This weekend I won’t be getting out on rock, so I thought I would share with you our before work Welly Dam training session. On Friday Howsie, Rongy and myself met in Bunbury at 4:30am and jumped into one car to head up the hill. As we drove the short 30min’ish trip out of town the day was waking up before us in a splendour of colour, while we were discussing what the morning had in store for us. We had all picked a couple of climbs we were keen to try and we had all set our sights on the high side. That created a quandary, who would take first lead as none of our desired routes were what you might call a warm up:
So with indecision in the air I bit the bullet and plonked my trusty crate at the base of the Long Goodbye. I’ve played on this line a few times recently and this was to be attempt number 4 if my reckoning is right. By rights it’s Rongys route, but I bolted it on his behalf and then waited maybe a year before he sent it. For some reason this route has caused me a few troubles, but today as I started the conditions were good (with low humidity) and I was feeling good. The move to mount the slab above me is probably the crux, and a very nervous move on lead. With a clear and focused mind I planted my left foot on a slopey hold on the slab and delicately pushed up to reach the ledge above:
Then it all went pear shaped. So I will need to come back and retry this one another time before I can claim a clean lead. On the second attempt I got the move, but then above this I feel on all three of the hard sequences. Call it a flash pump thing or whatever you will it was by far my worst attempt on this line to date, whether on lead or top rope. However, as Rongy rightly said we all have our nemesis and this route looks to be one of mine. Both Rongy and Howsie managed to get up with far amount more grace, and the good thing for me was that for the next two routes I would be on second:
Rongy was up next, and he went straight for T3. A powerhouse of a route that goes, and goes, and goes. We all love this line and it is one I managed to bag just recently. That said he climbs the first section different to me, I go left of the bolt and he goes right so after watching both he and then Howsie I gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised. But wait this is not about me, so dial it back a bit. It took a couple of shots for Rongy to work the bottom sequence, and then with one third down comes the relentless shallow corner. It looked like he was going to style his way up this until the second last bolt where he got the sequence wrong. While still doable it makes it much harder and impossible to reverse. Um maybe two of us had bitten off more than we could chew:
Howsie was up next and he had his sights set on the left hand variant to Attack of the March Flies, and despite feeling spanked after the first two climbs he carried on regardless. Before I rapped down after cleaning the anchors at the top of T3 I decided to hang about and take a few pictures from a different angle. Rongy was doing the right thing as belayer watching carefully until Howsie had clipped the first bolt, why is this relevant… you’ll see later:
Howsie was in fine form and the tired arms didn’t not seem to be troubling him at all. Another consumer classic of the crag this route has some committing moves and requires good focus. He steadily moved up covering familiar territory in the bottom two thirds, and was looking strong and confident. The sun began to peak over the top of the crag as Howsie finally entered new territory. So the pace slowed and he took his time to test each hold and move as he got above the penultimate bolt:
Then without much warning he slipped and that made it three out of three to Welly Dam. Of the three of us Howsie was the closest to bagging his line, and he admitted afterwards that it was more the nerves that got to him, as at the same height the right hand variant feels very sketchy and the bolt is hard to clip. What he didn’t do, as he found out soon enough, was commit to the move and find the jug that the left hand variant offers from which to clip, but hopefully he’ll remember that next time:
So all of us, feeling somewhat put in our places, the question was what next. I was pretty set to try the other line I had in mind, Chasing Mason hadn’t been as hard as I remembered it the last time so… four out of four to Welly Dam L. A silly rushed move cost me the clean lead as my right foot slipped of a smear as I made the move to the small but critical hold on the bottom wall (an image of this hold is given a little later on). The rest of the route yielded surprisingly well, and it also gave Rongy a chance to work the bottom sequence as the last time he tried it if had him foxed:
Now I mentioned that the humidity was pretty good this morning, and we have found over the years of climbing here that we can tell if we have a chance on some lines based on this climatic factor. The hard granite doesn’t soak up the moisture and any humidity results in the rock having a slightly slick feel about it compounded by any sweat we may add. When you are relying on holds such as this one, which is the next hold Rongy went for after the position in the above image, on a wall that is slightly overhung it really becomes a make or break factor. The last time I tried this route I just couldn’t stick this hold but today it felt great:
Two down for me and the clock was ticking, we were spending more time than usual on these lines today. So Rongy dialled it back a grade for his line, and unlike Howsie he didn’t have a diligent belayer watching his moves as he worked towards the all-important first bolt. Well how am I supposed to get the good images while I belay or spotting? It was probably a good thing to jump on Rock Therapy as it suited the state of our arms, with good but spaced holds and places to take a breather in-between the moves:
It only really thinned out at the top and we have done this line enough times to have a good memory of the best holds. That said the ones to go for with the left hand are deceptive from below and if you get the wrong one… five out of five! No excuses, we will need to dig that bit deeper next week:
With the clock inching towards 8:30 which is when we would normally be on the road, Howsie made a brave decision to go for one of his nemesis… Taj Vs the World. He’s led this so many times but it has yet to yield. This may be in part as we climb it direct as opposed to sneaking left which makes it a bit easier and less sustained. With the pressure of time and arms feeling the morning workout the small side pulls and layaways felt like hard work:
So much so that it made it a clean sweep for the mighty Welly Dam and it was then six out of six, just going to show that the early bird doesn’t always get the worm! This last fall did however allow me to get an image that is very similar to the one of Howsie falling of this very route, which made it into the SW guide! With a short rest he was back on and finished it off allowing Rongy and I to polish of the last climb of the morning. The question now being do we back off a bit next week or go just as hard, it is training after all:
Hope you all have a great weekend, I’m kinda pleased not to be going out myself as I’m still feeling pretty sore after being battered by Welly Dam.
Sandbagged 