Gone Epic

Last weekend saw most of the yearly traffic to Black Range descend on the area in a single weekend for the 4th North Black Range boulder meet, organised by Duncan Brown.  It's an opportunity to get out with a lot of like minded people, crush some boulders, and one of the only times that I can find the mats and spotters to have a serious go at some of the highballs.  This year saw the first ascent of 'The Riddle', an unclimbed highball on the main bloc at The Hill. Sadly that happened before I got there on Saturday, and while I had a short go on the bottom part of it, I was lacking in both mats and spotters to try the top part. I did redo 'Percival Extension' that I first sent at the festival last year. Not bad given that I've made a full pivot from regular bouldering last year, to mainly sport climbing this year.  The weather wasn't great, a little cloudy and humid, and I think that played a part in suppressing numbers compared to last year. ...

For the first time in my life I've actually been applying myself to training for something, it's been about 10 weeks since I started an aperiodized climbing training plan, based loosely on Steve Bechtel's Logical Progression .  The basic premise is that you rotate between the three types of sessions, progressing them all simultaneously, rather than peaking and letting each of them fall in turn.  The results seem to be pretty good, I'm climbing harder than I ever have before, and am seeing benefits in all three areas.  Finger strength and general strength is improving (so surprising given that I've never done any lifts before)  My on route endurance is improving, and my ability to apply power is increasing as well.  I still struggle with setting goals, but one route that I've been keen on doing for years is Butterfly Wall Direct (24) at Nowra. I first had a look at it in January this year, and the moves felt surprisingly doable. I spent another ...

Apologies for the long time between posts, I just got back from 3 weeks climbing in Yangshuo, China. It's limestone Karst country, with some tufa climbing, some overhanging pockets and caves, and some slab-like climbing. It's certainly an interesting mix, and a very enjoyable place to climb. The climbing was great, as was the group we had, mostly current or former ANUMC members, and based out of Canberra. We spent a lot of weekends in the lead up climbing in Nowra, as the sandstone there seemed better suited to training for limestone than anything else that we had available. Phil is so expressive The Climbing The climbing is varied on the cliffs around Yangshuo. It's not as tufa heavy as the tropical limestone in Thailand, but it has a combination of tufas, pockets, and slabby walls. You will find something you will enjoy here, although some of the higher traffic areas are getting polished and chalk caked in places. The grading is meant to be  a little stiffer...

And don't even get me started on my free climbing rant! Of course I'm free climbing, the part you are worried about is the soloing. Why do we solo? Many far more talented climbers and authors have written on this topic, ( Matt Cousins - Why Soloing , Alex Honnold several times ) often coming to the same conclusions. And yet we can't seem to describe it in a way that makes sense to the people that ask the question. Are we so far apart, those that do and do not solo, or do they just not want to accept the answer? From Honnold: "I like the simplicity of soloing," he says.  "You've got no gear, no partner. You never climb better than when you free-solo."  He also finds that the sport fits his psychological makeup.  "If I have any gift, it's a mental one," he says. "Keeping it together." I love to solo climbs, the freedom of movement, the speed with which you can climb, the state of mind throughout, and the feeling ...

It's been at least a few years since I was last climbing at Nowra, but in preparation for Yangshou I think it'll become a little more common. The sandstone jug routes and slopers are the closest I'm going to get to the tropical limestone routes. Considering the amount of routes I've climbed in the last year or two it was a pretty good day, an 18 and 19 to warm up, then worked the moves on a few 22's. I also finally had a crack at Butterfly Direct, an imposing route up the intimidating face hanging over the track, right up and over the 'butterfly' feature high on the wall. I've been eyeing it off for years, but never really felt up to having a go at it. I jumped on not expecting much, even pulling off the ledge at the start was hard, mostly intimidation rather than the moves. Once I was on the wall things got a little easier, I was happy dogging the route, so I'd climb as far as I could, sit on a draw and study the next moves, the lo...

A loosely affiliated ANUMC trip, with a constant battle with the elements and the flakiness of people.  Following a wet spring, the weather just never let up, the long range forecast was concerning going into the pre-trip, half the group was non-commital, the rest of us were keen to go to Araps in particular, and were prepared to wait and see on the weather. A week out the forecast was ok, getting better for a few days in the middle, and certainly good enough for me to risk it. Apparently Bonnie, Jin and Paul felt the same. We committed to going down, I tried for a friday evening departure, but we weren't able to make it work, I did manage to wrangle an early start saturday morning, meeting at Bonnie's at 6:15 in the hope that we could get a climb in in the afternoon. Saturday 24th Paul and I swapped shifts on the uneventful drive down, reaching Araps at about 4:30, with just enough time to setup camp before the rain came down. A trip into Horsham to acquire some additi...

It's a common refrain that people that are starting to train get injured more often. I'm just starting to train a little more seriously for climbing, I'll try it for a few months and see how far I can get, and I can confirm that injuries have been prevalent - however all of them have been acute, due to blunt force trauma, and with no connection to the training. The rock and some of the damage caused, it's thicker than it looks from this angle The first was a few weeks ago I was assisting with the rigging and supervision of a ropes training weekend with ISS at Nowra. I went to the ute to grab a tube of sunscreen from the glovebox, trying to avoid the inevitable sunburn. I put the sunscreen on the roof and reached back in for something else. Due to the angle of the car, I rested my left hand on the door pillar. As I turned to go I must have bumped the door, slamming it onto my hand, pinching the end of the middle finger. I swore a bit, opened the door and grabbed th...

Now that I have my own bouldering wall, I've decided to get a little more serious about my training for climbing. 

Sometimes all it takes to have an Epic is to tell someone a ridiculous idea that's swimming around in your head. Sometimes that person will drive you to see the idea happen, and make sure that you succeed.  A few months prior to Callum's 28th birthday in 2015 he mentioned a plan, to climb 28 pitches in a day, all trad, all lead. While it's not a huge objective, for a relatively new trad climber it was a pretty big thing to attempt. Part of his motivation in telling me was to make sure that it happened, that there was someone to hold him accountable, as well as cheer him on through the day.  After a few months of training for volume, and making vague plans with areas of dense, easy lines the agenda crystalised. Start early with Booroomba ,- the walk in could be done in the dark, and there are a fair few easy lines on the North end of the Northern Slaps, he'd start with those, and see how many we climbed, leaving the Orroral Ridge crags for later in the da...

About 5 years ago a waterline was bolted down at Kambah Rocks using 12mm Dynabolts (non-stainless). The bolts have been slowly rusting since, as they end up under water whenever the river floods. I've been intending to replace them with stainless glue ins when time and budget allows, and when I can be sure it won't be used for a day or so while the glue sets. The plan was to do it at the end of this past summer. Sadly someone beat me to it, but did so in the most half hearted, incompetent way possible. Clearly someone that hadn't bolted before, and hadn't really done any research. They drilled new holes rather than pulling the originals, and drilled very close to the original bolts. The bolts stuck out from the rock a good 40mm, and the glue was an eyesore. On top of that, they had bolted the wrong anchors on the far side, placing them near an old set that were never used because they form a dangerous line, a few rocks come into play a little closer to the line than w...

My reviews are all for products I have purchased, used and either enjoyed, or not.  Let's talk La Sportiva Cobras. I heard about them on my first Thai trip, but didn't have a chance to get a pair until just before the second. So far I've  destroyed two pairs of cobras. They are my go to shoe for almost any route or problem. They have been increasingly hard to find over the last few years, but thankfully it seems like they are coming back, at least in Europe for the 2016 season. They are listed at Sportiva.com (Not LaSportiva.com... ), and now in pretty new colours. But they don't seem to have actually dropped yet, I picked up a few pairs from the Czech Republic on Ebay, along with a pair of pythons. Pros Fit - pretty much perfect for me, they are quite narrow, but being a slipper I recommend trying before you buy.  Sensitivity - The cobras best attribute, the thin sole (3.5mm) means that you can feel every hold and becomes something that you rely on.  ...

Canberra is home to an abundance of good climbing, mostly on granite, long multipitch slabs, and a lot of boulders. The main bouldering area for the last decade has been Black Range - an hour away, past Queanbeyan. Black range comprises numerous areas of great problems spread throughout the gums. Originally developed at a similar time was Pierces Creek, despite being much closer (~20 mins) it faded into obscurity due to the 2003 Canberra fires, which destroyed the pine forest, and damaged many of the problems. I had a look out there a few times, between '08 and '10, but found limited areas, with no traffic, a lot of cleaning required and a lot of chipped holds in some areas. Having not visited it prior to the fires I didn't realise the quality problems  I was missing. Over the last year or so it has seen a resurgence. The old maps were translated into google maps on theCrag, published in Duncan's guide, and a few areas were cleaned up and redeveloped for publishin...

Climbing.com publishes the Unbelayvable stories every week. Stories recounting dangerous practices observed by climbers all over the world. Generally the editor is pretty good with their analysis, but they always take the reporter at face value, and are often just trying to find issues.  Climbing's 5 bad belayers from 2014 1. A good climber, a long way off the deck, on an easy well climbed route. In that situation, I know few belayers that don't look down and relax their neck. The climber will know this and yell if they fall, which should be unlikely if it is a well climbed line well within their limits. The hand position is inexcusable, but the angle to the first bolt is certainly manageable. Basically depends on a number of other factors we weren't given, but I wouldn't rule out being belayed by this one. 2. Inexcusable, a hand belay for a lead fall... 3. again, no excuses... except maybe killing off gym bunnies wearing hats inside 4. When will people sto...

If you haven't seen the Dumb Anchors blog, it's well worth a look, just to see some of the stupidity on display. That said there are several posts on there that pose no real danger, and demonstrate the prejudice of the author more than anything. A few of the common things that they pick up, and that while I might not create it, I'd have no problems using the setup: They seem to hate slinging trees at all, even at ground level.  Seem to have never heard of or used a triple wrap anchor, and regularly complain that they are a tensionless anchor, the fact is that the friction alone is enough. the knot at the end should never see a load, and any such slip will be negligable.  They hate additional slings, citing additional points of failure. I for one am happy to sling a tree then use a 'biner and tie the rope to it, I don't need to pass 10m of rope around the tree and then tie it off. If the anchor is CERN then there is very low risk of the sling or 'biner bre...