Leaving the Blueys!

Leaving the Blueys!

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, eh? Probably because not much has changed. I've spent the last month in the Blue Mountains climbing pretty much as much as my body could handle, I spent most of the leftover time chilling and playing pool at the Katoomba Backpackers hostel. Aside from the weather, my time in the Blueys was pretty fricken awesome!

Dom and I climbed hard rain or shine right up until he left a couple weeks ago. We were fortunate enough to get a decent weather window to do a multi-pitch sport climb called Rutger Hauer (23/5.11c) at Peirce's Pass just before he left. To get to the base of the route, we had to Absail ~100m to a ledge in the middle of a 200m wall. Locating the rap anchors turned out to be the crux of the day; after wandering around the top of the escarpment for the better part of an hour we finally located the rap station and it was smooth sailing from there. The first rap was pretty wild, a 50m hanging rappel straight down to the next station. Spinning around in space 100+m off the deck was enough to put my stomach in a knot. 

I'll try and put together a quick vid, but here's a few photos from our day:

After Dom left, I met a German climber Sofie who has been backpacking around OZ since October. She's fresh outta high school, but already a backpacking veteran and a strong climber to boot. The last couple of weeks we have been touring the various sport crags that stay dry in the (constant) rain and mist. Fortunately, there are a few, so we have still managed to get some stuff done. We had an epic sesh at 'the Freezer' and we both sent the epic pumpfest Good Big Dog 24/5.12a. On a dryish day we also visited the classic trad/mixed crag at Mt.York. Sofie was psyched and danced up the beautiful wandery slab Exhibition Wall 21/11a, while I hopped on and flailed up some thin/sandy 22 slabs. I ticked a classic pumpy mixed route.The weather finally cleared (breifly; a thick arvo thunderstorm moved in...) on our last day in the Bluey's and I sent some projects on my favorite wall in the mountains, Upper Shipley.

This is the first time I've ever been able to sport climb outside so consistently; despite the conditions, my climbing has improved dramatically (in the Blue Mountains enduro/reachy style), and I've sent some super quality routes at my hardest grades ever! Highlights include: Splitwave 23/5.11c (epic Jug haul with an awesome roof); Good Big Dog at the Freezer 24/12a (Flash; soft; long enduro pumpfest on nice rock with a great deadpoint crux right at the end!); Lardy Lady Lats 22/11b (Stiff; nice techy slab to a wild bouldery sequence through an overhang at the top); Hot Flyer 23/11c (Just next to Lardy Lady; similar but with a longer and more sustained bit through the overhang up top).

Sofie made a last minute change of plans and decided to join me for a roadtrip down the South Coast of NSW (stopping by Point Perpendicular, the thuggy sport climbing in Nowra and hopefully a few surf spots ;) ), potentially through Mt Buffalo, then on to the famed Grampians and at last Arapiles (the 'World's Best Crag'). To be continued!