A winter’s day

As Dan and Joanne were over from Melbourne I had a good reason to head out and they were keen for Willyabrup, which is where we went yesterday.  We had agreed to meet at 6:30.  However, seeing I’m awake at 5 most days and creep round the house like a mouse so as not to disturb the others so I got there a bit before them.  With not another sole at the crag my initial thoughts were to watch the waves and maybe do a bit of photography, but the waves were not very clean and the sky was grey so I was a bit stumped:

Instead I set up a self-belay and led Hope, it’s the first time I have done this and wasn’t entirely sure about it.  But some 12 years back I met Craig doing the same thing at Willyabrup and I think I got it right, plus for me Hope is a pretty safe climb.  I was about half way up when Dan and Joanne rocked up and by the time they were ready to climb I had topped out and set up a belay.  Have to say I enjoyed the self-belay and am tempted to repeat the experience, but am not sure how hard a climb I would lead this way:

I leaned out over the edge of the top slab of Hope, so I could see how they were going as they followed me up.  As I belayed the sun was poking it’s head out every so often and when it did I could make out my shadow in the waves below.  I had to wait till the white water was somewhat calm enough to get a good shot, and caught it pretty well in the image below.  I also spent  a good length of time watching the waves in case the dolphins should show up but it was not to be today:

Seeing we had three people climbing I also brought out the SLR camera to play with.  It’s been a while since I’ve taken this one along and was hoping that I could convince the others to lead a few climbs that would provide some good shots.  Better still today was a bit grey and that meant I wouldn’t be battling with the stark contrast of the shade and bright ocean/sky backdrop.  I could enhance the images on a photo package to get over this hurdle, but I use my images without any changes so what you see is what I take:

Joanne had in mind to lead Inner Space, which I reckon is a very spicy 17 especially with its ‘Wilyabrup’ style top out.  But she wanted to warm up on something a bit easier, so after showing her a few lines she went for Hitching.  It was a great choice as it too has its own runout cruxy section, so was a good way to get her head into the right space:

She confessed that she preferred trad, and had moved from the dark side to this brighter more natural side of climbing.  On this lead she also got to use, for the first time, tri-cams and had to trust one for this nervous section up the blunt arête.  She styled her way up the climb and looked very cool and calm, even managing a smile and wave for the camera half way up this section:

Dan had already hinted to me that he was keen on Stainless Steel, he’d not been on it before and was feeling confident that he could give it a red hot crack.  It is certainly up there as one of the true classics here and other than start up the flake and head for the crack in the headwall I didn’t give anything way.  So as he started I was running up and down and along the slab to the side to get some good angles:

It was an impressive thing to watch, he didn’t seem to stop and hesitate at any point, the gear was placed fluidly and he made every section look very smooth.  There was minimal stopping, but he on occasion waited straight armed on a bigger hold to shake out.  At the final roof he powered up and didn’t break a sweat once.  Another fine lead to watch and again a well-deserved smile at the end of it.  While technically it was my lead next, seeing I can get here so often I encouraged Dan to have a pop at Dolphin Smiles and hopefully get another on-sight 21:

Joanne, after seconding Stainless Steel clean, was feeling a bit pumped and sat this one out.  So I belayed this time, a shame in a way as Dan again looked good on this route but he did attempt the left variant to the crux wall.  He almost managed it but popped off the top and took a long fall, which would have made a great image!  I hadn’t told him which way to go, but I reckon the left is way harder and sure enough when he jumped back on and went right he got it clean.  Joanne was still feeling a bit tired and I think mention of the top out on Inner Space had spooked her so she went for a different climb, which you may recognise from this image:

Instead of a 17 she went for One for the Road at 19, go figure.  It was good to observe how she climbed the bottom wall, I often feel the route is over graded and a bit inconsistent.  However, watching her climb I realised it probably isn’t and it is more that I am so used to the moves and know what is coming up so don’t think too hard about it.  At the roof, she took her time and went up and down to the very well chalked up hold three times before committing:

I’m very happy to say that on the third attempt she found the good hold and pulled through, so another good on-sight was in the bag.  I was sat on top of the crag while she was working the route and the wind was felt cold and I was making me shivering.  Looking out at the cloudy sky with blue patches, an ocean with raggedy waves and feeling cold made it seem like a wintery day.  Despite the perfect conditions to continue to climb into the afternoon it was time for me to head out, so after saying my goodbyes I left the two of them to carry on climbing:

Hope you are all gearing up for a great New Years.