After the rains died out ....

After 2 days of solid rain, the skies finally cleared enough for a wee bit of climbing. A gang of us a little apprenhensive of the dark skies decided on a mornings bouldering near to camp (well ok everything is near to camp - but this is particular near). We played around on the Golden Fleece and Kroonorf boulders - which was great fun, as I haven't been out bouldering really since I left Ireland. I managed to get a couple of high ball scary problems, which I was really chuffed about.

Over the next couple of days I have been ticking off a few of the classic routes, like Bard and Brolga. Although, we think we somehow managed to climb a variation of Bard and miss out half of the actual route - don't ask :) its multipitch madness, but we had a great time none the less.

I plucked up the courage a couple of days ago to hop on a route that I'd been looking at for a while, Voodoo. Its not terrible difficult - an 18 - which to me equates to about E1 but for me it was bold and reachy - unfortunately (or fortunately) which ever way you look at it, I took a small fall, which did wonders for my confidence and in trusting my own gear. One of the new guide book authors, Simon Mentz, was around taking photos while I was on route and gave me a few. Thank you, Simon. The first two are of me on Voodoo and the third is of me on Handjob, a slabby 15 nearby.







Yesterday was also a day of conquering fears and mastering new arts. I think I may have conquered the fear but the new art - well.... its handjamming. We set off in the morning to climb Brolga a 90m slab route. Yes, I know, I don't like slabs very much. But I swear I am getting better. I chose the second pitch as apparently it is less run out. Hmmm. Well, at 10 m about my last piect of gear which was a very dodgy purple cam, that would undoubtedly rip if I were to peel off. As you can imagine, when I realised that I had to commit to the crux, with that run out, I was a little nervous, to say the least. If I fell, I would have flown past my belayer - luckily it was a multipitch. Anyway, I committed to it - and all went well - as I mantled on a crimp, a wet crimp, no doubt.

After that success, we decided that the next challenge would be learning how to hand jam. Hmm, something i have cursed and sweared and cried a lot over, I just can't do it. So, I found this route, Siamese Crack, on Kitten Wall, which was described to be the route that all Learner Hand Jammer should do. PERFECT :) NOT :(, my goodness, I got spanked so bad... but I did keep going and eventually made it to the top. Someday, hand jamming will just click, I am sure :)