaylea(?) are coming soon, so it's not gonna be quiet for too long.

rosie and anna on missing link (17)

the grampains, and injured finger

2009-10-23T10:43:00.005+11:00

unfortunately, on the last climbing day in the blueys, i hurt a finger that i had slightly tweaked a few days before. bugger! oh well, i would just rest it a bit and it'd be fine... right? wrong...

rosie and i left the blueys (in the rain), drove to the lovely, green wimmera and made a beeline for the pines. we ducked out to mitre rock for a few quick solos, and then came back for yet another large communal meal. mmmm.

but it was the gramps that was calling us. after a couple of days at staplyton doing some gentler outings, we headed south and stayed with Toby for a few days at his pad in Halls Gap. it allowed us to check out a few crags around there i'd always wanted to go to - Bundaleer and Rosea. unfortunately there was pretty patchy rain every day, and it was cold! nevertheless we still went climbing and did a few of the easier routes, it was like climbing in tassie again. the tourist buttress area of Rosea is really cool, it reminds me of Africa at Ben Lomond - strong lines penetrating smooth rock.

the easier climbing allowed my finger to rest, and after a few rest days and a few days playing belay bunny for rose i was ready to give it a little test. we headed to Taipan. the draws were on Mr T (a variant to Mr Joshua) so i thought i'd just dog a lap up that to see how it went. that way i could just lower off if it hurt too much. after warming up on the Spurt traverse it felt good. so we walked carefully along the access ledge and then then got amongst it. wow, i'd forgotten how hard Mr J was, and how awesome the climbing was!

unfortunately, my finger didnt hold up. i went to do the last move of the crux (a little throw with the left hand - with my injured finger), but thought i shouldnt, because i could hurt it more... i'm glad i didnt, because it ached a bit even after that.

it's a shame, because all the holds are either jugs or slopers, so that means it is time for some rest for me. i've done a bit of research and have started taking care of it so i can be ready for tassie summer. i even thought of going home early. but araps is actually a good place to rest and recover...

more blueys stuff

2009-10-02T14:46:00.006+10:00

about clipping about 500 bolts later...

had a good day with grug and rosie out at Heathcliff. the talked up multipitch The Rift (19) was a tad dissappointing, but the single pitch routes there, Chip off the Old Block (19) and Fake Blood (18) were awesome. grug had to catch a train, so we said 'seeya later' and then headed down the megalong valley once again. except this time we went climbing on the way down. Mr Big (19) was pretty cool. the last pitch was unreal. another good route to end a great day!

tooling around skipping bolts and finding hand-free kneebar rests (photo: grug);
rosie also on Fake Blood (18) at Heathcliff.

another trip back out to Diamond Falls. oh boy. what a crag. psyched out of my brain, early start, stock up on a $2.99 bag of choc chip crossoints, ready to go...
man it was so f-ing windy! even after warming up bouldering for half an hour, i was shivering while putting the draws on. yikes. then i thought, i don't have much time left here, and there are heaps of crags i want to visit, and heaps of routes i want to climb. so i gave up on trying the route this trip; it's costing a lot of skin! oh well, another time perhaps. at least i am no longer burdened with wanting to do the route so badly. now there is time to get some mileage in and climb some classics.

had a nice half day out at Medlow Bath, after warming up of the cute little 18, Old Salt, Rosie flashed her first 20 (Radioactive Man). nice one. we did quite a few pitches there, including a 23 (i think) with and easy start, then some moves, then a desperate crux, pinching tiny nubbins, twisting sideways, doing weird things with your feet, and launching for (hopefully!) a jug. well it wasn't a jug, but it was a big enough hold to stop me falling. phew. it's not quite over after that either. maybe something had broken off or something. anyway, it was a fun climb.

we've had a few great days at shipley. the routes are long and interesting, the rock is a nice colour, and the bolts are plentiful.

[insert photo of climbing shipley, which i do not have - just imagine one is here]

Weak As I Am (22) is one of the best routes i've done in a while. start up a tree, pull on and slab desperately sideways, and up to a good hold, tricky moves to good hold, hard moves to jug, tricky moves to break, hard moves to good hold. etc. etc. it was like a fun war, battling your way to the top.
Mental Mantle (23) is a bit similar, but way harder! i made the mistake of trying it as the 4th or 5th pitch for the day. the start is desperate, and there are some tricky moves after the mantle. but then i was really tired, it was maybe 2 or 3 days on, so the skin was thin too. then there was a hard move (and hard clip) a bit higher, and then i was spent. from then on i felt like i was on borrowed time. i kept fighting and fighting, clipped the last bolt, 'ok, almost there'. up and down, back and forth, chalk everywhere, what do i do? i moved up, pumped and tired, with the anchors just out of reach. no energy left. PING! i took a lazy whip onto Tomas the german's munter hitch. oh well. i was done for the day (and the followind day too). maybe another time.

we went to Pierce's Pass and did Bunny Bucket Buttress (18), which was a really fun route. very cushy, with some sweet pitches: a cool corner problem on the 2nd, the traverse and arete on the 3rd was great, moving out under the roof on the 6th was wicked, and the headwall of the 7th was buckets, buckets, buckets!`(more bolt skipping). the last pitch wasnt too bad as well.

the next day we had planned to do Hotel California, but due to our lack of bolt plates (and only a handful of suitable wires) we were going to do Weaselburger instead. well the next morning it was really windy (again). so we went to Bowen's Creek instead, which is just down the road.

it's a great crag, but there is a long walk in these days, which keeps the couwds away i suppose. it was glorious in the shade, but when the sun hit it we got fried. in fact, the big gusts of wind were very welcome here, though we only felt them a little, as the crag is quite sheltered.

we did a few good 21s, Mr Pink (potentially demoralising finish) and Mutton Poacher (very interesting and varied). one of the crag classics, 97% Fat Free (25) is bloody awesome. didnt tick though, the wall was coming into sun, so we decided to just do as many good routes as possible. gave me plenty of ammunition to go back though!

oh, how good is this place!!!

approaching sunset on the mirrorball sector at pierce's pass

i really like the blueys, in fact, i'd like to spend a lot of time (i.e 6mths+) here one day. it was good to cruise around and visit lots of different crags. i really like visiting the same crag quite a few times, ticking off a lot of routes there, and trying the harder ones too. so it was good to go 'touring' for a change. vertical, crimpy, sharp face climbing is totally not my style, so it was great to do a lot of this style of climbing in a short space of time.

some places have a lot of really good climbs, but not a whole lot of absolutely amazing ones. one such place is the blueys.

on the other hand, some places have the most amazing routes around! sometimes with other good stuff nearby, but often not. there are also crags with lots of good routes as well. the rock isn't as sharp, there are more kangaroos, and fewer cafes.

and we are heading there tomorrow...

back to the blueies

2009-09-23T13:58:00.008+10:00

after driving down the coast with rosie for a few days, we started to get itchy fingertips and toes. so we made for the blueys, and headed in by the back roads. that is, via pierce's pass. neither of us had really climbed in a while, while it was quite a trouser filling experience rapping in to do just the relatively tame rap-in routes on rigby hill. they are both pretty good value though! as we topped out on the 18, we noticed some people watching from Wall's Lookdown. we didn't know who they were, and passed them off as tourists, but we later learned who it was...

the next day, we had some big plans, but it was rather, could you say, windy. so we warmed up by climbing a sweet little 16/17 off Lunch Ledge (it heads up a cool water scoop, and it isnt in the guide, anyone know what it is called?) after that it was still really windy, but we wanted to climb, so we rapped carefully down the wall; waiting for lulls in the gusts before frantically pulling the ropes, praying they would fly sideways. in the end, it went really smoothly, as did the climb itself. we did 'the west face of the mirrorball' (19) (silly name for a good little route) and then had a spot of lunch on lunch ledge.

his emminence, grug, was due in the area soon, so we knocked off early and headed into k-town. we stumbled not only upon grug, but non other than... claire! this poor girl was finding it hard to leave the blueys. after a sappy reunion, we headed down the megalong valley, which would be home for a while.

the next day (a little hungover) we headed off to do Sweet Dreams, supposedly a bit of a classic beyond belief. sure, it was ok, but it wasn't amazing. the four of us couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. the views were nice though. oh well.

rosie on the traverse on Sweet Dreams (14), sure it looks good, but you could bounce a footy on some of those ledges you walk along. ok it's not bad, it's just overrated. photo by claire or grug.

the day after that we went to Shipley for the first time, which was a bit more stimulating. jakey b and young will came over too. there were tassie climbers everywhere. we all had fun flailing around, and i somehow managed to haul my unfit carcass up Hot Flyer (23). but in the early arvo, claire had to leave :( but well all said not 'goodbye' but 'seeya later', since she will be in tassie all summer.

shortly after, will and i had a fun day in the glen. he did Wrong Movements (27, his first) in a handfull of shots, and i didn't do anything (3 or 4 burns on Madge and still no tick). still, it was good to pull some moves again.

grug on Mr McGlue (18) at Zap Crag

had a couple of good days with grug and rosie, one at zap crag (pretty cool), as well as a fun day at Big Top. the 21 there, 'abso effing llewdly' was abso-effin-lutely awesome; and the bolted offwidth chimney was kind of interesting. i think it has 6 bolts in about 10 metres, i was worried about nutting my self on the rope, or even treading on it. i'm normally accustomed to doing that style of climbing with shitty (or no) protecting, so it felt kinda weird. the climbing was fun though.

after a rest day (lots of backgammon and shithead) it was time to burst my Diamond Falls cherry. ben likened one's first trip to DF as a significant moment in one's life, much like going to your daughter's wedding. hmmm. well, there were lots of people at the crag (somehow i had met everyone before in some way, shape, or form), an odd number in fact. so i teamed up with ado and jumped on Hairline 2000 (28), which was the first route ever climbed on the wall.

ado had done it before, so he was just in it for the fitness. he was also able to give me lots of beta for moves and rests, and some sneaky heel-toe and heel-hook tips. he did the route with 1 fall/sit and i managed to do all the moves, so i'm pretty psyched to jump back on it again asap. ahhh, the projecting life-cycle is reborn. the rock is kinda sharp though, so i've been skin farming for the last 2 days.

after the storm...

there was a pretty big storm last night. lots of thunder, lightning and rain. oh, and wind. turns out it was the biggest dust storm in years. everything is covered in this orange crud: the tent, the table, the car, the road. i wonder what the crags are gonna be like...

well, i can't wait to find out, cos i'm...

i hope it clears up soon so i can go back to DF!

queensland mini-holiday

2009-09-07T11:06:00.010+10:00

so we left the blueys, and headed for queensland, just. (we were going to goondiwindi, which is just inside the border). peanut behaved pretty well this time, and that night we successfully escaped new south wales and stayed with simon's friend dave and his wife partner anna.

over-size? yep.

we had a few good days just chilling out and enjoying the heat. we kayaked on the river, threw a bit of frisbee and played lots of board games. here is a highlight from one of them.

a little bit of humour

after gundy, we drifted inland to frog buttress. well, that was the plan until peanut started being naughty. bad, peanut. bad, bad peanut. we had to spank her lots and lots for being very naughty. and after the spanking, the ora... wait, where were we? oh that's right, driving up a hill out of warwick, and the car stalled again. it was dark, and some big trucks were about to slam us in the arse. liz and i jumped out and we helped push the car down the hill (in reverse) into a side road. peanut's fuel pump was sick. except sometimes it worked, so it waqs kinda weird. so we tried again and again, and were quite patient, and eventually we made it to frog. a familar place. safety.

it was now time to put a stop to peanut's mischief causing once and for all -- the next morning we went down to boonah and simon ordered a new fuel pump for the car. it would arrive in a couple of days, and was way cheaper than in the blueys. so we were just gonna climb at frog until the car part came. sounds fair!

simon on witches cauldron (12)

satan's somestack (16). a family favourite.

we did a few classics over a couple'a days and then... grug showed up in my car! yay. after a bit more climbing we got really drunk. liz did some fire twirling and we fried up some spuds and vegies on the fire.

the next day the part for the car came, and simon and liz put it in, while grug and i unpacked and repacked my car so he could get his stuff out. he was flying to cairns the next day, so he had to get his shit packed. after we had all finished fondling with our cars; simon & liz left for northern pastures, while grug & i headed to brisbane (victoria point) to stay with my cousins.

grug made his flight okay, thanks to us being loaned a gps navman. since then i've had a good time recharging and relaxing here in victoria point. i leave [early!] tomorrow morning, after another detour to the airport. going to head down the coast and lie on some beaches before returning to the bolts and the big cliffs of the blueys.

yiewww!

cya there.

blue mountains stop-over

2009-08-29T11:53:00.004+10:00

well, peanut (simon&liz's car) had a few troubles getting to the blueys. but we got there in the end and met up with claire! yay. then we had tea and scones with tetley t bad herself.

we crashed at her place in leura, and went out to cosmic county and met up with the other. simon, liz and i did a couple of classics, Eighty Minute Hour (18) and Interstate 31 (17). pretty cool spot.

claire on mindblower (20) at cosmic county

simon and liz on eighty minute hour (18) at cosmic county

the next day we met up with andy richo and went to porter's pass. it was raining a bit, but we climbed at Chasing Amy area, which is capped by a big roof, so it was somewaht sheltered. Chasing Amy (21) itself was a great slabby route, a bit tricky. the 22 corner to the right was pretty cool too.

we had a couple of good days doing some classics at Piddo, like Flake Crack (17) and The Eternity (18), as well as a fun day out at Logan Brae, climbing on some big jugs.

doin the tourist thing

the highlight of this little ditty was surely Pirece's Pass though.
liz and i did Darkside (14), a sweet chimney. the start is quite wiiide and tricky. it was a great mini adventure. chimneying and bridging. some of the rock is a bit.. ugh.. but that just adds to the experience. the others did routes such as Bunny Bucket Buttress, West Face of Mirrorball and Disco Dancer, which from all accounts were all great.

at the end of the day we did Mirrorball (21), which goes up the headwall above the previous routes. what a spectacular pitch.

can't wait to go back.

rope orgy at pierces pass, click for more info

leaving for queensland with simon & liz tomorrow.
soon to be re-united with my car!

nowra; good times

2009-08-21T14:28:00.003+10:00

after a couple more good climbing days, fran had to go. she had a great trip! and is now embarking on a little quest. all the best!
then i was all alone... in nowra... on a sunday...

but luckily within 3 hours jed, john and anna arrived! sweet!
and then a couple of days later, simon & liz got here as well! yipee!
we had good times: paddling across the river to thompson's point and climbing heaps by day; cooking big dinners and drinking red wine at night.

anna seconding mosquito slap

huge diamond python at the top of the cliff (above the grease cave)

one of the highlights was getting a stolen handbag thrown at us from the top of the cliff (rosie's). cards and receipts went flying everywhere. no-one knew what the hell was going on, i thought somebody had decked out on a route. it was all good though, we took it to da police and that was that. it was probably a kid. one of nowra's up-and-coming gang-stars

also, my eye had been a bit sore for a few days, so i kept asking everyone if they could see anything on it. "it's fine" everyone would say. after a couple of days, liz said maybe there's something on the outside. lo and behold, i had a stowaway tick on my eyelid. no wonder it hurt so much.

when anna found out, her eyes lit up and she rummaged through her pack for some tweezers. i was very nervous having a near-deaf german poking tweezers into my eyes. but she was very steady and got it out without too much squealing on my part. so now i know who i'm calling on next time i get a tick.

lots of other fun things happened too...

jed getting close with a yellow-tail/laughing kookaburra

heading off soon with simon and liz. we're gonna stop by the blueys for little bit on the way to queensland. but who knows, maybe i'll end up staying there for longer. pretty psyched on the long routes there, some of the trad lines, and also the single pitch sport routes.

nowra; skin wars

2009-08-14T18:43:00.000+10:00

been getting through some routes at nowra. like i said before, when you just concentrate on the climbing; and look past the fact that that the rock is a bit sharp, and it's not a very pretty orange colour like in the grampians, you can really enjoy yourself here. (like i have been the last week or so).

our first 'project day' was pretty good. i was going to try Butterfly Wall (24) with Fran, but after sending her up first to put the draws on, i quickly realised it was going to be too crimpy for me. (it wasnt too crimpey for Fran though, she did it pretty quickly). so i thought i'd try some routes in the Betty Blue area.

this is a cool little wall that looks a bit like a reject from the grampians factory. i was a centimetre away from onsighting Still Life (23), a cool little arete, and was a little bit annoyed that i choked it. i almost yelled. it ended up taking me 3 goes for that, but i made amends by onsighting Betty Blue (24) afterwards. great climbing.

another day it looked like raining, so we went to Rosie's (yes, there is an area called Rosie's) which often stays dry. (it was pretty smelly too, apparently there is a smelter or something nearby). Fist Full of Steel (21) is a cool little route with a long move to a disconcerting hold to clip the anchors with. Fran did Beefmaster (23) nearby, which looks absolutely nails, while i did Mega Mac (25) which was cool. a thin crux down low and then a long steep wall with a few tricky moves. its pretty sweet. psyched!

jarred on mega mac (25) at rosie's

we spent a day at the Grotto which was quite busy. fran did two 24s in a day (Belgian Tourists and Zimbabalooba), while i tried a route called Lipstick (25). imagine this big rotted out cave thing about the size of a small house. lipstick starts at the far right hand end were the lip of the cave reaches the bottom of the cave, and traverses along the lip of the roof for 8 or 9 bolts before you get to the crux - a massive sideways dyno, a full arm span sideways to the left.

bad photo of lipstick, see if you can figure out where it goes.

it's actually not that bad, but the hold you go to is quite sharp. then you mantle into a knee bar in a big hueco, and go up a tricky finger crack. i tried it again a few days later, but twice managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. once time i wrapped the hold with 2 joints of 4 fingers, even kept my feet on somehow, but forget to actually grasp the hold. i don't honestly know what happened. and it's sharp when you fall, it cuts your hand, and it hurts. so i was a bit gutted. there are heaps of other routes to try though.

it's a constant battle of skin vs rock for me here. my whole hands are red, and my tips are raw. some days i wanna climb more routes, but my tips wont let me. someone should make some grippy skin tight gloves. i also am too scared to even practice on the ukulele at night, because it might use up a few nanometres of skin. i really need a couple of days off before going at it again, but i'll probably be heading off soon, so i'll try and get as much in as i can. as jb would say... "don't waste your life!"

jarred again, this time on cowboy junkies (25), with trent belaying.

after nowra, i'm gonna head up to brisbane and get my car back, then drive down to the blueys. if you need, or know of anyone, that wants/needs a ride from brisbane to the blueies in the first week of september then let me know!
seeya.

gay dave

2009-08-13T17:55:00.001+10:00

so during the easter holidays we were staying at mount staplyton in the grampians.
there were a lot of people around and it was a good time, especially when entertaining things happen.

gay dave getting his car stuck in the campground was definitely one of those things!

"you're a legend, dave."

and by the way, super duper congratulations to Dave and Amy on the birth of their baby, Ashley, a while ago - a crusher for the future!

nowra; settling in

2009-08-07T13:02:00.004+10:00

fran and i are at nowra now, and just had two good mileage days. we did about 16 pitches from 18-23, with one day at thompson's point and another at the grotto. i was surprised at how much face climbing there is here - for some reason i thought it was all steep and burly. it's reminded me how much i like hanging on to big jugs and how crap i am at tiny crimpers.

clipping bolts is kinda fun. the rock here is kinda coarser and sharper than it looks, so it works the tips too. the routes are ok, not brilliant, but some of them are pretty cool. it's not awesome here, but it's alright. but once you accept the fact that you aren't climbing on taipan, or at ben lomond, or even arapiles; then you can appreciate what you are doing a bit more. i've found some '3 star' routes here to be a bit... meh; while some 1 star and 2 star routes have been really cool. now i'm familiar with some of the areas and have an idea of how hard the routes are here i've made a list of projects. so now i'm psyched to get out and do them!

my dodgy finger and corresponding forearm are a bit sore though, so i might have another rest day before getting back on the rock. i didn't climb or train at all while in tassie, so maybe lots of routes in such a short space of time was a bad idea. it's good to be climbing again, it took me a few routes to get back into it, but now it's all good.

it's also quite expensive to live here, but i guess that encourages you to get the most out of every day. wont be here for too long (maybe a couple of weeks), but hopefully long enough to get some stuff done and get a bit stronger and fitter... the next few months are gonna be busy...

back to the pines!

2009-07-31T20:50:00.007+10:00

the last month has been pretty interesting... read on if you have something important to do and feel like procrastinating.

part I

after almost missing my flight out of brisbane, and narrowing avoiding getting slugged with a fee for overweight baggage i found myself back at Melbourne Airport. the original plan was to try and hitch all the way from the airport, but it was raining, so as a compromise i caught the skybus to the city and boarded a train for beaufort. it was getting late, so i jumped off the train, ran to the supermarket; bought some macadamia chocolate to leave for lucy, left it in her kitchen, then tried to hitch to horsham. i passed on a lift to ararat, not wanting to get stuff there for the night.
eventually rain stopped play and i retired hurt to lucy's place for the night. this was not so bad tho, as i was able to put my sleeping bag through a washing machine -- something it badly needed.

the next day i got to horsham and visited the library in search of a lift to the pines. i ran into jimmy bro the kiwi and his girlfriend, and a couple of hours later i was rendezvousing with the tassie uni crew at araps! no one knew i was coming except rosie and dave -- the rest of them got quite a surprise when i rocked up.

hanging out at araps with team tassie mark 2 was a blast! everyone was there having a good time, getting lots of stuff done too. i didnt take many photos at all, sorry, but here is what we got up to...

topher was working his way through a lot of mega classics he had and hadn't done before, while rita was getting quite solid at leading. she did mantle, watchtower crack and scorpion direct (sandbag). tim, tom and dom were also getting amongst it.

tim came for a week or so after his field trip to broken hill, so it was sweet to catch up with him. tim and dom also flicked off the first couplea days of uni to stay at araps. love your work fellas!

dave was enjoying being back to climbing fitness after his ailing body had been giving him trouble for a few months. he was taking kaely out on the rock where she was getting a lot of leading time in. after getting settled, she did some great leads like hornpiece, as well as a few other cool things too.

topher (climbing) and dave (taking photos) on morfydd (19).

but honestly, the highlight of this little sidequest was the food. dave, The Wonder Chef, would cook amazing dinners for everyone in the house, every night, without fail. it was amazing. we just chopped and did the leg work and he did the rest.

it was quite hard to get used to begin with, but very welcomed all the same. even better than the dinners were the desserts! self-saucing pudding cooked in the camp oven on the fire.... mmmmm de-rishous!

fuelled by dave's culinary masterpieces, rosie was climbing strong too: she 2nded stuff up to 21, led a few 18s, and many things a just a few grades below. in fact, everything was going quite well... until one day...

rose and i went out to colleseum wall to do a couple of routes there before heading to cobwebs gully (i'd been checking to see if cobwebs was dry every 2nd day). rosie started the day off on the rack (18). she was going alright until she fell off the tricky bit getting to the sentry box. she ripped 3 cams and then landed on my head. i caught her fall (in the most literal of ways) and then we started rolling down the slab at the base of the wall. we were both getting rather worried at this stage. i hoped we were going to stop sometime soon, (hopefully in time for dinner), but instead we kept going and going - taking out a few small trees on the way. we stopped on the first landing, halfway down the slab, coming to a rest in a tangle of ropes and gear; our faces full of dirt.

the damage? ...rosie grazed her little finger, knocked her shin, and got some rope burn on her neck. that's about it. i didn't believe her for a while and was waiting for her to say: "oh, and i think my arm's broken." or "oh, my ankle is smashed to bits". but that was it. actually i think i came off worse than she did! i bruised my leg pretty badly, and scratched up my hip and my back. i had to hobble back to camp, chasing after rosie as she went to put some water off for tea. we took the rest of the day off.

the lesson? ...don't trust cams and hard, glassy rock. i always found it difficult to trust cams at arapiles, but now... hmmm

things slowed down (at least for me) after that. but everyone else kept up the pace they were already at until eventually it was time for dave and co to leave. it was too soon. they piled in dave's van and headed south. another great trip. another goodbye.

rita's birthday present from dave (a chocolate banana)

part II

meanwhile, squib, the master of crusting and bumming around the world wasnt hanging around the pines much these days. why? well, he had somehow scored himself a place in nati... a house! house sitting, paying no electricity, with enough firewood to get thru to spring. he has a shower, a gas stove, a washing machine, cupboards, cutlery, crockery, a kettle and a toaster. wow. it's a great place. he did earn it though, as he spent a bit of time tidying it up - especially the garden. he has been climbing out at taipan a lot and did a lot of stuff, including serpentine. (prior to that he did 'serpentin' twice on the same day!).

so it was just me and rosie in the tarp house for about... 24 hours... until fran came back! she had just been in india walking around and was keen to get climbing fit again. so the 3 of us had a couple of good days out on the rock. then fran went to melbourne for a bit, but planned to come back soon. her and i were gonna hang out for a while and then head north for a little road trip when rosie left for WA to hang out with family, because she hasnt done so for ages.

however, around then i got a call from my parents back home in tas. it was a call that i had been waiting for all year, but not one i was looking forward to hearing -- my pop had been getting sicker as the year went on, and even went to hospital for a week in may. this time, however, things were worse. we made arrangements for me to head back to tassie for a bit. my sister was in new york (or was it london, kell?) at the time so she couldn't make it back.

it was time for rosie to leave as well so we both headed for melbourne. in melbs we hooked up with megs! meg had just been on a surfing trip to south america (where she caught a 2km wave!) for a few months. she picked us up at the train station and then we chilled at her place for the night. it was great to catch up with her. she then gave us a lift to the airport early in the morning (megs, you're a champ!). i caught my flight and rosie caught hers; both of us homeward bound.

