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A big turn out last night: Nice, Purple, The Giggler, Gilligan, The Chad, Bigfoot, The Duke and Irish. We setup on similar climbs to last week: Date Anatomy (12), Pre Menstrual Tendons (23) and Froth (22). Also setup on The Bee’s Knees (16) after climbing was finished on DA. Sporting my new stylish Testarossa shoes I lead up DA to setup a top rope through the chains. My next climb was Froth. It was easy going until directly underneath the overhang. Tucking as far in the overhang as I could to gain the height, I could just reach above for a right hand hold where only two fingers could really only be used. Weighting the fingers, the left hand became free to move up. Took many attempts to find the correct hold for that left hand. In the process, the feet dangled. On my second climb on Froth I finally managed, to find that left hand hold – its wasn’t bomber and another desperate move to re-position the right hand to a more secure hold allowed me to weight my legs on a ledge below. Unfortunately, the left hand was not secure enough and my left leg was still dangling. I peeled off. In frustration, the rock slab got a good kick: Rock 1, The Grasshopper 0. Nice went up DA after me and cleaned it! She overcame a couple of difficult sections and despite sore fingers her determination got her to the slab below the overhang. Without hesitation this time, Nice bridged her way up the slab onto the ledge to bag the climb. And it was done without a fall: ie. clean! Her next climb was on TBK. Lots of bridging and lay backing saw her reach 3/4 height where the crux is. The crux moves involves several side pulls and crimp holds higher up. The Giggler had a score to settle with DA. Sporting her new pink shoes, she past her previous record to reach the ledge below the overhang. Bridging the slab to pull up onto the big ledge, she finally bagged DA. Despite The Giggler’s success the swear jar earned a couple of dollars. Probably earned far more if we could hear the other profanities offered. The Giggler’s next climb was also TBK where she reached the crux.
The Duke went hard on PMT and took the crux directly and the same with the overhang. His success allowed him the confidence to tackle Froth’s overhang. The Duke was able to reach the desperate hold on the overhang’s lip but could not hold on long enough to engage the other hand. Irish did well on his first climb on PMT. Taking on the overhang with success. However, the second climb on PMT was a different story. He wrecked his hands tucking into the overhang resulting in ripped fingers. The Chad has a new nemesis in the form of PMT. The crux moves were overcome with great difficulty and the overhang was negotiated by traversing slightly around to the left. The Chad had more success on Froth where like the others before him, saw him under the overhang. Another nemesis to deal with on our next KP venture. Gilligan had a clean record on PMT. Every move was done directly: The start, the crux and the overhang. Moving onto Froth, we felt his height might give him the advantage to eliminate some footwork on the slab below and find better holds above the overhang. This was true, both hands were on the overhang but not enough power was left to push onto it. The swear jar earned some more interest. Bigfoot arrived late as the rope on DA was being relocated to TBK’s. He went up first and froze at several places working out the next moves. After a bit of coaching from The Giggler and I we encouraged him to bridge across and finally reach the crux like everyone else who attempted the climb. Oh, and I was told to add my little incident at the end of the night, to this report. Only The Giggler can best describe what happened. I’ll leave it to her to add a comment to this entry if she dares (expect a counter reply about pink fairy shoes) Nice, The Giggler, Gilligan, Mr Erotica, The Chad and his flatmate Jimbo, The Duke and I climbed the great outdoors Urban Crag called Kangaroo Point for the first time for year 2007. Coming along for the show was Sherrie, Rod & Vic with two young kids they were babysitting for the day. We dropped ropes over Lost in Space (17) and Pre Menstrual Tendons (23) and I lead up Date Anatomy (12) to setup another top rope. Despite Rod & Vic taking the kids on a biking marathon around the Brisbane river, I offered the kids a chance to climb DA. A 14yo boy and 12yo girl managed to climb to the top (with a little assistance from Gilligan’s belay hauling technique). The pressure was now on for the Giggler and Nice to reach the top too. The Giggler reached the 2nd bolt before an undercling hold became too good to let go of. She retreated in shame. A few excuses were offered: fat feet day and the route was a short persons climb. However, the Giggler chose to climb LIS next. After a short burst of giggles at the start she powered her way to the chimney to reach the overhang. The epic effort saw her energy drained away or maybe it was the talking and rock slapping that sapped her power. Nice went up DA and reached the awkward undercling section. However, she managed to overcome this obstacle and move up to the overhang. A bridging maneuver enabled her to gain the necessary height to reach the thank god holds on top of the slab next to the overhang. The mighty effort saw her reach the top of the climb and claim her first ascent at Kangaroo Point. Her second outing to KP and already a climb has been ticked. The Duke decided to go hard by jumping on PMT. The hard start delayed The Duke to reach the half way point where holds become slopers. A small detour to the left and the Duke found his way past the overhangs. His second attempt at the climb saw him clean it and take on the overhang direct despite another detour towards LIS before reaching the overhang. Gilligan became a belay monkey for the kids at the start, but finally climbed PMT and LIS cleanly. Showing their appreciation, the kids thanked Gilligan and I personally