Rock armchair (grade 20)

After such a fun day out at Castle Rock the relatively newbie and returning cripple crew of the SW decided it was time for another trip out.  So we headed down to Moses Rocks, and Lisa and I were the second crew to arrive finding Wiggins at the top of the excellent Gothic Streak with Rhys eagerly waiting to follow.  Now Dazza just happened to be in Bunbury with his girlfriend Karoliina, and cottoned onto the fact we were heading out today.  He was unable to come along but she was keen as mustard, so had scabbed a lift with the boys.  It was only her second time climbing and it didn’t show:

Lisa and I took the opportunity to also follow up Gothic Streak and the rock was a little greasy, which made Lisa stop and think.  I’d hammed the day up as having lots of easy climbs so throwing her onto a greasy and slabby grade 15 to start with probably wasn’t that kind, personally I blame Wiggins as he led the route!  The conditions didn’t however seem to be worrying Wiggins and he jumped onto his third lead of the day on Many Hands:

Lisa didn’t seem put off and she followed Wiggins up his route as we all did, thanks for the patience mate J.  I can honestly say that the smile was not for the camera and it was another day of fun and laughs.  On the plus side for Lisa this climb was a tad easier than the first, but not so much so for Wiggins as the mid-section get run out.  So you need to sure of your moves to avoid a potential almost deck out:

I think I may have said (a few too many times in these emails) how much I love Moses.  It has an awesome atmosphere, gritstone like climbing style (which I love), and a never ending supply of boulders to muck about on which all makes it feel like a big candy store for me.  It’s one of the closest crags to the sea and today the steady northerly wind and strong swell was the cause of the greasiness on the rock.  It’s often the story for Moses, as the coastline is perfect for when the waves come in, helping to spectacularly send sea spray high into the air:

While Wiggins was leading Many Hands I got stuck into Well Rounded, another great climb that we all used to think was poorly protected.  That was until the mighty tri-cams entered our lives.  Now I can happily stitch the rounded and outwardly flared crack up, so much so I ran out of extenders before I topped out.  While I said before there were lots of smiles todays I reckon this image captured the biggest!  A top effort up the crack followed by a nervous moment to get over the overlap, not that you would ever be able to tell looking at Karoliina’s face:

Rhys got ready to follow up just as Glen arrived with Dean, another climber who used to frequent the Dunsborough climbing gym.  I reckon that if we had a new gym in Busselton it would do really well, that is a hint for anyone out there looking for a business venture and SW WA lifestyle.  I like this images as it shows the waves crashing below the first of Lisa’s rock armchairs, this one being a tad upright to be really comfy (so probably only a grade 10).  She is not one to come out and bag a heap of climbs, and often will describe herself as a one climb wonder girl so after two sterling climbs she felt it was time to kick back and socialise:

I had my own throne at the top of the crag, which commanded a great view.  So while Wiggins had his video camera perched on an extension pole over my head to film Rhys coming up, I sat and took in the view and of course a few sneaky snaps.  The reason for including this one being that Rhys is at the same place that Karoliina was and they both had the same reaction to this section which was ‘what am I doing here’.  This was closely followed by ‘keep it tight’ but one said it while smiling like a nutter and the other while grinding teeth.  I just found the two expression very contrasting, or am I just over thinking what to say:

It was just after I got back down that Lisa spied a pod of dolphins and we all stopped to watch them cruise up the coast.  Now with such awesome waves, which must have been pre-ordered for the pro-surfing competition that happened to be on, I was quietly hoping we’d see the dolphins surf a wave.  I was wrong, they surfed three waves one after the other!  With all the times I’ve been down you’d think it would be a sight I’d seen often, but this is now only the third time.  Not that it matters as I’d find this an amazing sight no matter how many times I may have seen it before:

I didn’t quite time it right, but if you look carefully you can make out the dolphins jumping out of the back of the wave just before it crashed into the rocks.  They are such amazingly agile and intelligent animals, enough said:

Now Lisa has a bit of a reputation when we have been out climbing.  She tends to seek out the perfect place to relax, and this was a fairly high grade armchair contender certainly beating the previous grade 10 upright version.  The reason for the move was primarily to get a bit of sun, but also make sure she didn’t sprain her neck while watching all the action.  It’s a hard life but someone has to do it:

While kicking back in the mid-teen grade chair she watched Wiggins lead Johnny Fartpants and no that is not a typo, check out the Viz comic – it’s a classic!  I was on belay duty so while he was climbing and as yet had not placed any gear I took the liberty of taking a few images.  Yes it is a bum shot but it is very artistic and the colours just worked so well.  Then it was time to put the camera away and belay, not that I really needed to as he led it clean.  He even stuck to the direct line making it a better climb, as it is possible to sneak right at the crux into much easier territory:

It was about now that Lou, Nana and Geoff rocked up……. what sort of time do you call that!  Geoff was not quite in the mood to climb having enjoyed himself a bit too much the night before at a social of a different kind.  But Lou and Nana were keen, so soon there were three lines on the crag being worked and this included a top rope (shhh).  Seeing my first lead felt so good and the ankle was holding up pretty well I felt the need for another.  So what better line to climb that the crag classic Wheely Things, and I’m afraid I only have a classic bum shot to prove I lead it.  But Kym you’ll be happy to hear I jammed my way most of the way up:

Wiggins was slowly upping his game and decided on one more lead plumping for Twist Until You Lock.  A very aptly named climb with a great start and exciting finish but unfortunately slightly easy mid-section.  He was not put off with my views on the route and showed us how to style a route, making it look way too easy as several people found out to their peril when they tried to follow up:

With the action on rock hotting up Lisa decided that she needed to keep up and went for a fully reclined and sun soaked armchair.  This one felt equal to Wiggins line for style, hence she also managed to bagged a grade 20!  The wind had by now had swung round and was more of a north easterly which was good news as it made it a slight offshore and that meant the sea spray went the other way and the rock was drying up.  In fact the friction was now near perfect as I found out when I followed Wiggins:

The top rope (shhh) that someone had put up (Glen – oops sorry mate I didn’t mean to dob you in) was getting a lot of use.  Being strategically placed over Cornish Nasty it also allowed people to have a bash at a few lines that were not quite so nasty.  This brought even more smiles although this time I think Lou was posing as she accused me of previously taking images when she looked weird.  Hopefully she will not mind this one:

Glen redeemed himself of the sins he had previously committed when he took on the mighty Gothic Streak, ground up style.  Despite having a nervous moment when he had to have a little talk to himself, and we offered lots of supporting encouragement from below, he pushed through and pulled of a good lead.  It is hard to tell in the image but he really was smiling at this point, as he had just gone past the nervous moment and was feeling more confident:

As the sun swung round and start to hit the walls, Rhys decided it was time to show some muscle shirt off style and I plumped on taking on the Cornish Nasty as my last lead.  I too had a little moment and had to have a talk with myself before pushing through, and I have to say I was very happy with the lead.  Steve you’ll notice that I’m fully using my left foot and it didn’t twinge (too bad), although this wasn’t a full on Raging Torrent style high step:

Finally it was time to make a move and Lisa had to leave her armchairs.  After much discussion there was consensus that a follow-up meeting at a local brewery was in order to analyse the mornings events or was it just drink beer and eat burgers.  Unfortunately, Lisa and I couldn’t partake and no Lou I wasn’t being selectively social, as we had to head off to pick Elseya up from her sleepover:

I can safely say that it was another great morning out and I’m looking forward to the next one.