19 December, 2006 

Two ropes and too many climbers! Despite 5 of the crew owning top rope gear, it seems we still need more rope.

A flood of backpackers (3 crazy German girls and 1 Dutch lad) escaped from Tom’s House of Perversion. Irish, The Duke, Mr Erotica, Big Foot, The Giggler and Gilligan took to climbing GBW (23) and AA (14). The Chad still healing from his spectacular Pulpit Inversion decided not to further injure himself, but showed up to say G’day to all. The Teacher is on holiday’s.

GBW was cleaned by me at least 3 times. Gilligan’s first attempt resulted in him peeling off the crux and leaving a pool of blood on the crimp holds. He retired early with bloodied fingers. The Duke hang dogged his way up. Irish went all over the place trying to overcome the tricky parts. The crux also got the better of Mr Erotica. Bigfoot and The Giggler gave GBW a good attempt. The start moves involving different hand grips was good practice for future climbs.

AA was cleaned by Irish and The Duke. AA’s start is still Bigfoot’s nemesis, although he made it through to the first ledge. The Giggler had some troubles at the start but overcame this to find her way up to the first overhang – a washing machine size chunk of rock wedged above a dihedral. The rather uncomfortable position and a few head bangs later, caused her to retreat. According to the Keegan Aggregate*, The Giggler made 80%. The crazy german girls all had a go with some success. The Dutch lad reached the first ledge.

This is the last climb before Xmas, so a very merry Xmas to all the crew! Next week we will be back on either Wednesday or Thursday – watch this space!

*The Keegan Aggregate: Add height climbed for each route. Divide this by the height of the cliff. Add extra half points for Giggles. Times by a 100 for a percentage.