Rumpoles Rocks

Lou had finished all her Uni assignments for the semester so was keen to celebrate with some trad climbing. Having had not such a great experience at another good easy access trad spot, Smith Beach, she plumped for Moses Rocks. This place has the second largest collection of climbs in the area, with the most southerly buttress being called Rumpoles Rocks. This buttress is rarely visited and neither Lou, Glen, Steve or Leanne had been there before:

Lou got the ball rolling and plumped for Jugs Galore, as she thought that there would be plenty of big holds. It’s a routes I put up with Wiggins and sure enough there are good holds on it but you have you also trust your shoes on smears and work a few rounded holds. That, added to the glistening (one of my phrases that Craig with be familiar with) nature of the rock, which the image below hopefully shows, meant the climb messed with her head more than it should have:

As we finished the first line of the day Steve and Leanne rocked up and soon we had two lines in progress. Glen was quicker off the mark running up Hot and Spicy, which is far from that being a very relaxed, easy but nicely consistent climb. He chose a more sensible grade than Lou to start on, but even still managed to drop a wire down a crack that was just too deep to allow him to retrieve it:

Steve told me that he was feeling good and climbing well, so I suggested Chillies and Garlic, a fine looking corner system on yet more rounded holds. I wasn’t sure if I had sand bagged him, but he loves his trad and is the local tri-cam master, and this place simple eats them up. So with his perfect gear options I was sure he would be OK:

Meanwhile Lou followed Glen up and had to resort to squirming deep into the crack to try and retrieve the lost wire. Luckily it was at a decent ledge making entry a little easier, but no more comfortable. Moses is a compact small grained granite that usually provides great friction. Despite being small grained it is easy to take bark off and Lou managed to scratch herself up a bit more than usual to retrieve Glen’s runaway wire:

Hats off to Lou who gave herself that extra extension by securing her nut key to her shoe using the Velcro straps (take a moment to check it out in the image below). Only then did she manage to hook the wire out. It’s pretty amazing the lengths we will go to avoid losing gear or just how long we sometimes may spend trying to get that booty gear that was too hard to retrieve by others. The feeling of success does however make it all worthwhile:

Back to Steve who was by now negotiating the upper section of his climb and seemed to be moving up with somewhat more urgency. I even noticed a few non tri-cam placements sneaking in, but he insisted he was fine with the route, he was just wanting to get up due to the wet (read into that glistening) condition of the rock:

As Leanne followed Steve it was my turn for a lead. Despite offering it up as I have lead all of the climbs here before, both Lou and Glen were keen for me to jump on the pointy end. So I plumped for another of my creations called Hexed. I remember it giving me problems when I first led it, and sure enough I had to pause and think about the crux sequence for some time. The rock condition didn’t make matters easier but eventually I inched my way up, and both my seconders also had a fine old time on it:

As Leanne made her way up and Lou and Glen followed me, the sun was working its way upwards and we were soon belaying at the top of the crag in full sun. It’s sting could be felt but luckily with a westerly facing crag we could still climb in the shade. It was predicted to be a hot day reaching the high twenties and we had a late (by my standards) start to the day I left home at 7am. Lou always has a laugh at me for being a wuss when it comes to climbing in the sun, but then she is a bit of a blouse when it comes to early mornings. That said Glen is no early bird either so I lost out this time:

We descended about the same time and Steve and Leanne decided that Rumpoles Rocks, much as being a lovely spot, was simply too wet for them to carry on. So they decided to head to some of the other sections of Moses that were hopefully a bit higher and drier. We however were keen to keep jumping on stuff that neither Lou nor Glen had been on before so we stayed put:

Lou was up next and went for another aesthetic line of rounded flakes on Yogurt, which went at the same grade as her first lead. In this image if it was good conditions you’d see the biggest crag in the area, Wilyabrup, but with a reasonable swell and choppy sea the salt spray was pretty full on. This didn’t allow the rock to dry very quickly and also coated everything in a metal corroding layer of salt:

Lou once again showed her ability to not trust smears and made the climb a fair bit harder than it had to be. This then meant that she placed a few more bits of gear than was necessary, resulting in the obvious. Afterwards she told us we should have done what Ryan does and tell her she has placed enough gear and to get on with the climbing! Oh well maybe next time, all that said she loved the climb (as we all did) which is what counts:

You’ll see that this crag is pretty close to the sea, but the belayer is protected by a rock wall. It can however be a bit disconcerting as the swell and tide gets up and the waves crash into the wall sending spray high into the sky. As the day wore on the both the tide and swell was on the rise, and occasionally a set of waves would make us stop and wonder if we were going to get really wet:

Just a short distance to the north is a rock pool up on a ledge. With no rock wall for protection this was getting smashed on a regular basis. Being so close to the sea and seeing, hearing and almost feeling the waves is one of the great attractions for me. Yes it can make the rock ‘glisten’ that little bit more than you may like but for atmosphere it is awesome:

Eventually Lou beat her nerves (with yet a few more bits of gear in) and was nearing the top. Glen and I gave her a good ribbing about the ten bits of gear she had placed, seven of which were all within the middle 5m and all of which were bomber! That said we all know it is part of the head game of trad, and it was obvious where her head was not. But enough of bagging her out, she got up the route and really did enjoy it:

While Glen was seconding up I took the time to take a few more pictures of waves and rocks so for a few images I’ll stop typing:

Back down and time for Glen to jump on the line that had attracted his attention the moment we had got here. Olive Oil is one of the original climbs here and is great fun. A steep lower wall leading to a slightly overhung headwall. Unfortunately the sun was getting to the point where it was making it hard to find the next hold, and while it didn’t stop him it did make him yo-yo a few extra times before committing:

Once above the lower wall it was time for the glory run. I had told Glen that I would have a great purchase from which to get some stellar shots. So he took it upon himself to be the perfect model taking his time, stopping a few times and generally posing. That was unfortunately also his undoing and when he got towards the top he realised all too late that he had not left enough gas in the tank to on-sight this classy and very fine line:

Still as promised there are a fair few good shots not only of him looking stylish on the route, but also the great background of crashing waves, sea salt air and this time a glimpse of the great cliffs of Wilyabrup far off in the distance:

My turn next and now the sun was all over the crag leaving hardly any bits untouched. So without thinking too much I chose Finger Licking which has a lovely finger crack to start with before a south facing wall just right of where Glen had been climbing. One reason for picking this line was the upper section at least being in the shade. Howsie notice the knees, you need to start Romwod’ing it(!):

Not wanting to hang about in the sun for long I didn’t take my time and was soon heading up the musical flake on the upper wall. If you hit it there is a nice tone, but that also makes you wonder whether you should be pulling on it. But with glistening rock and the only other option being small slippery smears I decided to just go for it. Fortunately the flake held for another lead (plus two seconds as both Glen and Lou hung off it too):

With two leads each, a glistening crag drenched in both sunlight and salt spray, and a rise tide and swell leading to more frequent crashing waves we decided it was time to bail. Glen was keen for one more lead but I was pretty tired (being in the sun does that to me) and Lou had to get back to the books, as despite having finished her assignments she still has one exam to get through:

As we trudged back along Moses Beach Glen spied a small bird which didn’t want to fly off, which I promptly recognised as a Hooded Plover. These small sea birds nest on dunes and beaches, often next to debris and making their nest by simply scooping out a bowl shape in the sand. As such they are often disturbed and in the area the species is becoming more at risk. So as soon as I got home I was on the phone to the Department of Parks and Wildlife, knowing that they have previously cordoned off areas around these nesting birds to give them a better chance of survival:

So we took a wide berth and kept going. We got to the car at about 1:30pm and the sun felt very hot, but we were a little surprised to find that it was only 23 degrees. However, after a short drive inland where we were away from the sea breeze the thermometer quickly rose and crept up to just over thirty. Um next time I may need to encourage Glen and Lou that an earlier start would allow them that extra route: