An early afternoon session at Kanagaroo Point cliffs meant we had a good chance of getting the climbs we wanted. I had setup Top Rope on Squawk (20) and Gobble (23) and the Duke on By Ignorance (13). Gilligan decided to lead Adams Rib (19).

Squawk has a crux 4m from the start (at the first bolt). The grade should be a little higher since a crucial hold broke off in 2002. Now a pinch and layback is required to pull through and reach a thank god hold. Near the top another difficult section is encountered where crimpers are on the face.

I literally fell up the climb falling at both the crux and face. The Teacher did a bit better by falling less times on the hard bits. Gilligan cleaned it and celebrated at the top by cheering himself on with expletives! The Duke gave it a go towards the end of the night but his 5 weeks absence from climbing took its toll. Red also had the same problems.

Gobble is an even harder climb where the crux is on the face and again crimpers must somehow be used to overcome it. I somehow managed to reach the crux with much grunting and moaning, but the crux was not beaten. Gilligan and the Duke had difficulties on the smooth arete.

Adams Rib is a nice climb along an arete and a face leading to a headwall. Gilligan lead this with some ease to setup a top rope. My effort on TR was dismal. No falls but I felt my moves to be taxing and thus wasted energy. The Duke, The Teacher, Red and Irish all cleaned the climb.

By Ignorance is one of the best newbie climbs and also a good warm up and down. It follows a series of big ledges until a headwall is reached. Here the best option is to climb the smallest face to an overhang. The face can be climbed directly and this is the hardest option. To the right, the corner can be used to gain height before finally traversing across on the climb proper. Nicey climbed very well to the face where she took the corner option. Only a couple of metres from the top, she came unstuck. The Teachers’ brother Dan Fazbrother stopped by on his regular run home. He gave BI a go and despite using knees and elbows found himself at the face too.

We finished climbing at 8pm and a few of us headed to the Story Bridge hotel for dinner and a drink. The meals at the Story were huge in size and we found the beers so good to drink after a hard night of climbing.