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19 October, 2006 Tonight, Tom, Chris and I were joined by Doc Tom and Darren (Yarrow). Doc and Darren are part of the Nepal Everest 2004 crew (see the adventure documented on Creative Giants ).
The Red One on the wave wall arete fell to Chris this week. Inspired by the layback approach to the crux that Tom and I had attempted, Chris made it through and bagged the climb! Meanwhile Doc Tom and Darren were working the slab. Darren was ambitious and quickly worked his way up the grading scale: Yellow, Blue, Purple, Green, Red and Black. The Red and Black was too ambitious We all moved onto the Wave wall, but deliberately only did the Blue and Purples. Chris then moved onto the Nose where he bagged the Green climb. Still to get it clean, but impressive to watch. Tom also jumped on the Green as his "warm down" climb and bagged it cleanly!! Check out the pics from last night on my Gallery. –Mel 16 October, 2006 Four ropes were dropped over Wages of Fear (24), Cucumber Castle (23), Moonlight Fantasia (18) and By Ignorance (13). It was going to be a night of hard climbing, my fingers are still sore while typing this report. We had a good turn out: Chris, Frank, Trav, Fraser, Faz, Tom, Chris (Tom’s friend) and myself. The Grass Anchor More hard moves on Wages saw me come off trying to pull off a layback move. As I fell the top rope setup above whipped up the loose particles near the anchors. Looking up I could see debris on its way down. Worse was the sight of a black rope falling from above too. I cowered while I was showered with the debris. The belayers were also peppered by small rocks. Once it was over I looked back up to find the black rope was half way down the cliff and the end of it wrapped around a clump of grass! My first thought was that Faz anchored the excess rope around a clump of grass. The shock load that was transmitted to the anchors during the fall was the cause of the whipping frenzy that moved a lot of loose objects off the scree slope. The fact that the climbing rope is a bungie did not help stablize the whipping effect. Faz you need to decommission this rope (seriously)! Wages’ crux remained unconquered. I barely made it to the crux. Fraser, Frank and Faz not far behind. And Chris not far behind them. That’s how hard these climbs are, each move up is a minor victory! Trivial Pursuits (Climbing Edition) "Did we do this last week?", Faz asks me as he stands in front of Cucumber. "It looks familiar." Last week we were on the Rasp. Different climb, opposite end of the carpark, a heel hook start, and different grade. Faz was serious too, despite claiming there was a hint of sarcasm. I think Alzheimer’s is setting in dude. It boggles my mind you are a teacher "Dark chocolate is a highly addictive substance. White chocolate is okay, its just full of sugar", Faz proclaims. "So I’m not a gay girlie guy then for liking chocolate?", says Frank sounding relieved. "But it still goes straight to your hips Frankie!", Trav exclaims. Climbing is either not important enough or the fabled Teachers Manual does exist. Remind me never to play Trivial Pursuit with the Faz, unless its the Climbing Edition. Like Wages, Cucumbers crux also remained unconquered. The contrived start had many victims and claimed Tom and Chris but no one cleaned the starting moves. Faz and I managed to get to the crux but could not work out the sequence to defeat it. While I was working out the crux, I yelled to Faz who was on belay, "What do you think is the next move?" Instead of a reply from Faz, I hear "Just put your hands up!" from what must have been a 4 year old. Thanks for the advice kid. Trash talking me at that age. Sheeesh. Moonlighting the Mantle Most people spent some time figuring out the mantle moves on the crux of Moonlight. Chris, Fraser, Frank, Trav (cleaned it) and Tom all got to the top. This climb did get a bit of traffic mainly due to its grade and good rock: nice face wall start and then a decent arete before hitting the high crux position. The Wedgie Epic By Ignorance was climbed by Tom, Trav, the two Chris’ (we need nicknames) and Matt. A world record for the longest time spent on an 18m single pitch climb was broken by Matt. It was like watching instant replay at the big ledge before the head wall: Raise arms up to small holds. Right knee up. Right knee down. Move arms back down. In between each move, wait 5 minutes. And repeat the whole sequence again. While Matt was trapped in his own Groundhog Day he had a belay relay happening down below: Tom (30 minutes), me (15 minutes) and Trav took the graveyard shift (10 minutes). It wasn’t until Fraser reached Matt via Moonlight that Fraser resorted to an unorthodox technique to get Matt off that nice comfortable big ledge: The Wedgie Lift. Grab hold of the harness from behind and give an almighty lift! It took two wedgies until Matt got off that ledge. The thought of a third wedgie might have had something to do with the incentive to get up Next week we will be repeating the same climbs. Each of us have a nemesis to battle with! Nic, bring along that special stopwatch. Not for Matt’s 2nd attempt at the world record, but for the belay relay team time splits. We will need 200 belayers. Oh, and it was a good night for walking Continue reading The Wedgie Epic 13 October, 2006 Chris’ infection in his blistered finger has really set in and is now on antibiotics. Sparkles was his replacement but despite turning up, he could also not climb. He had to visit his mechanic friend about a broken tail light which the Police booked him for. Sparkles was on his last point too – and the copper who booked him is infamous for mouthing off over petty infringements. This was the same cop who booked that car at KP on Monday. I remember him asking us if it was our car, when Fraser said "No", the copper looked disappointed and just shook his head. He has a bad reputation with the climbing community, as reported on this Qurank thread. For the record, don’t bite when C*ntstable Jamie Orr barks at you. Just take the ear bashing. Back to climbing, Trav, Tom and I continued working the slab wall. With a DJ mix of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Metallica and other Heavy Rock bands, we attacked the Black Ones. I cleaned two different Black Ones four times in a row. Super happy My "warm down" was on the Red Two on the wave wall arete. I managed to improve on my last performance: being able to sort of layback off the sloper/pinch hold and just get my left foot up. Next week or so this crux will fall! Trav and Tom "warmed down" on the wave wall and cleaned the Purple and Blue routes. Oh, and it was a good night to climb! –Mel Continue reading Heavy Rockers
The Ewbank grading system is the system used in Australia, though there are many others in use around the world today, such as the US, French and the UK. Continue reading World Grading System 10 October, 2006 The Rasp (21): Tom, Frank and Faz were Exterminated. More like bouldering with rope. However, Frank and Faz did a variant start from Dolermite Dreaming to traverse left back onto the wall. Chris and I succeeded in cleaning the climb several times. Dolermite Dreaming (21): What a horrible climb. Awkward moves across manky rock. Fraser cleaned it. Tom and I got to the arete and Chris near the 1st bolt. Tombstone Row (15): Matt was practising his stemming* technique on the dihedral start. Idiot Wind (21): Faz and Chris worked this route and it worked them too. Even though I cruised up, its still a classic with some good airy exposure to remind you how vertical the headwall is. The Stoats Stepped Out (21): Faz was the only one to climb this. The headwall looks daunting. *Stemming or bridging is the act of balancing your weight between two distant foot holds. Usually done in a dihedral or a corner of rock. A great technique for reducing body weight from your upper body to the legs. Continue reading Bouldering with rope |
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This new Black route actually didn’t pose an issue with Tom and I. We cleaned it on our second attempt. Chris joined in and after a few tries also cleaned it. We would rate this as a Black One.
Trav was inspired to bag these too, and his first venture on this Black One was to see him where we were two weeks ago: working out the heel hook crux. Two more weeks Trav and you’ve got it! 
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