i made to the hospital in hobart just in time, for what it's worth, i guess. pop passed away peacefully on saturday 25th july. he was a bloody good bloke, and was loved by all. vale. now, my family are a bunch of alcoholics, so i acted as a sort of taxi driver for the next few days. the funeral service was very heartwarming, and filled with tears of sadness and chuckles of laughter.

enough sad bits now! the upside of coming back to tassie for a brief stay was that i could catch up with some friends, or should i say, surprise them! (again.) the climbing barrel was scheduled for my last friday in tas. no one knew i was coming, so it was very fun poking people in the dark and seeing the expressions on their face. another great night.

anyway, soon i go to melbourne to meet up with fran and one her friends. then we're gonna go to nowra for a few weeks. yep nowra. i think i'll give it another chance. then i'll head up to queensland (maybe meet up with simon & liz!?) and get my car back, then catch up with jake in the bluies for september, and then head to the gramps and araps in october. cobwebs will be dry by then... surely!

climb safe everyone,
peace!

the frog chapter

2009-06-30T23:41:00.007+10:00

so we made it to frog ok, and had a good time there.

the drive up wasn't bad at all, in fact it was pretty cruisy with 2 drivers. grug and i first went to canberra and met up with doug and bisso. then we went to to nowra for a day. i've tried to forget that bit though (the nowra bit, i mean - not doug and bisso). nowra sucks. and i tweeked my finger there again as well, so it sucks even more.

oh well, at least it looks good...

...not: bisso on turn your eyes insane (26). (bisso looks good though)

anyway, we rolled into Boonah a couple of days later at about midday, wandered around town and who do we see within 5 minutes? jed. pfft small world. he was on a rest day in town, so we gave him a lift up the hill and went to meet up with the crew.

jed, zach and rosie had been there for over a week already, and they set the standard for the rest of us. alex had just arrived a few days ago and had already done quite a few routes. no sign of john and anna, who had gone to brisbane so that anna could have all 4 of her wisdom teeth removed...

anyway, back to the terrible trio:
jed had just done future tense (26) which is a pretty fucking awesome achievement (especially considering he placed gear on lead). he hurt his neck on the ascent though, so that slowed him down a bit.
zach was on a mission to do 50 new climbs, and was well on the way, leading routes up to 20, and seconding future tense clean. what the?!? he later went on to onsight a 20 as well. hopefully, he will now stop complaining about how badly he did on barbe di vendetta at the start of the year.
rosie had flown up from tassie fresh from walking the overland track after handing in her honours thesis. just as we got to the base of the crag for the first time she topped out having led plume (19). at the end of her time at frog she had also led a 20 and onsighted a 19. when she left she had also done over 50 climbs. oh, and she got first class honours too.

so everyone was climbing well and having fun. again, we had quite a few big cook ups . eating and climbing are possible the best 2 things in the world, (as well as drinking).

eating is especially good when you find 2kg of mince in the bin and make big hamburgers, like john did one day:

john's hamburger

we did a bit (a bit) of climbing too:

me on yankee go home (22); photo by simon locke
p.s. if you know lockie and have been wondering where he was lately, then he is working in brisbane.

rosie seconding dunedin dave up short order (20).
he fought really hard and was so close to getting it!

anna on infinity (19), (contender for the 3rd best 19 in the country.)
having some dude rip her wisdom teeth out under a general didn't seem to stop her.

on jed and zach's last night we had a big party. john and grug had talked the dude at the bottle shop down, giving us $5 random bottles of wine for just $2. so there was much wine drunk. rosie had brought her guitar up with here as well, so we had a good guitar/guitar/ukelele seesion, which allegedly ended up with me passing out in a camp chair while playing guitar. i can't remember it - so it didn't happen.

many pitches later, about a week in fact, it was anna'a birthday. so we had another party. the highlights were: anna's chocolate cake that she made for a birthday cake and the drawing rosie did for anna as a present.

there some more good climbing days, but eventually it was time to move on...
grug and i went up to the sunshine coast for a few days and climbed in the glasshouse mountains a little bit. alex went off to new zealand, while john and anna are holding down the fort at frog.

now we are crashing with scotty (from engi) at his pad in brisbane (thanks mate!) and tomorrow morning will see me take a leaf out of tetley's bag, and go questing about for a bit...

goodbye arapiles

2009-06-01T15:28:00.005+10:00

mon: 8/6

so it was midday on yet another good-weather-impaired arapilesian day that i left the pines, bequesting our house to squib until he leaves in september. the tas uni group will be up at the end of june to keep him company as well.

it was a great scene in the pines over the last month or so. in particular, when we moved up to the top and ended up partying with the kiwi's over at camp baghdad. one big happy family, with lots of drinking, lots of good bin hauls, lots of guitar, lots of explosions, lots of big communal meals, oh and lots of climbing -- good times.

what home looked like when i left home.

but it's time to move on. grug and i are chillin out with lucy in beaufort, jamming on the ukuleles and guitar. john, anna & alex flew to queensland this morning, while jed, zach & rosie have been there for about a week. i'm pretty psyched to get there soon and climb some cracks in qld with team tassie.

grug and i are heading up towards canberra way tomorrow, catching up with doug and bisso, and will be climbing at bungonia, nowra or point perp on wednesday, depending on what the weather wants us to do.

enter the next chapter...

the never-ending bender

2009-06-01T15:19:00.005+10:00

well, it's been raining for the last few days.
raining alcohol down our throats, that is.

we've invaded simey's place a couple of days ago and have just been slumming around natimuk getting wasted. in the last 36 hours we've gone through 9 bottles of spirits, and 2 casks of wine. ouch.

this morning wasnt actually so bad, because i think i was still wasted when i woke up. the hangover is staring to kick in now. john might have another cask out at the pines, so we're just about to head home, and maybe have just one medicinal cup of wine to feel a little less miserable.

and the weather forecast for the next week it looks just as shitty.
will it ever end? i hope so.

unfortunately the shitty weather means that cobwebs is probably off the cards. that sucks. oh well, might be a chance to do some classics and leave the mount on good terms.

if it ever stops raining, that is.

the family is getting smaller.
fran leaves for india very soon. alex left for frog the other day. danny left a while ago. i think he's in either adelaide, melbourne or sydney. or maybe brisbane actually. i think he went to adelaide and then got drunk and boarded a plane unexpectedly. who knows? i'm sure he doesnt know where he is either.

we are gonna roll out of here next week.
next stop is frog, maybe with a lay-over in nowra for a couple of days.
jed, zach and rosie are up at frog at the moment, so we're keen to get there asap and catch up with those crazy kids again. might live in queensland for a bit.

three dead mice

2009-05-28T16:52:00.004+10:00

thu: 28/5

three dead mice
three dead mice
see how they died
see how they died

p.s. this was just in 2 hours this morning, so there might be more waiting back at home.

footy!

