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The Crew talked about a Sunday climb last Monday since the last Monday of the year is New Years Eve. Despite the rainy week, Sunday seemed to be dry enough for a late morning climb. The Teacher and the Grasshopper answered the Urban Crag jungle drums and setup on Anonymous (14) and Fourex (25). The Grasshopper is now relegated to easy climbs and even finds these somewhat "difficult" now. He moved onto Fourex and was spat off just above the first both runner! The finger was hurting pretty bad. More easy training next time to strengthen the fingers and condition himself before tackling harder climbs he thinks. The Teacher did well to get to the crux. Here a big dyno is required. The Teacher hang onto the undercling and crouched ready to pounce onto the far away hold. He leapt and could only get fingertips to touch the ledge. A few attempts was enough as holding himself onto the precarious position was taxing enough. As we packed up and headed towards the stairs, we bumped into Dan Fazbrother and his Fazkids: Isaac, Nathan and Luke. We offered them a climb on an easy grade 12 for the kids (and the big kid Dan). The Teacher lead and setup a top rope for them. Dan cleaned the climbed and was very jubilant in getting to the top. By now it was late afternoon and the Teacher and the Grasshopper had to make tracks. We left the Fazbrother and kids to their own devices where hopefully Isaac and Nathan got to do some challenging and fun rock climbing. Meanwhile, Luke was taking it real easy and having a kip beneath the fig tree. The Teacher, the Duke and I lead an easy couple of grade 12s. This was my first climb since I broke my finger and after 2 months or more the finger is still not fully healed. I fear there is permanent damage. My Futsal career is over and even worse my climbing will now suffer. Despite the grade, I stalled at the second bolt runner. Confidence and bridging saw me finally clean the climb. The Duke and the Teacher did well to lead both routes. Bigfoot and the Chock arrived. Bigfoot encountered difficulties on the slab while the Chock seemed to pass this crux with less difficulties. Gilligan arrived with little Bella. Gilligan immediately enticed the crew with beers. The Grasshopper relented but the Teacher wanted one more climb on the easy stuff. He saddled up ready for a lead, with the Duke on belay. At the first fixed hanger he clipped and then was about to proceed onwards. The Grasshopper watched with some puzzlement. He was climbing as if on a lead but he was tied to a top rope! "Hey Faz! What are you doing?", the Grasshopper asks. "I’m leading this climb" It took a couple of glances at his quickdraw and rope setup to realise his funny predicament. The crew burst out with laughter. We soon moved on to By Ignorance (13) where Bigfoot had an idea to overcome the crux headwall. He shot up the cliff very quickly to the last ledge. Here his theory was to ascend via the right side where a crack with decent holds seemed to exist. The holds soon ran out and a step out onto the headwall was required to trend left towards the finish. The Bigfoot was so close – perhaps a single foothold was missing in his final attempt. The Teacher attempted the headwall direct. This required using a couple of crimpers and a high foot hold to lift off the ledge. A mighty effort by the Teacher was not enough to pull through this. The Duke, who likes challenges succeeded in claiming the headwall. The Duke of Climbing the instructed the Chock to try and repeat the same. Like the Teacher, the Chock was drained and could not complete this section. The Chock moved to the left and tacked the small wall before laybacking his way to the top. After climbing a few of us headed down to the Story Bridge. We had fish & chips, an Angus rump, and Thai curry. The food was fantastic! Tonight the crew gathered for their regular Monday night social climb at Kangaroo Point cliff, Brisbane. Some climbing highlights of the evening:
Meanwhile Nicey, The Bruiser, Monny and the Grasshopper attend to the BBQ. Kangaroo Point barbeque’s are always set to low heat which makes for a very slow cooking process. Equipped with a torch (the park lamps are inadequate), they inspected the sausages and chicken pieces until it was well cooked – probably 3 gas button pushes later (about an hour). The meat was served with bread rolls, potato salad, green salad and various condiments. To wash it down the crew had soft drinks, beers and a white wine. Everyone pitched in to provide for the BBQ and cooking process. It was very much appreciated, as proof there was only 2 snags left from a full tray of food. This is probably the unofficial Urban Crag Xmas party to see 2007 out. But as usual the crew will keep climbing Monday night’s. Continue reading Kangaroo Point cliff Sausage Sizzle "It’s all good, it won’t rain at KP", the Grasshopper ensures the crew. "The BOM radar shows rain in the north and drizzle in the far west ranges. CLIMB ON." Indeed, despite the gloomy sky, the weather seemed to hold off at KP. By 5.30pm the Teacher was setting up top rope over Chubba Chip Mods and Gilligan was deciding to lead either Juice or Vegemite. He chose Juice so the Giggler and the Chock could improve on their past performance on this climb. The Giggler belayed Gilligan as he lead the route. He easily cleaned the climb to set up a top rope. Meanwhile, the Chad and Rudy popped in at the cliffs to pick up a DVD and his harness. The Chad was still sufferring the ill effects of alchohol poisoning from the weekend. Later that night, Rudy had to pamper the Chad while he watched Dean Potter solo up El Capitan in the Masters of Stone V. The Teacher saw the start of CCM and knew it was going to be tricky. The wall is slightly overhung with awkward holds on an otherwise smooth face. An obvious ledge must be reached and then mantled to finally have a moment of rest before a smooth arete is negotiated. The crux is next: a high mantle that offers only slopers for hand holds. After this its easy climbing to a crack line running up the headwall. Holding on, the Teacher peered up towards the ledge. "I can’t let go to reach that hold or I’m going to fall off", the Teacher thought. "Pull in the slack tight", the Teacher said. The Chock started pulling in the rope through the belay device. The Teacher peeled off and the stretch in the rope was enough for him to bounce off the ground with his legs. The Chock was dragged a few steps towards the cliff. A few people watching offered some beta: "Use the undercling" was the common tip. The Teacher stood staring at the rock, studying every rough edge that was available. This trance like state lasted for about 10 minutes, before he approached the rock again. The Teacher took the advice and held on to the rock using the undercling. "Yeah. Thats the way.", encourages Gilligan. Not wanting to sound like a bunch of holy christian climbers, the Grasshopper heckles the Teacher, "Your going to come off!" This was the "encouragement" the Teacher needed. He lunged towards to the ledge and was able to stick to it. The second hand came up to offer more support. A bit of a scramble with his legs gave him more height. But now the Teacher was in his usual Fazspastics contortionist routine. One leg was on the mantle. A hand placed palm down on the ledge and the other two limbs dangling in the air. All while his body is near horizontal. The laws of physics were broken tonight. Henceforth, this defiance of gravity shall be called the Art of Fazitation (ala levitation). To use in a sentence, "The Teacher approached the crux, and Fazitated pass the mantle". Kids don’t attempt Fazitation on your own. Crab walking up a cliff is more dangerous than soloing. Even the Teacher lost control of his Hero like abilities… Without realising how fast the Teacher was Fazitating, his flabby arm parts got caught in the anchor as the Chock was desperately trying to keep up with the belaying. "Argh Fawwk! Gimme some slack.", the Teacher yelled. The Chock fed some rope back out. "More! More! Argh Fawwk". The Chock then quickly let the Teacher down. Giving far more slack than the Teacher really wanted. "Argh Fawwk. Slow down. Slow down", the Teacher yelled with a hint of panic in his voice. The Chock slowed the descent and the Teacher touched down softly to the ground. The Gilligan gave CCM a go. His go-go gadget arms helped him overcome the hard start. But it was still hard going for him. Gilligan even went to the next climb, Cross With No Name (22) and with some determination cleaned this climb too. The Giggler who had belayed Gilligan lead Juice, remembered the route taken, in particular the crack start. As always in any sport, watching is easier than actually doing it. The Giggler was in form tonight, providing much material for tonights blog and spraying profanities out. Though not as bad as the natives nearby who swore, punched and chased someone across the park. During some of the hard moves (actually the moves really just required walking across a ledge or stepping up on a block), the Giggler started talking in the third person, "Nicole is not going to fall.", she repeated this to herself. "Nicole doesn’t like ledges". Throw in a few giggles too and she managed to talk herself across and to a section of wall with medium size holds. The Chock had a good go on Juice’s start. The layback technique was taught to him to move up the crack line. However, the arms were too spent and the Chock decided to traverse around to the right. Meanwhile, the Giggler got a strange tingling feeling in her bung knee. She told us rain was coming. Indeed, within moments, the first few drops of rain fell. Not quite enough to stop climbing but still for those watching to seek shelter. Henceforth, a webcam will be pointed at the Giggler’s knee cap and streamed across the internet. No longer shall the Grasshopper rely on BOM for forecasts or even radar images. Here is the Knee barometer reading for reference:
http://kneebarometer.com/ (park it now – it will be a gold mine). Girraween National Park Jenesse Valentine, Melissa Rose Horne and Dennis Mellican left Brisbane and arrived at Girraween arou The Faz family (John Farrelly, Kylie Farrelly, Rikki Farrelly and Jade Farrelly) arrived soon after. John and Kylie immediately unpacked and started setting up their camp next to Dennis & Jenesse and Mel Rose. While the Faz’s were busy, Jenesse & Mel Rose went to Ballandean Estate Wines to pick up a few bottles of Summertime (a sweet White wine) and a Merlot. Meanwhile Dennis entertained Rikki and Jade with some skipping, hula hoops, footy, and some rock scrambling. The girls then wanted to dress him up as a girl, put make up on and do his hair. He promptly sat down, had a beer and ignored the pleas for the rest of the afternoon. As night fell, dinner was being prepared by everyone. The Faz family must’ve forgot their camp food and had to eat rabbit food. Dennis, Jenesse and Mel Rose had Gnochhi with cream sauce (after battling with their portable stove for 15 minutes).