for assisting them on the ascent of DA. I was very impressed with their politeness. The good nature of Rod & Vic must be rubbing off on the young ‘uns. Mr Erotica climbed PMT only but cleanly. The Chad cleaned PMT too and LIS. His wrist that was banged up from the Pulpit Inversion seems to have no effect on his ability upon his return to the rock. Jimbo in his sandshoes, hangdogged his way up LIS. I lead DA, and cleaned LIS and PMT on top rope. The hangovers, err I mean overhangs on LIS and PMT were a good challenge. On a more serious matter, a new rule needs to be imposed: NO TALKING TO BELAYERS WHEN INEXPERIENCED CLIMBERS ARE ON THE ROPE. Their attention should be solely devoted to the climber at all times. The confidence of the newbie’s safety and the distraction for the belayer is unnecessary. Actually, this should be a general rule for all belayers despite who is on the rope. Enough said. Continue reading Children of the Crag 15 January, 2007 A call went out to all the brave & stoopid for a Sunday climb. Only one responded: the Duke. Despite the cloud cover, we were baking out there. We were the only stoopid people climbing at that time (noon). Call us Stupid and Stoopid. We setup on Brisbane Bitter (24). I cleaned it three times. Twice via the variant start Gangbang Wall -> Hanger Wall link up and the last a direct start. So as Stupid is as Stoopid does, Stoopid attempted the variant start and subsequently peeled off on the delicate traverse. The direct start was then attempted with more success. Two attempts at BB saw him reach his highest yet: the desperate holds of the crux. By two o’clock we high tailed it out of the crag and headed to K2, where the Duke bought his first top rope setup gear! BTW – If anyone is looking for cheap shoes, Scarpa Dominators (the same as mine) are on sale for $99 and there are a couple of beginner shoes going for $45 (new)! Continue reading Sunday Muggy Sunday The Year of Climbing has begun with an unscheduled visit to the indoor gym as rain threatened the outdoor theatre. A small contingent of Urban Craggers (Bigfoot, The Duke, Irish and I) worked the walls of Urban Climb. We jumped straight on a Black One (slab wall) as our warm up. Bigfoot warmed up on a Purple One and cleaned it! His best indoors achievement to date. Moving around the slab to the Wave wall arete, we hangdogged our way up a Red Two. Irish and The Duke worked hard on the Wave wall while Bigfoot and I did the same on the Tall wall. Green Two’s were enough for me to feel pumped due to its height and slight overhangs. Bigfoot did well on a Blue Two until reaching the headwall. We swapped partners, The Duke and Matt then attempted the Hourglass wall where the Red and Purples were attempted by the Duke and Bigfoot respectively. Irish and I stuck to the Tall wall where Irish had an epic on a Green Two. Got a sore neck from belaying the most unluckiest Irish man alive. We then all gathered back at the Slab wall where The Duke and Irish worked on a Black and Red route. Just as Irish was ready to climb, he looked over to Sherri, Bigfoot and I and mouthed something at me. Not sure if he was talking to me, I just ignored him. Then he came over and spoke some Irish gibberish. I just smiled and nodded not knowing what the hell he said. I looked over to Sherri and asked her if she understood the most unluckiest Irish man ever to live. She didn’t understand him either. Then Bigfoot said, "Irish said, "Your a nice bloke Dennis even though you don’t understand me"". How ironic. We broke out in laughter. Last Friday night an unexpected 100m climb by The Giggler, Bigfoot and I was attempted and successfully ticked. After a vodka run, we found ourselves trapped outside the Aurora Apartments (69f) 207m (see: SkyscraperPage.com).
Nice the Key master failed to answer our distress calls. What was happening up there? Had they forgotten about us?
We hit the 7th floor to find a metal grated door blocking our progress to the 8th level. We were already committed and dreaded the down climb so we took the floor exit. Entering the car park we traversed down around the ramp to find ourselves on the other side of the grated door. Success, we could continue our ascent! Despite this stroke of luck, our spirits quickly dampened upon reaching only 3 levels up: the 10th floor. We were only less than a third of the way. Tired, thirsty and exhausted, we rested. Bigfoot cracked opened the vodka bottle and we all took a swig. Within a short time, The Giggler was leading the way while Bigfoot and I seconded at a much slower pace. At the 20th and 30th level we rested and again took more swigs of the vodka bottle. It was harsh but we didn’t care.
We later worked out that the mobile tone ring was not audible over the the loud music that was rocking the Gatekeepers apartment. The Giggler and Bigfoot rang the mobile so many times it vibrated off its resting place on top of a red wine cask and somehow found itself inside it! For more pics see Meltaxa’s gallery. Continue reading The Unexpected Climb |
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Purple climbed in style: Purple shirt and same colour shoes. Her matching outfit represented the theme for tonight: "climbing is all about style." Purple’s first climb ever was on DA. Special attention and guidance was offered by the ground crew to help her reach the top! That was the easy part. Being lowered down gently to ground was more difficult than anticipated. A couple of shrieks could be heard during the descent.
We walked across to Customs House to try and flag down anybody on the 37th floor balcony. This was fruitless. We abandoned this silly idea and walked back to the Aurora foyer. The lifts required a card key to gain entry to the desired floor. Without a key and no contact with the Key master we had no choice but to attempt The Aurora Step (37f) 100m. The Giggler took her high heels off in preparation for the mega step climb.
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