2009-05-25T15:51:00.002+10:00

sat: 9/5
danny and i played a game of footy for natimuk reserves out at apsley (about 100km from nati). i used to play footy during my entire childhood, and it was my most favouritest thing in the world. but i stopped playing when i left school because i kept getting injured and realised my body was not exactly designed (and built) well enough to keep playing. (it was soon after that i started climbing).

anyway, so we both got a run on the track, had a bit of fun, got amonsgt it a bit, and we ended up winning by 4 or 5 goals. natimuk don't win that often, so it was pretty special.

here are some photos from the game taken by simey:

get involved!

(l to r) danny, my mullet, me, some other dude's mullet.

half time

after our game we watched simey run out for the senoirs. it was not as fun as playing, and when the score at half time was about 10 or 15 goals to just 4 behinds, we drove his car back to the piles, stopping by a good old country fish and chip shop to get a good feed of chips. when we got back we had another big party and got pretty drunk. i think i ended up sleeping in the dirt by the fire (again).

oh, and here is a photo of anna shaving of john's moustache.

bye.

hangin' out at arapiles

2009-05-20T17:04:00.002+10:00

so where were we?

oh yes, i hurt my finger on serpentine and was a bit sad about it.
gay dave and i had an early start and were psyched out of our brains, but it was not to be a good day (him putting a small hole in his tip, and me re-doing an old injury.

i had a few rest days and then thought i'd take it all a bit easy for a while. so i have just been chilling out at arapiles climbing lots of routes. i'm really enjoying the climbing here. even the one star routes are great. have had a few good days doing lots of pitches with squib and alex, as well as partaking in great feasts for dinner, and drinking lots of wine around the fire with the ragin kiwi connection (aka camp baghdad, after an aerosol can blew up in their fire place and covered their tarp with hot ash shrapnel).

also played a game of footy for natimuk reserves, it was pretty cool playing football gain. fucking fantastic actually. i hurt my thigh though so that kinda sucked.

we are gonna have an art gallery in the next week. probably on wednesday 27th. so come and see the creative juices of the arapilesians, or submit your own!

got on cobwebs (28) yesterday. holey moley. i am going to do that route.
for a 15m slippery piece of shit in a dank gully at arapiles it sure is ok.
grug has already ticked it, and dougpretty close. grug also onsighted trojan (25), but was unfortunately shut down on his other 'project' which kinda sucks. oh well, life goes on buddy.

anyway, there have been lots of other cool things happen, to numerous to talk about now, but i will type them up if i have the time! enjoy!

p.s. i've up loaded some photos, but havent described them yet. they are on my flickr page, use the link over on the right.

monkey puzzle!

2009-05-08T13:26:00.002+10:00

fri: 1/5

i did it!
today i guzzled some spunk, and it tasted sooooo good!
full story to come later.
only 20 seconds of internet time left today, so it has to wait..

but i hurt my finger on serpentine ssoon after so its not all happy days!
cliffhanger ending!

always look on the bright side of life

2009-05-08T13:15:00.000+10:00

wed: 29/4

after the intense events of last night, everyone was pretty lazy in the morning. there was a funny aura in the pines - some people thought something crazy had gone down, while others (such as jed) was slept through the whole thing (which goes to show how ridiculous the initial noise complaint was).

the attackers packed up early in the nmorning and were gone by 9.30.
we watched them, drinking cup after cup of tea.

a couple of the others went climbnig after that, but i didn't feel like going to the bother of putting on a harness, so went off to do tiptoe ridge to cheer up. when i got back i was a bit more motivated and decided to seek out some shorter easy climbs to do.

the highlight of this expedition was mesa (10) over near pilot error, which was great. after mesa i was even inspired enough to go bouldering! it was a good work out and i had a good time just cruising around by myself.

the highlight of the entire day was a problem called "woody". it climbs the underside of a fallen dead tree (!) just down from the infamous squeeze boulder. after a hard start pulling onto a stalagtite-thing with weird knobbly jugs, you have to bunch up and step across to another stalagtite-like feature using some underclings. the topout is a bit tricky, but knobs keep popping up and pockets keep appearing to make it not so desperate at all.

it's easily the best boulder problem in the world, and it's not even on a boulder!
(so that must say something about bouldering...)

thu: 30/4

another rest day in the sham, finishing off an article about the original aid route on the totem pole. doug and i freed it a few months ago, and it was a pretty wicked thing to be a part of. it's a pretty awesome route, with some great and absorbing climbing. the article might be in the next issue of rock of rossco doesn't think it is too shitty.

mallet attack in the pines

2009-05-08T13:13:00.000+10:00

tue: 28/4

i will post my account about what happened sometime. send me a text, give me a call, or send an email if you want to know more, but i think everyone knows the general gist by now.

i saw most of it and was utterly disgraced. i blew 0.00 on the police breatho (to see if i was fine to drive grug and john to hospital); so my observations are clouded only by complete outrage and total disgust, not alcohol. i wrote them down over the next day, but am a bit upset about random people talking about it elsewhere on the internet to want to draw more attention to it.

i have photos of what happened to g and j which i will show later,
but this is what happened to my guitar:

operation: establish camp arapiles

2009-05-08T12:46:00.005+10:00

mon: 27/4

we made a tarp setup today. it's pretty shit but it will do for a while.
at least everyone can fit under it if it rains.

then we went into the 'sham for a rest day...

to: deano, from: douchebag;
here is a speeding ticket.

on the road into horsham the speed limit reduces from 100 to 80 to 60 over a long stretch of wide open road.
a victorian police crusader was waiting there in the 60 zone all day for people and booking them. as you can gather from the title i was one of those people.

i was definitely going over the speed limit, but i reckon the ticket should probably not be for 'speeding' but for 'not slowing down fast enough', as i was just slowly slowing down on the way into town.

this was not good enough for our nazi friend, who was acutally quite a fuckwit about the whole deal:
"when in rome, do as the romans do"
"what would you do if i took your licence off you, eh?"
(to which i replied, "well, i'd probably be walking everywhere")

he obviously knew we were climbers ("you guys been out at The Arapiles have you?").
and he more obviously does not like climbers; so be warned!

i'm trying to look at it in a positive way: at least he didnt shoot us first.
and after raping us in the bum he let us go so we could run amok in town on another rest day. we salvaged a lot of food and a shower, got fed and then went back to the slimes.

operation: evacuate camp staplyton

2009-04-27T15:56:00.008+10:00

rain, rain, rain!

cyclone shitty-weather hits victoria; rendering it a total waste of space.

