Not so early starts

Inspired by responses to my last email I took my camera along with us on the end of the working week before work climb. Bit of a mouthful, but as both Chris and I do not have as much potential to get out on weekends, as we may like, we have been going to Welly Dam before work usually on a Thursday or Friday. In summer this worked great as it was light by 4am so we could get three hours in and still be at work for 8am, but now we are in the thick of Autumn and first light is at 6:30 when it is not cloudy making it a tad harder. So yesterday I left home at 5am, while most of the world about us is still in dreamland. I was hoping for the usual mob of kangaroos that I see as I slowly and carefully make my way to the highway, but alas not one showed up:

It takes half an hour to get to Chris’s house and then another 45min to drive up the hill to Well Dam. For those doing their maths we get there at 6:15 and yes it is still dark. As we have been here so many times we have got into the routine of picking a warm up climb based not on grade but how well we know it. Finding those hand and foot holds in the non-existent morning light becomes more important than grade, this image was only possible due to the camera having a torch function on it:

Pocket Knife is a grade 19 (HVS 5a) climb that we have done, like so many others, countless times; and some may think we would get bored with repeating the same climbs. However, while writing the new climbing guide for this area we really struggled to decide which Welly Dam climbs to rate with stars. There are not many that do not deserve one if not two stars and many in our mind are worthy of three. So it is no wonder that we never get bored of the routes here, and added to that with our early morning sessions we climb them in many different conditions so the way you approach them also changes. As any warm up should, it didn’t present any difficulties and Chris was up and down before first light started to peek through:

Both sun rise and set seem to happen very quickly here, if you blink you’ll miss it. Years back I was on a travel show and they wanted to film the sunset as part of it, after which they commented it was so fast that they wouldn’t need to speed it up for the final show. As such by the time I had been up my chosen warm up, Shock Therapy a short but punchy grade 20 (HVS 5b) Chris had the luxury of being able to see all the holds. Interestingly we were not sure that was of help, as climbing in the dark you had to trust the holds more by feel and with the encroaching light there was more chance of your mind playing games with you about just how good they were. That said we both made short work of what used to be one of Chris’s nemesis:

The native tress in our part of the world are evergreen, but when they finished quarrying the granite for Welly Dam they planted this picnic area with deciduous trees. Being autumn this big sycamore tree was in the middle of shedding its leaves, giving us a great colourful canopy and mosaic leaf littered ground. When the wind picked up there would be a flurry of leaves floating down which was very pretty to watch:

Being autumn also meant that the grass was sopping wet, and wet climbing shoes are not a good thing. Being a quick before work climb we don’t have the time to much about with taking shoes on an off to move about. So with a bit of adaption my everyday footwear of sandals became a somehow climbing shoe cover. Fortunately the walls have enough warmth to avoid being (too) wet:

Enough about the season and conditions, Chris’s next mission was a great climb called Silverback (21 or E1/2 5b). It starts on big holds which you have to pull hard on to keep going, before a super thin and balancy crux move to gain a slabby section. Chris has managed clean ascents of all the 20s at Welly Dam, so has set himself the task of bagging all the 21s now. This one proved a little too tricky and try and try as he did the crux had him beat. Me thinks more finger board and core muscle training is needed before he is successful on this one:

The images may have given the indication that the morning was clear and bright, but it was in fact foggy. This is pretty common for our morning sessions with the place being so close to Wellington Reservoir, which used to be the drinking water supply for the area. The fog helps in that the mornings are generally a bit warmer, today it was ten degrees when we got there. But it can make for some of the more lichen covered climbs to be a tad damp. If you look carefully you might be able to see Chris on the wall on the right preparing to clean the last climb:

My turn next, and seeing I had been doing my finger board and core muscle training over the last few weeks decided on another grade 21, Taj Vs the World. This is a devious climb that makes you guess on every move and hold. It is thin, balancy, technical and a tad run out at the top; in truth it is probably under graded. It is also one that we do not often do as it is a little scary and has a reputation for being hard. On this occasion it beat me and I was only able to make my way up it with a couple of rests, one of which was due to a hold crumbling on me and hitting me square on the helmet. I’ll have to train a bit harder and will have another bash on it next week:

As Chris seconded and cleaned that route we heard the loud harsh cries or krar-raak. It may not seem particularly nice, but when you hear it for real it is quite beautiful. We looked up and sure enough there we a few red-tailed black cockatoos flying overhead. These birds remind me of our time in Alice Springs, where we would see flocks with as many as several hundred of them. In this instance it also drew our attention to the specks of blue sky starting to peak through as the sun was warming the world up:

So onto the next route Rock Therapy, another 21. One of the more recently established climbs it is not one we have jumped on too often. Most of it is great fun with big hidden holds that allow you to gain overlaps and small roofs with exposed moves. Then the final headwall looms and everything changes, with pumped forearms the small holds and smeary feet of the final crux section become a real challenge. Chris started well but was getting more wobbly as he got higher; he eventually managed to reach the final anchors but not in the style he had hoped:

He was pretty stuffed by the end of that one, but we had to even up the numbers so I jumped on Slay Away. It’s given 22 (E2 5c) but I reckon is a bit soft at the grade, and is less consistent than some of the other routes. The bottom section is a lot of fun with funky and unexpected moves, then it is time to trust a sloper on insecure feet under a bulge. This is where most people come unstuck and the images shows Chris attempting to try and snatch past this, but there was no way that was going to work with the good holds being a foot higher:

You may be wondering by now how many climbs we did and what the time might have been. We normally only bag 4 climbs and try to get to work between 8:30 and 9:00, but today we had agreed to stay for a bit longer and so it was now just after 9:30. With six awesome climbs under our belts, a few project in mind to try again next week and that satisfying achy feel after a great session; it really was time to pack up the handy crate and head to work:

Welly Dam is located in a basin that is up on a hill, which is one of the reasons it is often cloudy and foggy for our early morning sessions. This is the sight that usually greats us as we start to descend back down the hill. Clear skies and a view of Bunbury and the ocean beyond it. Another brilliant morning, and with luck we may be able to keep these session up all year:

Hope you are all finding some time to get your rock fix.