1 Week in Australia!

Hey Guys

My first week in Australia is almost over, but I still have 5 weeks left in this incredible place!!! I actually can’t believe the quality of the rock here, it’s without a doubt a completely new experience for me, and different to anything I have ever done before.Arapiles in all it's glory :D

I have been staying in a really nice cottage just outside Natimuk called Banksia Hill. Highly recommended for anyone coming to the area and conveniently located between Arapiles and Northern Grampians.

For the last week I have been climbing in Arapiles for the most part. Arapiles is an incredible sandstone venue with features and styles unique only to this area I believe. Most of the climbing here is trad but there are a few sport routes and even some mixed routes (gear and bolts). This is something completely new to me and actually quite refreshing as it combines the new with the old way of thinking. Generally for the harder routes, there tends to be protected sections with bolts where there is no gear available and when there is potential for good safe placements, they don’t bolt and allow you to place your own gear.

This has been a great learning experience for me as I have never done a lot of trad climbing, but because Arapiles is pretty much a trad venue, I have been forced to learn quickly. The good thing is that Arapiles is quite a comfortable venue for trad, with all placements being pretty obvious in general and most routes very safe. Even a sport climber like me can figure it out :PARAPILES

That’s not to say I haven’t been doing any sport since I’ve been here… on the contrary, I have been trying some pretty hard sport routes and even some hard mixed gear routes.

Day 1

On day 1 we went to a sector called Atridae located on the South end of the Arapiles cliffs. Here Tracey and I did a couple of nice trad lines to warm up on, “Muldoon” a 3-star grade 15 (f5a) and “Surface to Air” grade 17 (f5c). We then went further left to an area called the flight deck and I climbed my hardest trad route to date J a beautiful crack line called “Orestes” grade 24 (f7a/+). When I climbed it, it felt really steady and I would go so far as to say for me it felt like f6c climbing at most (grade 21/22), however, looking back at it now, I saw I was making some pretty flexible split maneuvers with my legs that most might not be able to do :P So perhaps it might feel different to those who can’t almost do the splits!

 Climbing "Afterburner" (30/8a+) at The Flight DeckA bit later I moved onto some Sport climbs on the same bit of wall. I started of with the 3-star grade 25 (f7b) called “Have a Good Flight”. This was an awesome route that later Tracey attempted to flash. She got high on her attempt but failed just shy of the final section. I then attempted to onsight a 30 on the same wall called “Afterburner”. I actually did really well, reading the crux almost perfectly but unfortunately used the wrong hand hold for my right hand just an inch left of the correct one and I fell when I attempted a balancy hand adjustment. I had another attempt afterwards and nabbed it on my second go! YEOW!!!

Day 2

On Day 2 we went to do something I have been waiting almost 10 years to climb… “Kachoong” (21/6b+). This is one of the most famous routes on the planet, made famous of course by the countless numbers of fantastic images of climbers taken on it J The Arapiles guidebook describes it as thus:

“Created by the Ancient God Kodak – Still a must for budding legends”

I can only think of one other route equally as photogenic and that is of course “Aegialis” (7c) in Kalymnos. I was first attracted to this climb by an old photo in a “Climber” magazine article on Arapiles of a climber soloing it! At the time I was on a field trip with my school to the Outer Hebrides visiting the islands of Pabbay and Mingulay for exploration, not climbing. I can remember walking about thinking; this place would be awesome for climbing… I wonder if anyone knows about it? :P How naïve I was back then… One of my friends from school saw the picture as well and asked me if I would ever do that one day… I said of course… one day I will… and here I am. I stood at the bottom of that cliff, climbed to the belay and looked out onto the roof of this famous climb. I saw in front of me the picture I had seen from 10 years previously and every year since then in various forms with different climbers…

Stefan Glowacz soloing "Kachoong"

One thing I had noticed in each and every picture was a yellow orb floating randomly in the background. For years I thought it was a hot air balloon, but upon being at the exact place where the photographer would be sitting, I realized finally that it was not this and in fact it was just a connection of an electricity pylon cable that sits above the climb :P Wow… sometimes the comedy of realization that the perfect picture you once thought was real makes more of an impression than the original perfect picture itself :P It was just one of those hilarious moments when a piece fits the puzzle in your head and you realize that you weren’t looking at a pink elephant… it was just a fat guy with a bad sunburn :P

Rob "Dawg" Saunders at the campsite in ArapilesThe actual climbing was surprisingly easy… Well I guess 21/6b+ isn’t desperate really, but I expected there to be more challenge having seen the pictures of people cutting loose in the roof… but in all honesty, I think that this comes more from the climbers desire to feel free up there in the sky, than the actual necessity to do so.

“Kachoong” was a brilliant moment for me, but I also seconded Tracey on an equally good but slightly less photogenic grade 18/6a called “Golden Echo”. The climbing was arguably just as good as “Kachoong” but not as photogenic.

After this, we headed a little higher and we came to a stunning looking line following the steepest angled part of the crag. This feature was incredible! It started low, following an awesome jutting prow and taking an almost 45 degree angle for at least 20 metres of climbing! The route was graded 29/8a and was called “You’re Terminated” :D GO ARNY!!! I was blown away again by another superb Arapiles climb, the climbing wasn’t that hard for 29/8a (or of what I am used to at that grade) but it required placing some gear amongst a few bolts. The wall was followed up the whole way by the ground meaning you were never much more than 4m off the deck at any one time and because of this I was constantly terrified that if I did fall off, I might gouge my back out on the rocky terrain behind me L On my on-sight I actually did the crux quite easily, but was scared of falling and hurting myself afterwards when I had to place some gear, so opting out I took on one of the bolts and made sure I wasn’t going to fall off the next section whilst placing the gear. Then on my second go I red-pointed the route. Unfortunately there was no easy way of getting the gear back other than by seconding it and because Tracey wasn’t that keen on seconding a 29/8a, I did it again on top-rope (Probably harder second time round and definitely scarier!).First day Onsight Lead of "Orestes" 24/7a+?

Day 3

On our third day climbing in Arapiles we went finally to the place I have been dreaming about going to… “Punks in the Gym” (32/8b+)! This is an epic route with some serious history to it :D The first ascent was from none other than the main man himself, Wolfgang Gullich who did it back  in 1985. It’s had a lot of attention from climbers all over the world since then and has spat a lot of them off! I can see why as well, it’s incredibly technical and requires perfect body positioning from start to finish…

Day 3 was my first day on “Punks” and since then I have had 5 goes in total almost getting it fully on my 5^th attempt but foot slipped unfortunately L The thing with “Punks” is the low percentage style of nearly every sequence on the route… even the rests are fall off-able!

Tracey climbing "Golden Echo" on the Kachoong ButressMy first three goes were spent just figuring out all the moves. I managed to do every move on my first time up but wasn’t using the best efficiency to link longer sequences together. By the end of the first day on it though, I could link from the ground to the first rest and then again through the “Bird-Bath” crux into the last vertical crimpy section which I found really tricky. All I really needed was a day more to figure out even better beta and after a rest day it could go!

Tom and Owen (some new friends) joined us at “Punks” crag as well that day and they tried with Tracey a cool 25/7b just up from “Punks” called “Spasm in a Chasm”. This was a sick route with a gnarly traverse sequence in the middle which after completing you had to place a dodgy side-ways nut and then do either a dyno/lunge move or if your like me and too scared to do anything dynamic, just lock off really hard and reach!

Day 4

Day 4 we spent the morning trad climbing at a really nice venue on the Northern most part of Arapiles called “Curtain Wall”. I climbed “Entertainer” 18/6a on second and the shortly afterwards “Comic Relief” 21/6b+ on lead. I was pretty beaten up from my battles with “Punks” the previous day so it was good to do some easy trad climbing before heading back to “Punks” in the late afternoon.

Tom crushing "Spasm in a Chasm" 25/7bTracey and me headed down later on to “Punks” followed by Tom and Owen and shortly after by the rest of our crew, Suzie, Bernie and Ben. I had my 4^th go on “Punks” which left me wrecked and skin shredded. I was pretty confident I was not going to have a good attempt from then on in so I had already more or less thrown the towel in for the day, that was before Suzie egged me on to go for another shot J I was more psyched up just because everyone was at the crag and it was a nice atmosphere so I went for it! Amazingly the route felt easy :P I climbed straight through the first crux into the rest and then straight through the second crux! I started to shake before heading into the final crux when my foot slipped and I was hanging on the rope L Awwwwww… But I wasn’t upset, rather the opposite! I was psyched that the route had gone so smoothly on that attempt whilst I had been feeling pretty rubbish. I was now psyched more than ever to go back and crush it into dust!

Day 5

Me onsighting the classic 28/7c+ "Monkey Puzzle" at GalleryToday we headed to Grampians to check out “The Gallery”, a wild overhanging sport crag with amazing 3-star classics all over! We had a bit of an epic that day both on our arrival and departure. We took the wrong road into the car park, which took us down wild bumpy roads and a bit of sketchy off-road style tracks! Kind of fun but also a bit stressful with the hire car L

The crag was situated high in the forest and the walk in was a steep 45 minute treck in quite high temps… When we finally arrived, I was already tired but warmed up on a cheeky 25/7b called “Mr Meat” which had a boulder start and some awesome exposed arête climbing to finish on.

I then went onto the best looking line at the crag, “Monkey Puzzle” 28/7c+ which took some seriously steep terrain on amazing looking holds and sequences. There was a picture of Lynne Hill in the guidebook on it and it looked fantastic :D I ended up on-sighting this and it never felt that hard for the grade so this gave me confidence to try the 29/8a to the left called “Le Petit Mort” on-sight as well.

Tom (Reido) on "Spasm in a Chasm" 25/7bThat turned out to be a very different kettle of fish! I got slightly above the 2^nd bolt before falling. It then took me the best part of half an hour to figure out what to do on this lower section, and even then it was still pretty gnarly! My skin was really bad now as it was my 3^rd day on and I was pulling on sharp crossly crimps… The top section of this route wasn’t a piece of cake either, it took me a while to figure out the kneebar in the roof that allows you easier access through the lip and even then there was a big lunge move which was quite easy to fluff if you weren’t confident with it.

The day was getting on and the heat was increasing! Tom had tried a 25/7b called “Hueco Dreaming” but unfortunately fell at the dyno L Bernie managed to send this on his 2^nd go which was a really good effort! Tracey onsighted the 4-star classic “Weaveworld” 23/7a and then sent on redpont the 3-star classic “Two Tribes” 24/7a+! WOAH!!!

I then went for a 2^nd go ascent of “Le Petit Mort”… Amazingly I somehow sketched my way through the start and made it into the second half of the route. I climbed high into the roof and gained the rest on the knee-bar. I managed to pull myself through the lip of the roof with my cheeky knee-bar and into the big lunge move… A scary moment occurred when I didn’t catch the hold correctly on the lunge and fell back onto the jug, only just holding it!!! A second attempt at this move and I stuck it and climbed to the top :D YAASSSSSS!!! Psyched!

Me climbing "Mr Meat" 25/7bI was pretty tired now and it was getting hotter and hotter. I had a last minute burst of psyche during my exhaustion and attempted to onsight the 27/7c “Chasin’ the Shadow”. Tom pointed the irony that the bottom of the route was in the sun and I was literally chasing the shadow at the top of the route. Unfortunately my energy ran out and I fell off :P I greased of a hold at the top and to be frank, I was pretty destroyed as it was my 3^rd day on!

Me climbing "Le Petit Mort" (29/8a) at the GalleryTo finish the day off, I went on the 25/7b that Tom and Bernie did earlier and managed to send that as well. It was funny because I found a load of knee-bars that neither of them found… I think it was partly due to desperation as I was so tired and sweaty by that point that I think without them I wouldn’t have made it :P I got to the dyno move but didn’t see the intermediate hold that you dyno off so I just did a big lock off and somehow managed to pull it off… JUST!!!

A there was no chains, I just down-climbed the route to strip the quickdraws. Unfortunately at the 2^nd clip from the ground I slipped as I took the draw out with a load of slack and fell just short of the ground! Thanks Tracey for the catch :P That was a close one!

Our adventures for the day were not over yet though, on the way out of the crag we got lost and ended up on a nightmare stroll through bush and wilderness. Tom was being very Aussie Outback hard-man, climbing boulders to see above the trees whilst I helplessly stood around and waited to be told where to go :P On the way down, I put my foot on a loose boulder and it gave way. I fell about 8m down the hill and did about 4 somersaults before finally stopping dead in a massive heap! I thought I had broken my leg it was so sore – but luckily I had just been knocked about a bit :P I limped down the hill a bit further and we finally found the track again. When we got to the car park the four of us looked pretty worse for wear and anyone looking at us would have thought we had just been on some sort of 3-week expedition through the deepest Australian bush… nope… we had just been sport climbing for a day at the Grampians :P HARDCORE!!!

Day 6

We had an awesome rest day after the Grampians epic, eating at the Natimuk Café and catching up with friends. Today was going to be all about “Punks in the Gym”. I didn’t want to go too early because it doesn’t get shade until much later, so Tracey and I headed down to the Flight Deck wall to watch Tom on his final attempts at “Have a Nice Flight” 25/7b before he headed home that afternoon. We baked in the sun, not the ideal conditions for Tom but he’s an Aussie so he should be used to it ;) Unfortunately, he never quite made the send despite being so close on all his attempts! We had fun feeding grapes to the Skinks however and after Tom had left, Tracey and I headed to the Morfydd Wall to do some trad before heading to “Punks”. Tracey and I both lead the classic crack 19/6a+, which both of us were immensely happy about as it had proper hand jams and everything :PTracey taking a cut loose move on a 7a+ at The Gallery - check oot the mad eagle flying in the corner of the photo!!!

At the crag at the same time as us I heard a Scottish accent of sorts… I couldn’t quite grasp if it was Scottish, Irish or Australian. It was a weird mix but I listened for a while and eventually I grasped the accent as Scottish. I spoke to the guy who it turns out was from Fife, but had moved to Australia with his wife 15 years previously and had not been back in 10 years! That would make sense why his accent sounded a bit different. Though I noticed that within 5 minutes of talking to me he was rolling all his “R’s” and getting back into the true Scots tongue (CURRILLY WURRILY!!!) :PTom on "Spasm in a Chasm" 25/7b

They suggested me trying the 24/7a+ trad route that they were on “No Standing”, so I went for the lead on this. It was a tough wee route with some spicy moves and a committing crux, but I managed to send despite being scared silly when I had to trust my head and just commit to the slopey gaston crimp. Turns out it was a Kim Carrigan route from the 70’s! HISTORIC!!!

After a quick break with friends back at the campsite, we decided to go see what “Punks” was all about… I decided that “Punks in the Gym” deserved it’s own blog so if you wanna read all about my experience on this route, I'll be posting this up pretty soon :)