fri: 24/4
gay dave gave us advanced warning of the incoming weather, so we invaded a picnic shelter in the campground. we moved the food, kitchen, the chairs, the hammock, and even the couch into our rain-proof haven.

sure enough, in the middle of the night, we were hit by the rain.
it was fine hough, because all our stuff stayed dry.
dave's tent (bless his soul) held up pretty good, i didnt get wet at all, and only a few small puddles. i pegged it out more with some empty beer bottles (ground is softer after rain)... so it should withstand a small cyclone now.

sat: 25/4
the rain abated for a while, allowed grug to have another shot on serpentine. he did bloody well, considering all the jugs had puddles full of goldfish. he got to a high-point, falling at the second crux. then he pulled back on and climbed stright to the top (one-hanging it again). he'll tick it soon for sure!

while grug and doug (who was belaying) were away, i stayed at camp and fixedmy guitar. a while ago doug was throwing rocks at the birds and roos trying to eat our food. on of the rocks went astray and snapped a tuning peg on the guitar. luckily it was easy to fix.

then it rained. lots.
we decided to relocate to araps for a while, since it rains there less, there are more people to talk too, and there is a better chance of climbing when the weather is bad.

taking down the tent. note the beer bottle pegs.

grug loading up the car.

just to add to the excitement, on the journey to araps, my car passed the magical 300,000km mark. it is now, officially an old car.

just a little bit further...

...ahh!

in horsham we scored a carton of beer, then drank it out at araps. then went into nati to dave and amy's, then we drank more, ate noodles, and went to goat fest.

overall, the movies at goat fest were disappointing. simey's movie was by far the best; featured a dude snorting a line of coke off a chick's belly, and a fast-frame ascent of the bard and then that was the end.

sun: 26/4
gay dave and i went to the gallery, probably a bit too hungover to climb to full capacity. but he still got chasing the shadow sussed out pretty good, and i managed to get to a highpoint on monkey puzzle - through the roof, past the thread and up to the next bolt. i couldnt remember where the knee-bar went and i was too pumped to pull up the rope to clip the draw, so i had to jump off onto the manky thread. oh well, next trip!

taipan tickage.

2009-04-24T13:23:00.005+10:00

trying to sort out some pay issues with uni.... here is a quick update, i will elaborate later on if possible.

mon: 20/4
doug ticked serpentine (3rd shot i think)

tue: 21/4
gaylerry with dave.
he ticked monkey puzzle,
i one-hanged it.

so i took his draws off and put mine one, so now i have to go back.

also:
john ticked serpentine, and grug got lots of linkage.
read about john's ascent here:
http://cjclimbs.blogspot.com/2009/04/serpentine-has-been-slain.html

wed: 22/4

tried feather boa with doug.
we sorted the slab crux (25/26) past the first bolt.
the second crux (at the 2nd and 3rd bolts, but 10m above the first bolt) is really, really, hard.

thu: 23/4

jumped on serpentine with dave and grug.
grug one-hanged it! stay tuned...

fri: 24/4

its gonna be raining lots for a few days... in the sham now.
probably head to GOATFEST on saturday night in nati.

goat balls! goat balls! did you just hear murphy say something?

tickage by grug, and some rest days

2009-04-20T12:44:00.006+10:00

"back to the 'sham on a different trip
diggin' thru the bins and siftin' thru the skip"

another rest day in horsham today,
here are the highlights of what i have been up to.

thu: 16/4
had a big day at the gallery; did some laps a couple of the routes on the left hand end again, (chain of fools and two tribes), trying to get a bit fitter. have climbed here for 3 days now, and am definitely noticing an improvement to my fitness.

oh yeah, then what happened? oh that's right... grug did monkey puzzle, skipping 27 to climb his first 28. nice one man! he worked hard for it, so it was good to see him rewarded.

inspired by his efforts, i jumped on it as well. oh boy, what a great climb! didn't find the moves too bad at all (especially having the beta from all the other guys), so managed to get to the top ok, resting on all the bolts. none of the individual moves are that hard, it just that doing them all in a row is so tiring.

grug had actually quit drinking until he did a 28. good thing we carried 3 longnecks of homebrew up there, so after grug despatched with gorrila tactics second shot, him, gay dave and i had a celeberatory drink. dave was a bit fluey, so wasn't feeling the power at all, but he will be back soon... and so will i!

that night we went back to dave's place in nati and drank lots of beer.

sat: 18/4
had a semi-rest day yesterday pretending to climb at spurt wall, but today was a proper rest day. did the dishes and then watched grug and doug on serpentine from flat rock. both of them did all the moves. it looks amazing to see someone climbing up that pretty bit of rock. hmmm.

then we drove to araps, cause doug was taking this cousins climbing for the day. we had an inpromtu party with the crew there. tuna & pasta, beer, whisky, cask wine, and most importantly, GUITAR were enjoyed by all.

sun: 19/4
climbing at arapiles.

i must admit i was not psyched at all on arapiles, and getting less and less psyched on it everyday. sure the climbing there is okay, but it is mostly up insignificant little buttresses, chock-a-block with routes going everywhere. when you compare that to taipan, stacks bluff, the north wall, eureka towers, etc. etc. it seems even less significant. it's agood place to get some milage in though.

anyway, thought i'd give the arapalump a chance, so went out with grug to do a few pitches and ended up having a great day. did things like: new image, chinese algebra, wasp, in lemon butter, and huey. psyched on arapiles now! but back to the grampians for a little while longer; maybe move to araps in a week or two after i get some stuff done in the gramps.

mon: 20/4 (today)
another rest day in horsham. shower, shopping, salvador and internet. at one stage i had had 7 climbing days and 1 rest day, and my body was definitly feeling it. so a few easy days and i'll be rearing to go again.

back to the gallery with dave tomorrow... goal is to do monkey puzzle with one hang!

anyway, there you have it. i will probably keep each entry in a seperate post(like this) from now on (each instead of each day as a post), as it's much neater and i like things being neat.

serpentine

2009-04-15T13:07:00.000+10:00

tue: 14/4

wow.

did the first pitch (24) with john today. apparently no one does it because it's scary, it traverses too much, or because they cant convince people to second it. whatever. i say they don't do it because they are too fucking soft. it's a great little pitch. don't get me wrong, i'm going to be jumaring up the fixed rope from now on to get to the 2nd pitch. but the first pitch is worthwhile, and not doing it is simply soft and lazy. it's a tad tricky it spots, but it's not too bad.

but pitch 2... wow.

i only made it about 5 moves before i fell, but that was at least 4 moves more than i thought i would get! that opening sequence was better than anything on invisible fist by far. i haven't stopped talking about it, much to the amusement of the other guys. i hit my knee (left blood on the cliff!), and got rope burn inside my elbow, but i don't care - i pulled the roof on one of the best pitches in the world!

doug and cj are going to (hopefully) tick it on thursday. grug is going to do monkey puzzle, and so is gay dave. doug did venom today, and grug flashed dail-a-lama on spurt wall, after i dogged yup it with about 10 rests. i was on such a high after the serpentine shenanigans that i forgot other things in the world existed.

john has quit drink until he does serpentine, and grug has quit drinking until he does a 28, and doug is just not drinking because he's a homma. i have about 20 credits stored up for when they all decide to not be so fucking dumb. everynow and then i've had a lonely drink.

wed: 15/4

it started raining at 5am this morning; grug, cj and i were just bivvying out.
so grug and i moved into my car, him across the back seat, and me in the front. john set up dan's tent (but was too lazy to put in the pegs, so it was a bit flappy said). doug just lay smugly in his van.

had a shower and now were are gonna go get some food.

bye.

