Life’s good

This morning Denis and I headed down to Willies to take Justin out.   He’s over from California making wine for a few months, and admitted to being a bit rusty and only having climbed sports before.  We got the base of the crag and I misheard Denis, as I thought he was keen to lead Hope, but he has as yet not come out of the dark side and today he was not keen:

So after leading Hope and letting the other two warm up, we threw Justin on the sharp end on Setting Sun.  He romped up the line without a hitch and despite not having climbed in a while was looking confident and strong:

He also got to place his first piece of trad, rather than run out the last five meters above the final bolt.  So he at least was prepared to come out of the dark side and even asked if there was a good trad line for him to jump on later in the morning:

Next I gently steered Denis to Pascals Route, in part as I had brought my big camera and in part as I really felt it was a line he would enjoy.  He stormed up the lower wall opting not to place a cam and run it out to the first bolt.  He then had to place his first ever bolt plate and got past the feisty fingers section of the upper wall:

The crux comes at the fifth bolt and I really thought he had it in the bag, looking calm and confident on the small holds and smeary feet.  Until he slipped and took in some good air time hoisting Justin upwards off the deck:

He didn’t waste time and climbed back up, didn’t take a rest and climbed on making short work of the place where he slipped the first time.  But you could tell he was feeling it as this image shows, maybe we bouldered a bit too long and hard last night:

He then ran it out all the way to the top, including the 3m headwall, without placing any cams because he wasn’t sure if he could trust his placements.  Good job he managed the last bit otherwise it would have been one heck of a big fall.  We will have to wait for another day to draw Denis into the light:

As Justin made his way up a pod of dolphins cruised past, but the boys were too focused to notice.  We racked up another three lines after that by which time Denis and Justin were spanked, and it felt like a good time to wrap things up:

I passed the beach before going home to see a flat almost milk pond sea.  So I couldn’t resist heading out to see what I might see.  While I didn’t get to swim with dolphins I’m pleased I went out saw heaps of great sights including this sleepy stingray: