Last year I went on a week long climbing trip to the south coast and it was so good that we decided to do it again. This year, however, we left it a bit late and the rains started to come in so we change the destination and decided on a remote 300m granite monolith approx 700km east of Bunbury and 100km north of Esperance called Peak Charles. I had been here before in 2007 with Craig, a great trip marred only by the fact he had forgotten to pack his climbing shoes. So this year I came armed with spare shoes and harness in case Ryan, Steve or Chris had forgotten theirs!
As we had a big journey ahead of us I left home at 6:30 in the morning to get to Bunbury, meet up with Steve and get an early start. After saying bye to my two girls I headed off while watching the full moon go down:
There is a track that would have cut out 200km of the journey, avoiding the need to head down to Esperance and then back north. However, the condition of this track was uncertain but the friendly people at the Lake King roadhouse said we should be OK. It was interesting that they were confident the first 100km would be fine, being in the Sire of Lake King, but after that the Shire of Esperance do not maintain their portion of the track so it can get dodgy. The reason being that they want people to drive via Esperance(!):
We took the gamble and Steve experienced some bush driving, and as we had been told the first 100km was great. After that the track was much worse but still passable in the vehicle we had. Steve enjoyed the rocky, sandy, rutted and at times washed out sections of the track and by 2pm the crag was in sight:
As soon as we arrived we pitched our tents and sorted through the gear. The campsite is small but good with great spots to hide tents in the trees and has fire pits a table and of course bush loo. It was a shame that for the first two nights the other (noisy) people who turned up after us decided to camp right next to us rather than take a spot further away, but you get that:
After getting camp in order we had a little wander, note Steve with his fly net on. Yes there were flies but they were not that bad! Here he is playing on Mushroom Rock with the impressive Peak Charles in the background. We also managed to get phone reception so I could text and call Lisa and Moo each day which was lovely:
Chris and Ryan couldn’t leave in the morning so they drove through the night and arrived in the wee hours. So the first morning at the camp Steve and I up ahead of them. The walk in was better than I remembered, a 45min sharp rise up rocky ridges and through bush:
Steve had not previously experienced multi-pitch climbing, and what a place to learn! He was up for the first lead of the trip and we had purposely decided on a easy climb picking the classic Badile (grade 11). As the crag is so big after getting to the top there is a long walk down. Therefore, we had to carry our packs while we climbed making for an even more interesting first multi-pitch experience:
Steve set off and he coped really well but found some of the run-outs a tad concerning. The climb was six rope stretching pitches and we combined the line with a few from another climb, as they looked so good. Unfortunately I don’t have Steve’s images so can’t show you the mega corner pitch (going at grade 15) but if you are keen let me know and when I get them I’ll send them through:
At the top Steve was exhausted but thoroughly enjoyed the amazing experience and was up for more – phew. We also bumped into Chris and Ryan at the top after they had spied a nice looking two pitch chimney and got up that pretty quickly and were walking about the top terraces the same time as us. An hour’ish walk down and it was time to get the fire and food underway. Here Steve is trying to light the fire with only one match – it was more than one but I’ll say no more:
Day two and we decided on a slightly different approach. We picked Kwelaman a great grade 16 slab climb that has belay anchors that would allow us to abseil back down so we only took one pack up for food and drink. We intended to do the first four pitches (the best) and I set off on the first loving the thin moves, steeper terrain and at time run-out sections. Steve followed up in great style but it messed with his head big time and he had to breathe deep to control his fears:
Despite his concerns he pushed through and led two of the pitches and did them well. Occasionally he would have a go at the lack of gear and the exposure but kept his cool and kept going. I have to be honest and think he enjoyed the experience of this climb more after we got back down to the ground:
Still he pushed through and even took time out to enjoy the scenery and other spectacular sights we were so privileged to have witnessed. We were particularly taken by the Wedge Tailed Eagles which circled high above us most days and at times we were almost level the them:
This image shows the track leading into the camp site well below us, Steve is getting ready to start up the crux (hardest) pitch, with a tricky sequence that he romped up. How can you not feel anything but great with such an outlook:
After we got back down all Steve wanted was food and a beer at the campsite, until he looked at this line and decided that he simply had to lead the classic first pitch of Beckoning Horizon (grade 19 – and very well protected). He ate the climb up smashing through the crux and revelling the whole way along it. The second pitch was equally awesome so I went up the next corner as well (again images are on Steve’s camera!):