TAIPAN!!!

2009-04-13T12:49:00.000+10:00

okay, so there is this pretty cliff in the grampians called taipan wall, and it is pretty awesome.

[insert photo here]

previously i had done: the seventh pillar (18M2) with grug in 2007; and snake flake (26) and mr joshua (25 first pitch) over easter 2008. this year, i am going to do a lot whole lot more...

sat: 11/4

after warming up on the great bouldering traverse, i jumped on the invisible fist.
didn't get the onsight, but did manage to fall of at the bolt in the middle of the crux, with the quickdraw in my hand. i was so close to clipping that fucker, but in the end smacked my knee on the slab below. i was still trying to put the draw on in mid air while falling, complete with bicycling arms and legs. yikes. anyway, i eventually got it on and figured out a shitty sequence. didn't climb past the sit down rest, becuase i want to do the top section first go. it's supposed to be scary, but whatever.

back tomorrow!

sun: 12/4

went to rossco's bucks party last night, that was fun.

also, grug got some easter eggs, muslei and BEER, from the food source in town! oh yeah!!!!

ticked the fist second shot today. spazzed out on the first go and grabbed the draw (i put a long sling on the crux draw yesterday). i hadnt actually figured out where i was gonna clip from and didnt actually figure out a good sequence. whoops. anyway, figured out a sequence and didnt it pretty comfy next go. the top is pretty cool.

then watched some clowns jump off the top of taipan at the end of the day.

mon: 13/4

trip report from the gaylerry

doug and cj did spunky guzzle; yay. but gay dave fell off after crux, after the final kneebar rest... due to calf pump! bugger.

grug got reall really close! it will go down on thursday!

i did some other poxy routes, but also went to look at Mother of God, a grade 30 offwidth nearby. mmmm yummy.

grampians!!!

2009-04-10T12:45:00.009+10:00

went to the gallery and it was quite fun! wow, i was surprised at how much fun i had.

went with doug, grug, john, owen (from syd/wa) and gay dave.

did weaveworld (23) first go which was quite pumpy, but the finish up the final arete is super super good! then later i did two tribes (24) 2nd shot, which was pumpy as hell.

john, grug, doug and gay dave were working monkey puzzle (aka spunky guzzle), the line of the crag.

here are some photos. the climbs themselves are just steep thugfests on huge chalked up buckets, so they aren't very interesting to talk about, but they are fun to climb.

cj on monkey puzzle (28), at the gallery.

me on weaveworld (23), at the gallery.

arapiles!... ???

2009-04-09T12:37:00.002+10:00

made it to arapiles on wednesday night with john. grug and doug have a nice couch and a slackline set up. ahh the pines.

it is acutally looking pretty worse for wear: the trees are wilting, and many have been cut down; and the grass is very yellow, but not as yellow as the bore water!

i managed to fix the poles in dave's tent with some aluminium tube, a handy hacksaw and some duct tape. it works great. now i have a house!!!

after that i sat around talking shit with doug and simey, and drank oodles and oodles of peppermint tea. then later on went and did eskimo nell (10), one of my favourite climbs, but it wasnt as enjoyable as before... i don't know why.

anyway, doug is obsessed with this climb called "spunky guzzle" at a cliff called "the gaylerry" in the grampians. i've never been there before and never climbed anything steep like that before, so it should be fun!

cya.

melbourne

2009-04-08T11:27:00.002+10:00

the boat didn't sink, which is always a bonus. ahh the good ol' spirit, they don't have the cool warm blankets anymore, just these shitty yellow towel-things. oh well, already had a couple of the good ones in the car from previous trips, so at least a spare towel might come in handy. or maybe john or grug or doug forgot a towel and they can have it instead.

and the bloody nazi's in the food-restaurant-thing, they are bloody nazi's. i was trying to scrape some plates for dinner but it was impossible. ended up eating the bread and cheese that zach left in the car from the weekend (thanks zach!). oh i had that apple for breakfast too.

ok-waiting around until john flies in this arvo.
have some jobs to do, made this list last night:

parking...? (sorted, found cheap and free time limited parking near qvic)
get gramps guide for grug at MDs (try and cover/contact it somehow...)
get fruit and veg at q-vic
use internet
check email
post photo sub to ross
type up tote article and write the finish too
repair tent poles for dave's tent (thanks dave!)

cool. well i am psyched.
bye.

cape raoul article

2009-04-07T11:26:00.000+10:00

oh by the way, if you haven't already then check out the latest issue of ROCK magazine (autumn-09 / #78).
there's an article in it about the first ascent of The Last Pillar at Cape Raoul on the Tasman Peninsula...

this was one of the most special days i've ever had climbing!
a great day, with some great people, doing a great climb on some great rock, in the greatest style possible; all at one of the greatest places on earth.

it's not that often that you get to do something that special...

we are so lucky.

and so it begins...

2009-04-07T11:12:00.001+10:00

just about to leave the homely, friendly, freshly-cleaned-carpet-smelling, and good-time-hosting communal comforts of Fitzroy Place and drive the blue car up to the ferry...

on the boat tonight, and if it doesn't sink, then hopefully tomorrow i'll pick up john aka crazyjohn aka cj from the airport in the arvo, and then we shall drive out to the amazingly magical place of wonders...

arapiles.

but that's only the beginning of a trip that will hopefully involve a whole heap of lovely places... taipan, point perp, frog, glueys, bungonia and buffalo.

have been spending the summer trying to learn how to climb rocks, get fit at it, and in general hardening the fuck up. have some big goals... and an even bigger load of homebrew in the back of the car.

have done some pretty cool things this summer already, and if time allows then i will write them up in retrospect... but now, it's time to jump in the car and start driving -- i think it's to go and climb some rocks!!!