At this stage we were wondering where Matt, Aileen and Natalie Moores were. They were expected to be at Girraween before sunset. By 9ish, Nicole Keegan, Dylan and Luke arrived. Luckily the full moon was up and this provided some light in setting up Dylan’s tent. Their friends Keith, Nadia and her cousin decided to camp near the school group as they arrived earlier but did not know how to find us. Still no sign of the Moores’ clan. There was no mobile reception to locate the Moores’ and someone suggested they must’ve arrived on sunset and setup wherever they could find before dark. The night was very cold, easily down to single digits Celsius. People shivered in their sleeping bags. Frost had formed overnight.
Nicole and Dylan decided to jog towards the First Pyramid. They caught up to the rest near the base of the rock. Here it is all a very steep slab, but the coarse texture of the granite gives enough friction to walk up without much worry. Sometimes pretending to be an aeroplane helps. The group made it to summit where Dennis pointed out the Second Pyramid, famous rock climb route: Scimitar 70m 21. Faz thought the big cracks to the left could be done as a solo to the top. Dennis wasn’t that nuts and even if he was, a busted finger would not get him up. Faz successfully recruited Dylan and they soon were scrambling down the side of the First Pyramid to the base.  Not wanting to watch, the rest of the crew headed towards the true summit. Here the obligatory group photos were taken. As the crew admired the 360 degree views, Faz was spotted running around on the summit of the Second Pyramid. Dylan was no where to be seen. The crew clambered back down to the Balancing Rock to observe Faz down climbing the crack section. Dylan was finally spotted. He was stuck trying to bail out of an arete onto the slab. Not confident, Dylan would keep placing his feet onto where he wanted to move but hesitated each time. Dennis directed Faz to a safe exit towards Dylan, where Faz helped him successfully down climb this section. Before this Faz was heading down a vertical crack line! His family looked on in amazement. The group arrived back at camp and the Moore’s family decided to relocated their camp over to the main group. The Faz’s went off for a drive while the rest of the crew had lunch and then took two car loads and headed off to the wineries. The first few winery stops were in the Balladean area and then Felsberg at Glen Alpin, before returning to Balladean for a tour at the Balladean Estate Wine. The group had a few tastes before joining the tour. It was long but informative. Dennis’ patience had run out and he blew a fuse. We had left the wineries with plenty of Mead, semi-sweet varieties and some reds. The group arrived back at camp and the Faz’s were back but were on another hike, this time to Castle Rock. They returned not long after. Rikki had sustained a sting on the foot, possibly from a nine legged flying spider (as witnessed by Rikki). But she recovered well and played with Natalie and Jade. The adults joined in with the rocket balloons.
Matt polished his Mead off very quickly. He had wished he bought more than just one bottle. The usual banter over a camp light was heard over wine, cheese, chocolate and toasted marshmallows. Faz is going to look up his score on Rate My Teacher. Kylie read the children a story and the adults listened in keenly. That night it wasn’t so cold. Some people woke up sweating. The next morning, everyone had the same idea: have breakfast first and then pack up. Later that day it stormed very hard across South East Queensland. The group were lucky to have good weather in between stormy periods. Photos of the weekend can be seen on the Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/meltaxa/Girraween2007. Continue reading Rock & Grape Tour |
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nd 1ish. They stopped briefly at Aratula for Mel Rose to relieve herself, then at Bellbird Grove at Cunningsham Gap to listen to the wildlife, then Stanthorpe to pick up some Winery brochures and a chocolate stop at 
The next morning everyone arose early with the plan to climb up the First Pyramid (3.4km, 2 hours return). On our way through the camp ground we found the Moore’s. They indeed setup camp to beat the sunset.
Just before sunset, dinner was being prepared over a few glasses of wine we had recently bought. The flies came in plague proportions and were very annoying.
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