After that deviation we again started back down to camp. As we went down we spied Ryan and Chris abseiling down another part of the crag. Watching them (and later we found we were right) it looked like the abseil rope got stuck. Fortunately they were able to free it without having to climb back up:
Day three and another time for Steve and I to head to the big walls, while Chris and Ryan went to find a small crag with some harder lines as they wanted a day without the big walk in and out. This time I was after a bit of self indulgence, as there is a climb called Juluka – grade 18 (which is the name of a south African band that I really like) that I didn’t manage to get on with Craig. To get there however there is an hour walk in followed by a traverse climb to get into the gully where the climb starts. Here Steve is setting off to access the gully:
Once in the gully the climb starts (and again Steve has more images) but to give you a taste here he is going up the first pitch. If you look hard you will see that sadly someone has retro-bolted this classic climb but we didn’t use the bolts. There are three pitches and each is brilliant and I took the middle pitch that traverses rightward underneath the rectangular roof directly above Steve which was brilliant:
Steve was smashed after this climb, not really surprising going up the big crag three days on the trot, so we decided to head back to camp. However, we were going to abseil back down into the gully to get our gear and then walk down but the abseil anchors were in a horrible spot that we really didn’t want to scramble down to them, so we had to walk round. It was in fact a much better thing to do as we got to look out at the great views of the salt lakes, surrounding land and see the magnificent wind sculptured rock formations:
We also managed to get a bit more walking in(!):
On the way down we found some beautiful natural rock art and I just had to take a picture or two:
There were also dwarf trees coming out of cracks and crevices these two being about a foot high at the most:
Rather than walk all the way down to the camp and back up we scrambled along the base of the crag which in most places was OK. In a few places the slab got a bit steep and in other places the bush was a bit thick, but it was a great experience. We also stopped at Spartacus Flake – an impressive flake stuck to the wall that looks like it will peel off at any moment. I had a whim to climb the left edge (a grade 12) and so we stopped and had a go. I got about 15m up before stopping as the next 20m or so required no.5 cams upward of which we had none so had to back off L:
When Chris and Ryan got back we heard how Chris had attempted a very tenuous looking seam with marginal RP protection, and had fallen from about 5m ripping all the gear and hitting the deck flat on his back. He was luck to land on the rope but did sprain a wrist, bruise his back and cut his elbow so Steve set up surgery and patched him up:
So with a big hole in his elbow, Chris was to be out of action. Steve also was pretty wiped out so they were to have a rest day and Ryan and I planned to head back up the big walls the next day:
The next day I did my usual routine of getting up at 5am to look at the sky, make a cuppa and get the others up. This morning was amazing, mostly a clear sky with a bright moon lighting up the cloud that hung over the crag like a crown. It is sights like these that make waking up early so worthwhile:
I took my time to get a few photos of the cloud formations before getting the cup of tea on the go, and had a strange sensation that maybe we would need to get Chris home today:
Then as went round to get them out of their tents and swags, Ryan said that he wouldn’t be up for going climbing as his eye was swollen up. He managed to spike his eye with a branch as they walked through the bush to get to the crag where Chris had fallen from and it had taken a turn for the worse overnight. Here he is looking none too good. On another note on cooking on the hot plate are two of Steve’s original and very tasty wrap with cheese and egg breakfast concoctions:
So as the day woke up we made the decision to head to Esperance and take the two walking wounded to the hospital to get checked out. So there is a lesson learnt, don’t take days out from the big walls to go cragging as it is detrimental to your health and the length of your climbing holiday! So we packed up and said goodbye to Robert and Saskia who also happened to be camping and climbing there while we were there (but their stories are another whole email – such as getting benighted on the big crag when the cloud and rain came in):
Once we got to the hospital Ryan and Chris decided that the 2 hour plus waiting time wasn’t worth it and we hit the road to get home before dark which we almost managed. The only stop we made of any great length was at Lake King to make some lunch:
If you look carefully you will notice that we shared this with the flies, and you will also see above that Steve had by now gotten used to the flies so the fly net became redundant. The good thing about having the trip cut in half was that I managed to get home to see Moo and Lisa earlier than expected and have more holiday time to spend with them J:
Sandbagged 