Driving out this morning at 4:20 I got a text from Howsie to say he had just woken up and will be late for our 4:30 meet. There was no point in going back home and disturbing the household. So I drove to Capel, parked up and closed my eyes for 20 min. Today we were heading to the Terrace at the northern end of Willyabrup, and when I told Kym of the planned destination he said so who are you going to sandbag on this trip:
As we walked in the moon was still high in the sky and the clouds out on the horizon were turning from a morning red/pink to the daytime yellow/white. It was very specky to watch and made the slightly later than expected arrival worthwhile. On the way in we had a chat about our chosen place to climb, it was misty for most of the drive and this location is very unforgiving in damp conditions. The skies cleared as we approached the coast so we decided to stick to the plan:
We did a couple of warm up routes to see how we were going. There are a few lines that I had never been on before. I’d always looked at the far left climbs and felt they were not worth bothering with, which I discovered had been to my loss as they were really good. I didn’t give Howsie a choice, it was his lead first and he was looking good until the top when he started to waiver and finally slipped. Second time round he topped out, at the grade we pondered whether it was the first sandbag of the day or just a bit damp:
The rock seemed in pretty good nick if truth be told. However, both of us confessed to feeling tired and not quite up for anything too hard so we kept the grades reasonable (sorry Kym). That said you’ll be pleased to know your route Time and Space got another ascent. The right hand approach had Howsie foxed and again he slipped (severally times), until he tried the left approach and pulled it off. I reckon that goes to prove that you probably did it the hard way on the first ascent and could be accused of putting up a sandbag yourself:
My turn and I did a repeat of a classic line that gets steeper and more pumpy the higher you go, I’ve done it a few times but it is not a line to be taken on lightly. I have to admit that since having built the boulder wall I have probably not give myself enough recovery time, and it showed today as it didn’t take long to pump out. I dug deep and made a few female tennis player noises before reaching the final thank god holds. Howsie, got close but was again struggling and fell partly blaming his broken four hour sleep (mostly self-inflicted I might add):
It was clear the higher grades would have to wait for another day. But we were not quite finished with the Terrace, Howsie was in two minds for his next lead one being three grades harder and looking more intimating. It was a choice of the arête or the face to the right, and it is obvious which he took. Although it took him a lot of procrastinating at the base of the arête and face before he made his mind up. That said the chosen line was very good and one I’ll have to come back to and lead myself. We reckon it may also be a sandbag for someone who just managing to lead the grade:
One of the reasons that Howsie got a little spooked before finally making his choice to take on the arête was due to a huntsman. After he had tested the webby hold the spider literally jumped from its purchase into his face. All I heard was a girlish squeal (like I am one to talk after my last lead) and then I noticed something ‘floating’ down the crag. I couldn’t resist and had to take a snap of the fury fella who had bravely tried to take on Howsie:
We rapped back down one more time to even up the number of lines and I took on the face. The last time I led this route It had me blubbering up it whinging that it was over graded, pumpy as hell, had minimal gear – i.e. a sandbag. This time I was psyched up and once I had placed the first couple of pieces and launched up the wall it all clicked into place. Again probably a sandbag at the grade, so Kym your words make sense. Howsie loved it but was unsure if he would have been up to leading it on this day:
We were both feeling a tad weary from the Terrace and decided to head down to Beginners Wall to finish off on some proper easy stuff as a warm down. Howsie hadn’t been here before and so went for a wander and got all excited when he spied a new looking sling sticking out of a horizontal. The crag booty was a No.2 Camelot that was firmly wedged in, but there was no point trying to get it out. While the wires had corroded away, it was a bit weird as the sling looked in great nick and the condition of the lobs indicated that this was the first (and only) time this piece had been used:
Before we get back to climbing thought I’d include an image of this king skink who was wedged in a horizontal right next to where we had dumped our gear. We were both a bit surprised as this one seemed particularly pale, we’ve only ever seen them a dark colour and the speckled white that was very evident seemed a bit out of place:
Lou you may well remember this route, I think I told you it was a 14. I honestly thought it was at the time! While you had a little bleat you still managed to get up it, as did Howsie today. Despite feeling stuffed he stuck at it and quickly moved past the great crux layback sequence, it’s just a shame it is so short:
Steve not sure if you will remember this little chestnut. We must have been talking curry for some reason as we called it Hot (your sister line to the left being Spicy). Today it certainly had me questioning what I was doing, but seeing I’d led it before I knew I could do it. So I just went for it and ran it out rather than hanging about trying to get gear in. By now the sun was sneaking round and the wind had turned bringing with it the salt spray. Definitely time to wrap the mornings adventure up:
We’d had a great view of the main area of Willyabrup the whole time we were out and hadn’t noticed any movement on the crag. It still surprises me that often on a day out on the south west crags we get them all (or relatively so) to ourselves. We agreed that we need to get out on trad more often, despite both of us having been training on our boulder walls our leading heads seemed somewhat rusty:
Now Marnie an apology is in order (from Howsie) as he mentioned to me, once we were at the crag, that you had been keen to get out. So don’t shot the messenger when you read this, I’m not the fall guy.
Sandbagged 