Another Day Out

There has been another blip in the wet weather for a few days, which let the sun come out to play. So Chris and I took advantage and drove up towards to Perth to visit a crag neither of us had been to before. Boomer Crag doesn’t have heaps of routes on it but it is nestled in the hills and has a completely atmosphere to the coastal crags that we normally visit.

I left home at 5:30 and we timed the journey perfectly arriving at the crag at half an hour after first light, and as we stepped out of the car we were greeted by a biting cold wind:

The setting didn’t disappoint us being surrounded by lush green vegetation and sporting great views over the valley. The crag was also sheltered from the wind which was a bonus:

I jumped on the first line a great cracked slab, which provided beautifully sustained climbing. Graded at 15 it felt a fair bit harder but that may have been due to the rock being so cold, making our fingers tingle and toes ache:

Chris then plumped for an inviting looking climb that was slightly stiffer at grade 17, it looked a fine line starting up a crack and finishing up a round arête:

The bottom crack proved to be stiffer than expected but with perseverance and time (I won’t give away how long the first 5m took!) he was soon firing up the fantastic blank arête in great style:

Next I jumped on a grade 17 slab, the description of which said it was a bit run out in the middle. I didn’t have too much trouble other than a screaming calve muscle, and relished the thin exposed moves. As Chris followed me up he was showing signs of tiring:

While there was still the crag classic to bag, an awesome vertical crack. It was Chris’s lead and he didn’t feel he could do it the justice it deserved. So we decided to leave that for next time, but as he was climbing with me he wasn’t getting out of his next lead. So for the next one he piled on all the gear we had:

He was soon heading up yet another great line, a grade 13 leftward rising traverse that girdled the whole crag. It had some airy moves in great positions and left some of the best moments till last when the rope drag was greatest (Chris probably not even half way in this image):

We then packed up and headed back to the car, but before heading off decided to check a short 10m crag that was right on the road side. It sported four bolted lines so we decided to bag a couple before finishing. The climbing was very contrasting to what we had just been doing but was equally fun, we were not sure of the grades but reckoned on 17ísh for both:

Chris was the last one up so I left him to get to the first clip (which was some way up) before I put him on belay, just to get some good shots. Rest assured I did put him on belay after he clipped the first bolt, so we both ended yet another brilliant day out safely:

Meanwhile back in Bunbury Lisa and Moo were out with the two poodles doing more dog training. Something they have both been really enjoying (as are Sooky and Nicka the poodles):

Today’s session was a bit of a get together of all the training classes and they held competitions in which Elseya and Sooky, as has been the case in all the dog training exercises, kicked Lisa and Nicka’s butt!