Breaking in

Rongy has been telling me to start breaking in my new shoes before we head off for a climbing trip over east. So today a few of us headed out and we were all busting to put some trad in, as this winter has seen most climbing occur on the sports crags away from the blustery coastlines. I am pleased to report Rongy that new as they were they felt like old slippers, so it’s a shame Mad Rock have stopped making these shoes. But don’t fret too much for me, as being as OCD as I am I twigged and bought up all the pairs left in Australia – only 3 but they will last a while:

Glenn had been checking out the SW guide prior to this outing and had his eye on Driftwood Bay, it’s a great place with low’ish grade (up to 17) 20m climbs, which are a bit rambling, runout and sketchy in places. The perfect place for aspiring trad climbers as the routes have real character, which many of the clean well used lines of the main areas have lost for me (probably because I know them too well). However, since it had been while since most in the group had climbed trad we plumped for the equally fun Organ Pipes. This smaller sibling of Driftwood Bay still provides the same range and character of climbs but on shorter less imposing lines:

You can tell it had been a while since Glenn had trad climbed by the mass of hardware that he was carrying up. Most of which promptly stayed put on his harness all the way up. Now for some reason they all seemed to just trust my judgement on what to have a crack at, so Glenn blindly agreed to start on Crab Arête. The line is great fun and never too hard, but I forgot (or forgot to mention) that the top section got a little run out. This didn’t faze him for long and with a bomber hex placement, which he had to leave several meters below his feet, he soldiered on in good style:

Meanwhile Gav, who was nursing a fingertip-less thumb. Bit of a side story here, but he did that while slicing sausages in half to get them more crispy – well how else would you do that? Now I can’t remember the last time that Gav and Moni had been out for a climb (sport or trad) so while the willing was there the mind had not yet settled in to trust the gear. My bad. I was too focused on the photography and just enjoying bumbling about on second. I should probably have led the first climb for them so they could reaccustom their brain to trusting gear and placements:

That said Gav did make it up safely and did not need to test the good gear he placed. He took a wee bit of a meandering line, as the above image indicates but enjoyed himself and was glad to be out, which after all is the main reason for climbing (for us). Moni followed up and stuck to the line showing the skills were still there, we just need to get them out a bit more often to get their heads back in the game. I did however tell them they need to avoid donning black, as it is an awful colour from this photographers point of view:

It’s a bit of a bush bash to get to the base of this crag, so we instead of walking in from below we scrambled along the top and rapped in. This made things much easier for descents too. The crag is surrounded by scrub and while we are but a stone’s throw from the main walls of Willyabrup it felt like an isolated and remote spot. Now at some point, and it may as well be now, I need to point out that our reliable local weather/condition guide Kym almost put us off coming down this way. Not from a weather but a condition perspective, we were expecting dampness and salt spray but are happy to say the conditions were tip-top and the friction was faultless:

Lou was up next and liked the look of Spraying, a climb I call mistakenly call sickle because it has that shape and it is also a word I used in the route description. It’s an innocent looking line with an easy angled corner but is trickier than it looks and the traverse out under the sickle to then mount the arête is surprisingly exposed. I shouldn’t have worried, due to all the training on her woody it didn’t muck about with her head and while she stopped to think it never foxed her for long. I did enjoy following up this line and believe it is one of the hidden gems of this crag. It was on this climb that there was a shift in the approach and rather than climbing in two’s (or threes when I followed up) we all followed up each line, and what better climb to start that on:

While Lou, Glenn and I were on Spraying Moni had a bash, but decided better of it, to lead Oral Discharge. So Gav being the gentleman he is took on the challenge to conquer his mind a second time. He seemed to complain less up this line and that indicates to me he enjoyed, and was able to relax into it more. Moni certainly had a beaming smile as she climbed this one; despite having to grovel up the chimney it is a fun line. They then both loved seconding Lou on her fine line:

I finally decided that maybe I should have a lead so plumped for Dry Reach, a good flake and crack line at the far right hand end of the crag. As with all the climbs so far it was nothing too serious but lots of fun. That is probably a good way to describe how the day was panning out, and this time no one else climbed while I was on the pointy end, instead having a breather and each taking turns to follow me up. Gav and Moni’s rope was the perfect length and allowed all five of us to get up without needing to throw down the line for the lucky last – Gav:

So then it was back to business, and I had heard a rumour a while back that Glenn wanted to take a whipper on trad. So I pointed him towards English Summer. A fine line with a feisty start that is probably a tad hard at the grade. Still he was keen as mustard and started with great enthusiasm. It’s a very well protected start but it is steep and stopping to place gear saps your energy. He gave it all and showed good form placing a great wire and then a hex but pumped out before managing to clip the second piece:

After a quick (probably too quick) rest he got back on and resorted to trying, what I tell people off for, to slap for the next hold. Up, up he went with the gear on his harness swinging out, but oops – I forgot to mention that the ledge doesn’t have much to hold onto so down, down he came! After a longer rest and shake out he was back on the rock and this time used better technique to make the move statically. Then using what little the ledge has to offer he gingerly mantled up. The reward from there was more relaxed section with a chunky flake that offers good gear and holds. The top headwall steepens up again and he managed that without resting up so was, and deserved to be, very happy with the lead:

Moni resided to having a day on second, so Gav once more spied a line he thought would be okay and jumped on. You could tell he was getting his head back in the game and he looked relaxed as he made his way up the arête. He said he couldn’t find the line in the guide, but having looked just now I reckon it is in fact Sunny Arête. So his proposed new route name of Over the Shoulder Boulder Holder won’t make the headlines. Yes as the author of the guide I should have known about this climb, but I didn’t which seemed to be a common theme for me on the day about this place. However, there is good news and that is when I followed up my thought on the grade was a bit cheeky and Gav’s guess was closer to the mark so this will come as a pleasant surprise to him:

We were lucky that the looming clouds and rain out to sea, as seen in the image above, never got to us. It instead skirted northwards and petered out before it hit land. So there was time for one last climb and it was Lou’s turn. I pointed her to a short sharp crag with an inviting looking line on it, and this time I knew that it was not in the guide. I’d done a line on the left of this wall years back and it felt steep, fingery and sustained; so I wasn’t entirely sure how this one would feel. However, Lou was not put off and went for it:

We all watched on as she slowly but steadily made her way up. Being an unclimbed wall you can never be sure what hold and gear might or might not yield, or if there will be loose rock or things will suddenly get much harder. As it was she found one very dodgy loose block, which she managed to avoid despite it being disguised as the best hold on the route. In the upper section the crack disappeared and she had to figure out which way to go, as we all watched holding our breathe. Lou kept her cool and managed to top out on a very fine on-sight first ascent, which was a grand way to finish a great day out on trad:

Well after two weeks in a row of having had awesome weather maybe, as September rolls towards us, spring really is on the way. If it is then we will certainly be heading back to the Organ Pipes, and also Driftwood Bay for more trad fun.