Sprint Finish

I have not had a real first light start for a long time, but this morning I meet Mikey at 3:30 and as the day was waking up we were starting the first route of the day.  Today we were going to the Organ Pipes at Willyabrup with the aim of bagging as much meterage as possible before Mikey was too tired to lead any more:

The Organ Pipes is not often visited.  Mainly because it is short (for Willyabrup), has relatively low grades and is a bit scrappy.  That said it has some great lines and now it has even more!  As we worked from left to right along the crag there were a number of obvious chimneys that to date have not been written up anywhere.  So on this trip he got to do a few first ascents and in keeping with the crag they were nothing too hard despite how hard he is making this one look, but good fun:

So you may be wondering why this is all about Mikey leading and there have been no images of him seconding.  Well he is nearing the end of his mission to clean lead 10km of climbs, and that is not allowed to include any repeat routes.  Before this morning he still needed some 800m, and has only got a few more weeks to finish the task (due to a self-set timeframe).  So he led all the routes and to speed thing up we had a rap rope set up and where possible we used belay setups multiple times:

It’s strange that in all the times I’ve climbed here I hadn’t bagged the chimneys he took on.  They are obvious lines and worth the time, but as I said to him it’s publish or peril so this is a reminder to him to get me those route names.  We did however question the following first ascent, which was a tad more scrappy than most and went at a big grade 4.  Still it added to the meterage for the day and his overall tally, so it had to be climbed:

Lou you will be happy to hear he also led your route New Kids on the Block.  We both agreed it is a great line and nicely consistent, with now one less loose hold, if you try the direct before then deciding to go slightly left.  Mikey tried hard on a few occasions to hit me with blocks and on this occasion got the closest he could manage.  If anyone was wondering yes I was wearing my tin pot while belaying:

Mikey also ventured onto my creation Short and Sharp, put up with Steve many moons back.  It had him foxed as to how to get established on the wall but once he got going he managed to get yet another clean lead.  Judging by the loose blocks at the top, which he managed not to throw down at me, I’m guessing this may have been the second ascent of this route:

I’ve always wanted to venture a bit further left and today we did that, but not on the two lines I had previously spied.  They are still waiting for a keen new route bagger, instead he took on a nice wide crack that had, unlike the two I spied, lots of easy good gear placements.  We did look at the other two from the top (one being up the wall to the right of where he is) but decided against as they could take some time and end unpleasantly:

We managed to wrap up the Organ Pipes in a neat 3hrs, so headed over to Inner Space Wall for a bunch of again shortish but not too hard routes that he hadn’t as yet led.  Starting on Gargoyle was purposely done, it was going to be the most gnarly route so I thought it was best to get it out of the way.  Unfortunately he took two successive lead falls and had to bail.  Mostly (he claimed) down to damp, rounded holds but also possibly not helped by fatigue and a lack of stamina:

However, he wasn’t so gassed that he couldn’t attempt the easier stuff, which included a line I’ve often looked at and wondered about.  Having left the number 4 cam at the top of the crag the chimney/corner of Brepus yielded, but with no gear until the final moves.  Despite the low grade it was a bold lead considering he had just taken two lead falls:

We finished off on Left Hand Crack, he had looked at this line earlier in the week but it was running with water after the storms on the weekend.  I declared it in good enough condition to climb today and sent him on his way up it.  On this lead (which he managed to get clean) he declared the rock was sharp and painful, it was damp and slippery, he twinged his shoulder and finally when he topped out that he was done:

Another awesome morning out, and of course as we walked out foolish people were walking in only to be greeted by sun-drenched rock.  So today’s early start  was rewarded with 18 clean leads (including 4 first ascents) and 231m being clocked up.  With less than 600m to climb his target is looking more achievable – go Mikey!